Wear it in good health.

So here it is: Cities are for People: The Limits of Localism

Anyway, back to the cynicism of which I have in abundance. I am not one to believe capitalism is a cure to all that ails us: that we can, say, buy our way out of global warming by purchasing a solar panel or two, a hybrid car, a few canvas shopping bags. As you may know by now, I think we’re all quickly approaching the shores of an entirely different world [...] Currently, I do seed-save some of the threatened and endangered vegetables, and I intend to breed a few crucial animals over the next few years. My cynicism comes in (and again, it’s hard to keep up!) when everyone just HAS TO HAVE x cool endangered item. Is creating a market for them a good thing? I suppose if it brings something back from the brink of extinction, it is.

Either way, it’s nice that some people give a damn.

Ah, a farmer after my own heart. The links and pics alone are worth a read.

This is not someone who is doing it because it’s the latest thing, like a new pair of shoes or stylish car. This is not someone who’s doing it because they think it will bring them fame and fortune.

This is someone who’s doing it out of love and commitment.

I have my doors open, with only the screens covering them to keep out insects and that one neighbor who caused me grief, and a fan pulling air through the house. It is now 74 F inside, 71 F outside, but the humidity is high at 73% RH. Since I am not doing jumping jacks, the high humidity is OK.

The best part is that the fan is drawing in the scent of the honeysuckle flowers that flourish just to the west of me, in what some would call a “waste space”. I disagree with that moniker. That space is inhabited by several bird species, a wonderful smelling vine, and who knows what how many other creatures that call it home. Waste space? No, a very rich and valuable space, at least as far as I am concerned. Warmest regards, doc.

The prices of staple foods such as rice could stay high for the next three years, hindering the battle against poverty, a top World Bank official said Tuesday. I personally think this may be the understatement of the year. With oil prices to hit $200, widely predicted by our own Jérome a Paris and others, I doubt very much staple food will come down as the price to fill a gas tank could, more or less, double within the next five years. Foodstuffs need reasonably priced transportation and it looks as though it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Welcome to world of foraging, a lost art for most as more and more convenient stores and supermarket chains crop up in neighborhoods with dizzying regularity. Try this for a change: take your family to the nearest forest, gather wild produce and see if you can bring home the bacon, so to speak.

There is such a thing as a free lunch after all, the elite forager insists, as long as you know what to look for. Henry David Thoreau, the master forager, understood that gathering foodstuffs was about more than the end crop:

“The bitter-sweet of a white-oak acorn which you nibble in a bleak November walk over the tawny earth is more to me than a slice of imported pineapple.”

Foraging isn’t just fun, it’s green as well. No food miles, no pesticides, no pointless plastic packaging, plenty of fresh air, no money exchanged…what’s not to like?

My life as a forager started early. My great grandmother, a tireless walker with an encyclopedic knowledge of Provencal lore and the woods around us initiated me aged five. Off we went on most clement mornings, our jute bags with large carrying handles over our shoulders and our Opinel knives (a must have for serious foragers) safely sheathed in our back pockets. She would decide, depending on the season, of the day’s gatherings. Most days we would head for the forest and on others we’d go to the seaside and explore our pine trees covered “calanques” for seawed, baby clams, tiny crabs, sea-urchins (my job was to dive and select females only, as males didn’t bear eggs), whelks, and of course pine nuts which were plentiful. The trips to the forest were longer and more exciting: we had to climb the nearest tree to avoid galloping wild boars a couple of times.

When the mushroom or the stone fruit season wasn’t on, we’d set off for specific areas, all intimately known to her and start gathering wild carrots, asparagus, garlic, artichokes, nettles, all kinds of edible berries, wild spinach (though it could have been collards), wild herbs such as thyme, rosemary, and when our bags were nearly full, we’d pick some wildflowers for our favorite family members and head off home. The only bit of food we’d ever take with us was a small loaf of country bread, and two small bottles of olive oil and vinegar, and a little salt, in case we decided to make a salad on the spot. To my best recollection we came back with full bags each foray.

Here are a few tips on what to look for should you wish to explore the nearest woods.

