Food for thought

I've got food on the brain.  My thoughts are wrapped around food more often than I would like to admit.  I fasted one day during Lent and if I thought about God 1/10th of the amount of times that I thought about food, I'd have a vibrant spiritual life!  

Food is foremost in my mind for two real reasons:

1).  I think I'm developing an intolerance for preservatives and lactose....which has severely curtailed our weekly Kraft lunch after church. (I know the stuff is horrible for you, but oh so good!)  But I am now getting sick from eating many different packaged food stuff as well as lactose based sauces or desserts.  It is a random sickness, but very painful and takes everything literally out of me.  Fresh food is best right now.  So my bread maker and crock pot are being put to good use.

2).  My thoughts and dreams are consumed with gardening, especially food gardening.  The yard we have was filled to the brim with plants and trees and bulbs.  Despite our heroic efforts to thin out the yard and enrich with black gold-type dirt, we do not have room for a full veggie garden.  So my dreams have turned to finding land that people are willing to share.  The idea of community gardens are common in the city, we always had an allotment garden, but the suburbs are a different story.  There is almost so much land that people are not willing to share.  If they do have land, it is all landscaped to death.  No food growing.  Plus, 'burb folk tend to be a wee bit more territorial than city folk.  City folk know that there isn't much land, so we best all share.  'Burb folk have worked hard to acquire all this land, so they guard it jealously.  I have hope that someone will be excited about having 2 cute little girls growing food in their yard!

I just read Farewell, my Sabaru.  Not that I would or could ever do what the author did, but there are aspects that are so appealing to me.  One of my colleagues at work is developing a urban gardening curriculum that is geared to teaching biblical truths around stewardship, planting, caring and harvesting.  I really want the girls to have an understanding of food and earth and their role in that.  That is my summer goal.  Find land, plant food, teach my girls and enjoy the journey along the way.