Hospitality for the Coming Age

I tasted this most delicious salsa of my mother’s creation last week, and came back to Richmond with a craving.
I have all of the ingredients expect the bell peppers (I could use canned tomatoes). (Un)fortunately, I can’t buy peppers in January without a lot of guilt. So I sent a hope out into the universe, [...]

Every once in awhile I hear a story about someone transforming a moment of violence or theft, and I am moved. It’s like a peace activist’s dream come true - to have an opportunity to put all those theories to the test and find a humanizing outcome.
I have learned a lot about sustainable living and [...]

“There is no waste, only creative challenges to find meaning and new opportunity,” I wrote last fall, as I developed my “metaphor for ministry.”
Throughout this year I have continually been drawn to the art of avoiding waste. I have planned many, many meals around food left to rot in seminary fridges (and therefore eaten much [...]

Adrienne commented today on an old post of mine about simple starts to eating locally. It reminded me what practice it truly takes to make up new dishes. But to cook from the fridge (so that food doesn’t go to waste) requires such creativity.
In college I always had standard Mexican food on hand (you know, [...]

3 December 2008
Tonight we gathered in Orchard Room at Earlham College for the toughest 100 mile radius potluck yet!
We ate very well, with turkey, newspaper-ripened tomatoes, homemade pasta, Japanese omelets, squash bread, chai and so much more!
I brought butternut squash-bean soup, with several alterations. I used anasazi beans instead of black beans, since I grew [...]

3. Peak oil
Where do the vegetables sold in Richmond groceries come from? California, often, sometimes Mexico, Argentina, once in awhile Michigan…. The statistic I see and hear the most is that the food on your plate has traveled an average of 1500 miles to get there. Yikes.
There are a huge number of problems with fossil [...]

I get a lot of blank and bemused stares when I talk about food insecurity. Perhaps people are picturing a silo full of corn saying, “Please don’t make me go out there, I’m SO shy….” Now that WOULD be ridiculous. But the image of bountiful food not leaving storage is one accurate piece of food [...]

Eating locally may feel like an enormous challenge - and doing so 100% of the time really is! I hadn’t realized how well I was raised until I started doing my own grocery shopping and learned how expensive vegetables are at the grocery (especially salad in December, which is still my weakness). So if it’s [...]