Good Bye Shelia

I am saying good bye to Shelia who is afraid to step to far over the line in expressing herself. I am very passionate about certain things and I have let a few comments cause me to edit myself and not say somethings that I have really felt compelled to say, well no more. Every American should be aware, informed and inquiring on their own. I do not know anyone who has not known someone affected by health issues. If you did not watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution you can go the website below and watch every one of the shows in their entirety as well as the Oscar winning documentary "Food Inc.". I have been following Jamie in his journey and I watched Food Inc. Friday morning on PBS.org. They first aired the documentary on Wednesday night April 21st. They are now streaming it live via the web until April 29th, 2010, lucky for me and anyone else who missed it. Both of these should be required viewing for everyone.

After watching Food Inc. Friday morning and then watching Jamie's last show it all came keenly into crystal clear focus in a major OMG moment. To witness the fight that Jamie has been fighting and to see how it slammed like a speeding train into the message from Food Inc. was astonishing.

The conglomerate of companies that now own our food here in American and dictate to our farmers and in turn to each and every American on what we eat is more than disturbing. I encourage everyone to grow some of your own fruits, vegetables and herbs if at all possible. Shop at farmers markets, buy as much locally grown as well as organic produce as possible and seek out organic farm raised meat sources instead of the supermarket offerings.

I myself recently started a new type of garden because I have limited space, called a straw bale garden. I blogged about it and I have been posting on facebook. I went to the farmers market yesterday and then stopped by the feed store where I purchased my straw bales, I spoke to the owner and found that there is someone in my area that raises grass feed organic beef. I am thrilled and plan on contacting them and visiting their farm as soon as possible.

You owe it to yourself and the ones you love to watch these two shows. I really hope that you do, I also realize that just because this is a passionate subject for me does not mean that it will be for everyone else. But all you really have to do is take a look at the health of Americans and that should be enough for you to be at the very least, more than just a little curious...

http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/photo_gallery_watch.php
The documentary Food Inc. is available for purchase on Amazon as well you can find the link at PBS.org.


http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution

Start A Fun New Garden

Over the weekend I was surfing the web looking for what plants grow well in my zone which is 9b. I am in Florida but a lot of my fellow Texans are also in zone 9b. So I thought I would share this with you. I stumbled on a fun new way to garden called Straw Bale Gardening. There were several websites on straw bale gardening but I preferred this approach because it does not involve getting the bale ready by using Ammonia Nitrate. The website I found is called doug green's beginner-gardening.com, he also has a facebook a fan page. This is a perfect way to have a garden if you do not have a lot of space or if you are looking at garden possibilities give this some consideration. It would also provide the ability to garden for those who may not be able to bend over as much, and a fresh fun way to get your children involved and introduce them to gardening. It is also an inexpensive way to getting started. I called my local feed store this morning and asked for straw not hay bales and they do have them for under $7.00 a bale! I told the owner about the website and she is going to post it in her store, so I am already passing the straw bale gardening idea locally as well.

The key is buying a bale of straw, not hay. I am going to purchase extra twine to run tightly around the bale to keep it together good and tight and I am going to put pavers under the bale to keep it off the ground. Besides the benefits you gain from growing your own fresh vegetables and herbs, the straw bale will eventually become compost. An added bonus for other areas of your yard to boot, it is a win win situation.

The inspiration for having my own garden came from several factors, one being that I have been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, tune in on ABC on Friday nights. If you have missed any of the episodes go his website posted below and you can watch them all from the beginning to date. I was dumb struck when he was talking to children in elementary school and the kids could not identify different vegetable that he held up for them. I have already blogged on this show in my blog from Saturday, March 27, 2010 entitled "Unbelievable, We Need This Wake Up Call". I posted again on facebook after watching this past Friday nights show, one of my facebook peeps said that she thought that it should be required viewing by every parent out there and I agree with her.

The second factor is wanting produce that is not covered in chemicals, I know exactly where it came from, that it has been grown organically, it has not been handled by a ton of people, picked before it was ripe which causes you to loose most of the vitamins and benefits and that it is truly fresh. So this has been my inspiration starting my own garden.

Below are the links to Doug Green and also to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. If you have not already signed his food revolution petition and recognise the importance of what he is doing sign up today and join in. Lets save our children from obesity and improve our overall health.

http://www.beginner-gardening.com/straw-bale-gardening.html

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution