Sustainable Meth Lab
This webisode is a PR/instructional video for a sustainable meth-amphetamine production laboratory that seeks ecologically sustainable ways to cook meth while using as little energy as possible, using more natural, biodegradable resources, producing fewer greenhouse gases, and relying on solar energy. The video is meant to be distributed secretly, but accidentally leaks to the mayor, who receives the video from an anonymous tip.
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Blacksburgia webisode 6:
Save the Curb Strip
A group of green activists have blocked the scheduled demolishing of a small curb strip that is soon to transform a 2-lane stretch of road into a 3-lane-stretch of road. Although the curb strip has only 400 sq. ft. of grass and three small bushes, the activist group relentlessly stands in the way of construction plans on every level.
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Blacksburgia webisode 5: Vegetarian with Fish
Vegetarian with Fish
Part I—
Frankie and Bridgette decide to eat consciously and visit Gillie’s restaurant. They spend twenty minutes figuring out exactly what kind of restaurant it is: “Vegetarian with fish. Ok, so there’s no meat, but there is fish. Yes, and there’s also eggs? Ok but that’s vegan, right? I just want to make a conscious decision. Are we doing the right thing here? Who makes your bread? Ok, so not everything’s local but some of it is? Which foods are local? Your potatoes—are they organic? But they are vegan. Your burgers are vegan too, right? What do they use? Where are the beans farmed? This fly in my soup—is it locally harvested? I’m still confused about the whole vegan but also fish thing. Honey, are we making the right decision here? Oh, there’s live music!”
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“Opportunity Is Missed Because It Is Dressed in Overalls and Looks Like Work”—anon.
Peripeteia: A reversal of circumstances
Anagnorisis: A critical discovery
Want to hear the worst advice in the world? Let Mike Rowe present it to you.
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[The melting of the snow reminded me of a poem I wrote in middle school. I decided to dig it up.]
Seasons Change
Mother Nature’s grand gift
I see is truly alive
New trees do bud
Flowers born
In tears
In fog
The earth flourishes in sun
It has only just begun
Trees are deep green
Bring fruit
And nuts
In sun
It is now a time to slow down
Time to show beauty in age
As once we were green
Now must die red
And yellow
Orange
Now comes the cold soft white rain
Trees only hibernate in ice
They are not truly dead
They are just waiting
And now comes
New life…
Mother Nature’s grand gift
Is alive once again
Bonsack
It was not the petting zoo my son was enthralled with
Out at the farm in Bonsack
It was not the piglets, not the goats
Nor the bunnies nor the cows
Only a moment he spent
In the kernel pit before wanting out
Or in the pumpkin patch before nursing
And though he has a love for tractors
Sitting focused at the wheel
Mastering the gears and levers at sixteen months
Though he rode with us on the hay wagon
With eyes wide for the pasture
It was in the corn maze that he screamed for his daddy
Not with fear
But with blooming vigor for the continual rush of life!
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[This week we’ll be saying goodbye to summer with three summer-themed poems I wrote during the summer.]
Picking Blueberries at 3 Birds
by Caleb Coy
I bring my son for the first time
To pick berries from the vine
Thirteen months old, he grabs them
By the handful
Out of the bucket
And off of the ground.
Clustered like grapes
They twist and pull
and fall into our buckets lightly.
Hand in hand we walk
Through the rows of the glade.
Among the gatherers
Among the Dutch visitors who came at dawn
In a cool June morning
When broke out the sun.
A belly full of berries
He rides on my shoulders
And gibber-gabbers
About sweet warm berries
In a perfect morning
Of a perfect day
The perfect day is pesticide free.
[For Noah]
Here is a link to 3 Bird’s Berry farm.
Followers of the blog I just recently digested Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Afterwards I embarked on my own Pollanesque eating experiment. This past weekend I visited a friend’s farm where I processed chickens for the first time.
My friends, Eli and Amber, worship at my congregation and began selling chickens, eggs and vegetables to us a while back. We decided to volunteer to help them process some chickens one afternoon, partly as a “thank you”, partly as a learning experience. I felt like Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, which is funny, considering he usually explores jobs most of us know nothing about or easily forget happen, and plenty of people slaughter chickens or know something of how it works. I figured if I was going to really absorb this literature and echo the message of natural eating, I should experience more food raw preparation. Since I hadn’t been able to catch, clean and cook a fish on my vacation, I should at least process a farm animal.
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In my blog series on Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma I digested the book, with an emphasis on the Christian perspective, as reader who is not an expert on nutrition, the environment, the economy, or agriculture.
Like Pollan, I also went on my own food adventure. Mimicking his journey, I also decided to meditate on eating an industrial meal, a supermarket meal, a locally organic natural meal, and a wild meal. I tried to mimic his as much as possible, but I didn’t have the time or the budget to match his precision with all four meals. I tried, and for purpose of reflection and comparison. There’s no point in reading a non-fiction book unless we incorporate it into action, and this sequence is the beginning of my action.
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A Digest of The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 6: Resolving Our Food Dilemmas
or
“What is the perfect meal, anyway?”
“The blessing of the omnivore is that he can eat a great many different things in nature. The curse of the omnivore is that when it comes to figuring out which of those things are safe to eat, he’s pretty much on his own.” -M.P.
Humans are able to eat so many things, and yet so much that we eat (or can eat) is also harmful. We have natural instincts that keep us from dying, like taste, disgust, and the feeling of a full belly. But we also like to refuse to listen to our body, or our mind.
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CALEB COY 