Out Picking Oranges

Today we went over to Carol Mitchell's and helped ourselves to four bags of her lovely oranges. So it's more marmalade--and fresh squeezed orange juice--on the way. Whatever we can't use we'll be donating to a local food pantry. Thank you so much, Carol, for generously sharing your bounty with us. 

It's nice to know that, living in Florida, I'll still be able to satisfy my hunger for "food foraging" and time spent in nature, gathering things to eat. It's even nicer to know that I have friends that care enough to share what they've got--be it knowledge about a u-pick farm or produce from their backyard fruit trees. 

Giving Up "Stuff" Translates into Gifts for Others

Maureen Connors told me about a friend of hers, Barbara Rhode, who was holding a "holiday stuff swap" today at the local  YWCA, so I wandered over, with some stuff to swap.  Billed as an event that was "like shopping in your best friend's closet" and a way to "go green" by trading with other women, the swap featured snacks and cold drinks (it was 85 degrees here today!), comraderie amongst women (which Barbara explained to us is actually neurologically beneficial to us a women!) as well as a room full of shoes, purses, clothing, jewelry, books and assorted odds and end.  I learned that Barbara is semi-famous locally; the St. Petersburg Times did on article on her personal pledge to go from January through the end of December 2008, without buying herself anything new, and learning to live with the "stuff" she already had. Participants of the "holiday stuff swap" were encouraged to consider buying something not for themselves but for someone who really could use a  little something this holiday season: the women inmates of Goodwill Suncoast's Correctional Facility. Most of these women were asking for modest enough Christmas gifts, like a pair of gold loop earrings or a bottle of cologne. CD players and Bible concordances were popular requests.  I wound up leaving the swap with a brand new shirt for work and the name of another woman in need of a Christmas gift, for whom it will be a pleasure to make this coming holiday season a little bit happier...

Pickles and Marmalade...

If you're going to live a happy and productive life of activism and service for others, you need to be well fed! Here's some healthy recipes that are quick and easy--leaving you plenty of time to craft a better world!

Quick Refrigerator Pickled Okra

Wash fresh okra and trim off most of the stem. Stuff the okra vertically, stem up, into a glass jar with a secure lid. Figure out how much vinegar you're going to need to cover the okra to the brim of the jar, and put that much vinegar plus a bit more on to boil. To every pint of vinegar you use, you'll need: 3 Tbsp. sea salt, 4 gloves of garlic, 2-3 spicy peppers and a small hand full of pickling spices (optional). The pepper part you'll just have to play with in terms of which variety and how much you'll like personally. I throw in 1 jalapeno and a couple of small, sweet red peppers. Boil the vinegar and other ingredients for five minutes, then pour into your jars over the okra. Screw on the lid when cool; marinate 1 week. Be warned: You have only one more week, after the first week of marinating the okra, to consume your pickles before they start to "go off ", but don't worry--you'll have them all eaten by then! Delicious! 

Quick Refrigerator Marmalade

We use this quick and easy refrigerator marmalade recipe from the web site Recipezaar. It makes up a delicious marmalade in 20 minutes, and my husband, an Irishman who knows his orange  marmalade, swears by it and won't take store bought marmalade anymore (so be warned!) The only variation we do to this recipe is that we like more peel in our marmalade, so we dice a small hand full of peel into tiny pieces about 1/4" by 1/4" and add them to the mixture to cook for 15 minutes.

http://recipezaar.com/Easy-Orange-Marmalade-78925

Enjoy!

A Morning on the Farm...

Good okra, small and tender...

Bad okra, long and tough...

I had the day off, so I indulged myself and headed for the u-pick farm down in Bradenton my friend Holly had told me about to get okra to make up some spicy okra pickles. I had been meaning to make okra pickles for awhile, and somehow the season almost got by me. Not that I expected to find a place to go picking okra for 79 cents a pound; I figured I'd just buy a bunch at the farmer's market. By the time I got myself out to the farm early this morning--a cool, partially overcast morning so rare in Florida--most of the okra left on the plant was way too long. I did however manage to pick a couple pounds worth of tender little okra--much to the farmer's surprise--but it took me nearly an hour to find that much.

Actually, it was an absolute pleasure. The farm was out in the middle of nowhere and there were no other customers there yet. A Vietnamese couple with Ontario license plates pulled up to my row just as I was leaving--hope they weren't looking for okra! So there I was, for one hour, moving up and down the rows of vegetables, snipping okra off the plants, with only the sound of the birds, my snipping scissors, the breeze and my breathing, to break the silence. It was absolutely wonderful--so restful and restorative! I can't even remember the last time I was out of doors and it was that quiet!--not a single car to be heard, nor the buzz and whirl of air conditioners--as commonplace in Florida as oranges and snow birds! 

Of course, I got thinking about our artisans. Just before I got to the farm I took a wrong turn, and wound up on another farm--this one teeming with migrant workers. I got to practice my Spanish out on a shy but accommodating fellow who wasn't that good at Spanish himself, as many of the Mexican migrant workers are indigenous Indians for whom Spanish is also their second language. One of the reason we're helping the Vida Nueva rug weaving cooperative is because the women's village--and all the little pueblos surrounding their village, such as Benito Juarez, where we sent our dolls--are largely devoid of men. Many of them are in the United States working, and while many faithfully send funds back home to Mexico, many do not. The day to day struggle to make ends meet economically becomes "women's work" as it is in so much of the world... 

