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Monkey Monday: Zuiderzeeroute edition 25 June 2007 12:43 am

Posted by Tracy in : cheese,local food,milk,seasonality,sundance,travel , 2 comments

Hello readers! Automatic posting turned out so well last week that I’m giving it another shot with today’s post, which I am actually writing late on Saturday night/early Sunday morning in Volendam, the Netherlands, on the second night of an epic bike trip around the IJsselmeer, a body of water formerly known as the Zuiderzee, for which the bike route around it is named. Biking burns a lot of calories, and Peter and I have been eating all kinds of crazy delicious food, and lots of it, to keep fueled on this adventure, and I have been taking notes whenever possible. However, it is very late, and I must sleep, so just a few quick monkey-style thoughts for you to ponder: (more…)

One last big Michael Pollan quotation 22 June 2007 6:51 pm

Posted by Tracy in : agriculture,books,environment,garden,Michael Pollan,work , add a comment

Tracy is on vacation. You can read all about it at Van Boothe Tandem Adventures. Regularly-scheduled non-vacation TracyFood posts will be back on Monday, July 9. Meanwhile….

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From “The Harvest”

I ended yesterday’s post by quoting a stirring bit of rhetoric about getting down to the work of the land, and that is exactly what Pollan describes at the beginning of chapter 8 of Second Nature, the beginning of the Fall section: the overwhelming, bittersweet work of gathering late summer and fall garden abundance. (more…)

On “The Idea of a Garden” by Michael Pollan 21 June 2007 6:54 pm

Posted by Tracy in : books,environment,garden,Michael Pollan,reviews , add a comment

Tracy is on vacation. You can read all about it at Van Boothe Tandem Adventures. Regularly-scheduled non-vacation TracyFood posts will be back on Monday, July 9. Meanwhile…. (more…)

From “Planting a Tree” 20 June 2007 7:00 pm

Posted by Tracy in : books,garden,Michael Pollan,reviews , add a comment

Tracy is on vacation. You can read all about it at Van Boothe Tandem Adventures. Regularly-scheduled non-vacation TracyFood posts will be back on Monday, July 9. Meanwhile….

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Excerpt from Chapter 9 of Michael Pollan’s Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (review started here) (more…)

Book review: “Second Nature” by Michael Pollan 19 June 2007 6:13 pm

Posted by Tracy in : books,garden,identity,Michael Pollan,politics,reviews,school,seasonality , add a comment

Tracy is on vacation. You can read all about it at Van Boothe Tandem Adventures. Regularly-scheduled non-vacation TracyFood posts will be back on Monday, July 9. Meanwhile….

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From Second Nature by Michael Pollan:

Of course, a real green thumb would have done everything I did without having to think about it so much. But you have to start somewhere…. Only much later does it become second nature. Now, I get it — indeed, can no longer imagine not getting it — and from here on I’ll probably grow fine carrots without a moment’s reflection, no bigger a deal than riding a bike. So maybe that is what a green thumb is, a particular form of memory: a compendium of little stories that have been distilled to the point where the gardener can draw on their lessons without even thinking about it — the morals of these stories (most of which are about his own experiences, but some of which may be secondhand) are always at his fingertips.

(more…)