Besides the bountiful harvest it is quiet around here—after the crew leaves each day around 4:30-5pm and on Sundays. Jeff and I try to sleep in past 5am and have a leisurely day if possible doing whatever we each desire to do on Sunday. I like to stay in my PJ’s and read a good book out in the garden chair. A time I am able to sit and enjoy the garden. I have been reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; I read it a few years ago when it came out and loved it, so with the movie coming I wanted to re-read it before seeing the movie. I am not finished, I haven’t gotten to the “Love” chapter yet, but I have to say it has made me think a bit about food (once again).

The author’s trip to Italy and spending four months eating delicious, beautiful food made me think how much I love food, I always have, and have always been on the larger side of life you might say. So needless to say I have struggled with food, not necessarily eating bad foods, fast foods or sugared soda pops, just maybe a tad too much good ‘ole food. My mom had me on a diet before I was walking I’m sure, well actually I think, she was probably on a diet while I was in the womb, she at 89 is still on a diet. Our heritage is Swiss, not the smallest size folks, and of course we have a history of women on the larger side of life, always trying to be those on the thinner side. In reading the book I came to the conclusion that when I eat I think I have this unconscious guilt that I shouldn’t be eating or enjoying it because I am suppose to be thin (every girl’s American image). So I thought, you know I don’t have to go to Italy to learn how to enjoy food, to taste it, lavish in the beauty of the striped eggplants, or the different colors of cherry tomatoes, or oh my gosh the incredible heirloom Marvel stripe tomatoes…can I remove the guilt and just eat our abundance? Savor each bite without guilt?

Do we know what abundance we live in? Well that recently too has been overwhelming me as there is so much food rolling around this farm, so much abundance of melons, watermelons, along with other farmers abundances that I can’t pass up like berries from the market. It is filling our refrigerator and cooler so much so that we can’t have enough meals in the day to even come close to experiencing all the wonderful summer recipes that I so love….at the market a customer came up to me and said that they had just spent the last month in Europe, traveling and mostly eating out in some of the more expensive restaurants. She said it was so good to get home, as all they seemed to serve was protein and carbohydrates; she said I don’t think they ever served a plate of salad. She couldn’t help herself as they landed in the US at an airport food court she pigged out on a salad! She said even in Paris at the markets they did not have a stand that showed the abundance that our stand has. I don’t think we really know the abundance we live in? Maybe we need to travel more to realize it.

In Eat Pray Love there is a conversation about the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn what is the word of the street. New York City is ACHIEVE, Los Angles is SUCCEED, Stockholm is CONFORM, and Naples is FIGHT. Then the question came up to what is your word? I asked Jeff what is the word for Good Humus—he said PERSERVERE, and then he said WORK and right now I say ABUNDANCE and Ali just walked in and said FAMILY. So my key to living the word, to enjoying the food, to realizing our bounty is to make sure to prepare a meal that is full of color, full of beauty, full of flavor of the one or two vegetables that I chose to cook and be conscience of it as it passes the lips and goes down the gullet to feed my body. Be “conscious,” maybe that could be my new word, maybe it could replace guilt and give me pleasure to eat and feel the fullness of life. Ahh! Have a good week and contemplate this perspective…

“When walking or running this month, the month of August, imagine that you are opening sacred pathways with each new step. Sense, also, the weight of your physical body, not as yours, but rather infinite space pushing down on your shoulders, keeping you on the trail. Enjoy!!”

- Joseph Beautiful Painted Arrow

By Annie Main, Good Humus Produce

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