Today it was a pleasure to have the time to pick my own food. Most days, however, someone else--most likely someone poor, most likely someone far from their native country--is picking my food for me, and that's something I think we must never forget here in this country, where so many of us are removed from food production and harvest. It did not detract from the good of the day, nor the rest and inner peace I found being out in nature. Still, it's sobering to remember...

Of Oranges and Art

Here's why we have women's crafts circles! Not only has our little crafts group at the hospital been a wonderful way to become proficient in a variety of crafts for charity  (we've "scrapbooked", beaded, made dolls and crocheted together) but it assures us that, at least once a month, we'll reconnect with and support one another. With everyone's lives as busy as they are, the promise of several hours of self care, relaxation and meeting with friends monthly is something to cherish.

Remember how sorry I was feeling for myself last week, missing my food gleaming and foraging days up north? These wonderful women have come to my assistance. Holly Dodson has found a lovely u-pick farm down in Bradenton that she's given me directions to, where this past weekend she picked two grocery bags full of fresh produce for twenty dollars. (I'll be heading to the farm in Bradenton, as well as posting pictures and directions how to get there, shortly!) And Carol Mitchell gave me the fresh oranges you see above, which came off her orange tree, so I can make home made marmalade for my Irish husband, who simply couldn't get through the day without his toast and marmalade each morning. 

Carol also graciously invited us over to pick oranges and grapefruit off her trees, which are producing far more than she and her family can consume. You can bet we'll be there.  I'm still working on some ways we can get our hands on so many of those oranges and grapefruit that go uneaten from people's front lawn fruit trees down here; I'll keep you posted. But in the interim,  see how good "charity crafting" can be for the heart? I know my heart--and spirit--are better with the help and friendship of  wonderful women like these...

You Can't Save the World Every Day...

Most religions and cultures set aside one day a week to rest, recreate and contemplate how very good it can be to be alive. Sunday is our day. So today, my husband, Stephen, and I went out for a walk at the nature center near our home. Here's some of what we saw...

An anhinga sunning himself....

A soft shell turtle, coming up for air...

Another anhinga, drying its wings after a swim...

A baby alligator... they're only so cute for so long...

A little blue heron stalking lunch...

A tri-colored heron on the run...

A little green heron, looking for nibbles...

A limpkin on the look out for apple snails

These photo are compliments of Stephen, who I like to tease is the man behind the woman behind this blog. 

Carol Mitchell: A Heart for Crafts, Women and the Poor

This smiling woman surrounded by happy children is my friend, Carol Mitchell, on a recent trip to  South Africa. She and her husband gave a workshop for South African journalists in Cape Town this past September, which allowed Carol to make a quick visit to our friends from the not-for-profit ArtAidsArt and deliver over eighty handmade dolls made by "dollie mamas" affiliated with Dollies without Borders. 

Carol Mitchell is all about crafts. Whether its teaching knitting and crochet skills to elderly women looking to use their retirement years to help others, or assisting economically disadvantaged women in Florida to start a crafts cooperative for friendship and supplemental income, Carol is tireless when it comes to teaching others the joys and benefits of crafting. Co-director of programming at the Franciscan Retreat center in Tampa, with a doctorate in psychology and years of experience as a retreat leader and spiritual director, Carol embraces crafts and crafting as a way to engage and empower women spiritually as well as economically.

Together with Maureen Connors, Carol co-founded the Midtown Circle of Hands, a women's craft cooperative on St. Petersburg's south side. The women, who are of various ethnicities and and ages, have built a supportive weekly community together, and sell their handiwork in local crafts fairs.

Carol is also instrumental in teaching crocheting and knitting to the seniors at Bon Secours Place, an assisted living center where many of the women are eagerly seeking ways to use their artistic skills to help others. Carol co-facilitated our Doll Making Marathon Retreat this past August, lending her spiritual expertise to the weekend's proceedings. She also volunteered to teach our crafts group at St. Anthony's Hospital how to crochet blankets for charity--a daunting task given the crocheting skill level (none!) of our group members. Carol is also in the process of trying to initiate a prayer shawl ministry for local hospital employees, so knitters and "crochet-ers" can make comforting shawls and wraps for the sick.

Carol incorporates crafting into respite retreat days she facilitates for caregivers, believing that crafting can be a way of praying as well as a manner in which to beat stress and relax. Caregivers respond enthusiastically to her patience, warmth and wisdom.

Carol has instigated what we hope will be an annual holiday fair trade crafts sale at the Franciscan Center of Tampa on Sunday, November 23rd. We will be featuring crafts and fair trade items from ArtAidsArt, MayaWorks, Heart Beats and Bead for Life, among others. We are also hosting Cati Williams, our American liaison and partner with Kullakas, the Bolivian women's knitting cooperative we support, and will be selling Juan Ana fair trade coffee from the mission at San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. It promises to be hard work, but also a lot of fun. I'm grateful to have a friend like Carol Mitchell--a crafty women with a big heart for others!