● Kohlrabi or Bok Choi
● Lettuce
● Zucchini
● Broccoli or cabbage
● Onions
● Garlic
● Kale or Chard
● Fava beans
● Sugar snap peas ( say good bye!)
● Basil or parsley
Another explosive week. The mass protests keep their momentum as people speak to white supremacy and work to defund public institutions like the police to make real change possible.The supreme court handed down two landmark decisions that have made discrimination based on sex(ual)orientation or gender illegal and DACA more stable in this messed up country. Truth has been spoken so many times to power and somehow we always slip back into the old ways. Keeping the momentum feels exhausting, and it is and we must. There is not a day that goes bye without my thoughts wandering to my white privilege and how that has moved me forward in my life and how not having that keeps others back.
These last three months of the pandemic have really given me a glimpse of what toxic stress feels like. That type of stress is not like other stress that comes with deadlines or making important medical decisions or running a business. Toxic stress is insidious and rests just below the surface all the time. It increases your heart rate, makes you on edge “for no reason”, makes you angry, short tempered, less humane and suffer insomnia. Toxic stress affects your autonomic nervous system stimulating the “fight or flight” response which increases cortisol. If this goes on for a long time (a lifetime if you are black and facing microaggressions and macroaggressions daily) it increases your risk of hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.
COVID 19 has been my toxic stress. I spend some part of everyday thinking about it and how to keep my patients, my family and the community safe. I think about where this nation is going and I see the writing on the wall. We are not willing to make personal sacrifices to combat this epidemic and therefore we will sacrifice our vulnerable populations.
Finally our governor has said face masks are required. But her edict is too little and too late and the cat is out of the bag again. Oregon’s numbers are spiking and it is the fault of our leaders and of individuals. We elect our government to help guide us and make decisions that benefit our
community, they have failed us. So I do not sleep well. I wonder how to be effective, how to show I am an ally, how to lift the voices of others and make mine heard. I worry about the spread of COVID 19 with people so selfish or foolish who refuse to cover their faces for the protection of others. Daily I read and listen to police brutality and widespread racism against black and brown people. It is not a few bad apples but rather a fraternal institution that teaches that black people are criminals and brown people are rapists. I have to do more and yet I am exhausted. Imagine a white woman exhausted, I finally get a tiny picture of what it feels like to worry for my own life every day I leave my home. It is not that police will stop me and possibly kill me over a burnt out tail light, but that I may contract a deadly virus which I could spread to my family. Black and brown people deal with this threat everyday, now and in the past. No white tears, just gotta keep on
working to make this a better place.
So, action for this week:
I signed up to write a letter a day to voters in swing states:
<https://votefwd.org/dailykos>link_id=0&can_id=054e52400d79096dd4aaad230ffd77ac&source=
email-fight-voter-suppression-by-writing-letters-to-voters-2&email_referrer=email_837693&email
_subject=will-you-commit-to-writing-one-letter-to-voters-every-day
I went to a local BLM vigil.
I donated money to the campaigns of black leaders to take down the white supremacists like Lindsey Grahm and Mitch Mcconnel.
I pledge to vote in every election.
I wrote to the Beaverton Farmers Market Board to tell them to mandate masks at all times at the market, during set up, sales time and break down and to stop making nonsensical decisions based on “comfort” rather than public health.
I also did some farm work.
Juvencio finally mowed my wild flower patches. I planted pie pumpkins, the first Brussels sprouts and more celery. I have basil ready to go in the ground outside, more peppers and fall brassicas. I seeded more beets (let’s hope they get weeded, hehe). We tied up cherry tomatoes, weeded and pruned them. We weeded more onions, leeks and shallots and have
managed to save all but 1.5 beds of them as we hit the summer solstice.
Life on the farm goes on. We are accepting helpers and a few have come. We have had the help of family most weekends for some time. We are seeing the end of the sugar snap peas and favas and we wait for the time consuming cherry tomatoes and beans. If you have time to
contribute to this community supported agriculture project please do reach out.
Here are a few recipes to make with your favas, this is the first and likely only week you will see them as they have tumbled to the ground with the rains and we have fall crops to get in the ground.
Braised whole-pod fava beans with dill
Fava beans are a culinary highlight of spring, but double shelling them takes time. Very young favas though can be eaten pod and all.
Prep time and cook time: 45 minutes
Makes six servings
1/3 cup olive oil
1 sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 ½ pounds fava bean pods, ends trimmed and strings removed
¾ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup dill, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish
Plain whole-milk or Greek style yogurt
We made this soup and it was delicious, even better the next day as a cold soup.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014646-tomato-fennel-soup-with-brie-toasts
We are transforming the farm this week. Cleaning up areas that were a mess for years, reclaiming the ornamental gardens and putting in the plants that we bought from a retiring neighbor. We continue.