First of all be very sure of what you are eating and know what Poison Ivy and wild Parsnip look like to avoid them while foraging. Be a responsible forager, asking for permission when necessary. Be kind to the trees and plants you harvest, leaving enough behind for them to regenerate or reseed. Always leave some for the wild birds and animals that depend on them for survival. Never gather too much in one area that looks stripped or bare.

Violets: the purple or white flowers of all American violet species are edible and can be found in the early spring on lawns, on roadsides or in the woods. They can be used as beautiful garnishes in salads, or candied for cake decorations or an elegant dessert.

Dandelions: many people know that dandelions are edible, but few know how to deal with them. The leaves must be picked before the flower heads open, or they will be very bitter (my great grandmother used to soak the leaves overnight in water with the juice of one or two lemons). They are very good in a salad, especially one with a Dijon mustard dressing.

Elderberries: it’s easy to pick elderberries, just snap off the entire cluster and drop it into your bucket. They are not tasty fresh or in pies, but cooked into juices or jellies, they are delicious.

Purslane: this plant is a weed in the States but is cultivated in Europe and Asia today and has been grown in India and Persia for centuries. Added to soups and stews, it can help to thicken the broth, as does okra. It is also good fried with bacon, or in an omelet.

Yellow wood sorrel: a tart, delicious three leaved plant that I have gathered in my childhood. It is first seen in early spring, and its tiny yellow flowers are a cheery sight after a long winter. It has a lemony flavor that goes well in salads and cold or hot fruit soups.

Ah, and the mighty chestnut, the most delectable wild source of carbohydrate bar none. There are, of course hundreds more wild eats, and I could go on till the cows come home, but diary size matters!

The most overlooked area to forage is our own gardens, yards, and property, and that could be another diary in the future. In the meantime here’s a small list of websites for your perusal, should you decide to give foraging a try.

LearningHerbs.com is a site with some great wild food recipes. The Journal of Wild Mushrooms; Modern Forager; Fergus the Forager; Backwoods Home; About Forager’s Harvest Classes; Wild Food Foragers.

In one of his most out-spoken interventions in the climate change debate, he said a £15 billion annual program (roughly $25 billion) was required to halt deforestation or the world would have to live with the dire consequences.

 

“We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall, we are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them. The rainforests, which provide the “air conditioning system for the entire planet”, releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living”, he said.

He also said that every year, 20 million hectares of forest – equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland – were destroyed and called for a “gigantic partnership” of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down.

“What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead,” he said.

He estimated that the cost would be about £15 billion a year but said that this should be viewed as an insurance policy for the whole world. “That is roughly just under one per cent of all the insurance premiums paid in the world in any one year. It is an insurance premium to ensure the world has some rainfall and reasonable weather patterns. It is a good deal.”

Last month I had read that the Prince had a meeting at St James Palace with four state governors from Brazil to discuss the best way to allocate the money. One option would be for an organization such as the World Bank to administer the fund. The Prince made clear yesterday that if nothing was done there was a “severe danger of losing a major part of the battle against climate change”.

In an interview on Radio 4’s Today program, the Prince disclosed that he had raised his concerns with the White House, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, and President Sarkozy, of France. He said he had pressed Barclays (UK bank), Shell, Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s to join his campaign. But he also said consumers had to play their part by choosing products that were environmentally sustainable and called for improvements in labeling.

Reading from Greenpeace, the number of birds, animals, marine and freshwater creatures in the world has dropped by almost one third. It found that between 1970 and 2005 land-based species fell by 25 per cent, marine species by 28 per cent and freshwater species by 29 per cent. We’re doomed. But even though I detest royalty (remember, in France we beheaded those parasites in 1789!) hat off to the man who is doing something about the fate of the rain forests.

 

The Leaf Log, as the invention is known, is the brainchild of Peter Morrison, who as chief executive of BioFuels International has already developed several of his green ideas into moneyspinners.

The Leaf Log is made from 70 per cent fallen leaves compressed into a 1.2kg cylinder, which can burn for two hours. And, unlike other fuel products, the Leaf Log leaves behind just a tiny amount of ash, which itself can be composted.

Mr Morrison is now waiting with his business partner Sharon Warmington to get exclusive trademark rights for the Leaf Log before it hits the shelves. Ms Warmington said: “Peter is always inventing things. We were driving one day and he just turned to me and said ‘do you think leaves can be burnt as a fuel?’ The following week he had made it.

“I remember one of the experts we sought advice from saying it was green gold, and it is. Most of the other similar products out there are made from up to 70 per cent food grade wax and 30 per cent sawdust or other fuel but ours is the other way around: 70 per cent leaves and only 30 per cent wax. “We are also using a natural material that has ended its life. In fact, leaves take two years to fully decompose and release methane into the atmosphere.”

The Leaf Log is already being distributed on a small scale but Mr Morrison and Ms Warmington said the company needs larger premises if it is to take on bigger orders. In February, the company won a £40,000 (about $75,000) Shell Springboard award, which recognises environmental advancement, and put it towards the expansion.

“The Leaf Log is about to be advertised after which time anyone opposing the name has three months to challenge it. It is important to get the name right, and Leaf Log precisely reflects this product. It is equally crucial to get that name legally protected.”

But that will be in a few days.

As a fellow elitist, I’d like to report some news on the bees and the scent of flowers and why it’s important politicians worldwide should take global warming seriously, not just paying lip service.

Bees, moths, and other insects must rely on scented flowers for food. The flowers they visit also depend on their own fragrances to reproduce, by drawing pollinators in.

A study by Quinn S. McFrederick, James C. Kathilankal, Jose D. Fuentes, published in Atmospheric Environment, shows that air pollution destroys the scent signals of flowers, an effect of bad air that makes pollinators less efficient and plant colonies less robust. Roses and rhododendrons growing in urban parks may look alluring, but traffic fumes and industrial pollutants could be snuffing out their scent.

The discovery might help to explain why bees and other pollinators are in decline around the world. Insects which need nectar for food seek it out by following the scent trails left by flowers. If these are disrupted, foraging for nectar is made more difficult. The plants also suffer because they are less likely to be pollinated or have their pollen carried to other blooms.

Professor Jose Fuentes, from the University of Virginia in the US, one of the study authors, said: “The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 metres. But in today’s polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 metres.”

To investigate their theory, they created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind.

Fragrance molecules produced by flowers are very volatile and quickly bond with pollutant molecules such as ozone, hydroxyl, and nitrate radicals which destroy their aromas. Instead of traveling undisturbed for long distances on the wind, the scent molecules are altered so they no longer smell the way they should. This forces pollinators to search further and longer for sources of nectar, and to rely more on sight than smell.

The scientists calculated scent levels and distances that flower aromas can travel under different air conditions. They ranged from environments typical of unpolluted pre-industrial times to those found today in rural areas downwind from large cities.

We need bees! And to attract them, we need to plant flowers beds that are pollution resistant such as the Ribes sanguineum commonly known as the “Red Flowering Currant, a native to the United States, it is also frost hardy. Choose drought tolerant plants like Nepeta Six Hills Giant (Catmint). It looks like huge lavender flowers but uses very little water. You get the idea. Ask your local nursery as to which flower will suit best an urban environment.

Pollination is the transfer of a flowering plant’s male reproductive cells to a female reproductive receptacle. In a word, it is plant sex. Pollination is how plants have solved the problem of reproducing sexually and with diverse mates (which promotes genetic diversity) while they remain rooted in one place. Effective means of pollination are key to the success of angiosperms–the hundreds of thousands of plants, ranging in size from tiny herbs to tall trees, that rely on flowers for effective pollination. Flowers are highly specialized reproductive organs, adapted for the entire gamut of reproductive functions: advertising, pollination, fertilization, seed development, and dispersal of seeds. Beautiful as most flowers are to us, they are strictly functional to the plant. The shapes, colors, and fragrances that we admire do not exist for our enjoyment. These characteristics serve the plant by enticing animals to visit their flowers and using them, literally, as reproductive vehicles.

Allow my elitist nature to post this important message:

All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.

Kahlil Gibran

A cathedral bell growing in one of my blueberry plots.

Never forget: just because it’s a vegetable garden doesn’t mean you can’t plant some flowers in there. In fact, I have flowers in all my vegetable gardens.