Courage

There’s a pretty good chance that you're riding a rollercoaster of emotions this week. When people around you feel fearful or unsafe, when the environment you live in does not seem like it will be protected, and when divisiveness seems to permeate into our bones, life might feel kind of hopeless. And maybe “kind of” is an understatement.

So. Sometimes the world might seem like it sucks. And that’s a perfectly valid feeling to feel right now. But consider these six books, that let us know that every human is important and that even when the world is scary there are actions we can take if only we have the courage to do so.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” -Atticus Finch

Wonder by Raquel J. Palacio

People in the world may look different from you, but we are all humans.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Even in the face of oppression and hopelessness, a little subversiveness can go a long way.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

We only have one world, and it’s our responsibility to care for it.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Women get stuff done. Also, the world needs laughter.

Harry Potters and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

“We’re all human aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving” -Kingsley Shacklebolt

Marley and Me by John Grogran

Dogs have a lot to teach humans about friendship, love, and empathy.

Don’t ever lose hope, friends. And let’s all keep fighting for a world we know can and does exist.

Book Review: Folks, This Ain't Normal

Over the past few years, some of my favorite and most inspiring non-fiction books have been focused on farming and sustainability: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Gaining Ground by Forrest Pritchard, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. So it’s no surprise that Joel Salatin’s Folks This Ain’t Normal was on my To-Read List.

If you’ve read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, you may recognize Joel Salatin’s name from Pollan’s visit to Salatin’s farm Polyface in Virginia. Salatin’s family has been farming in the Shenandoah Valley since 1961, and raise beef cattle, chickens, pigs, rabbits, and more. Salatin is quite honestly the face of local food in the United States, and his farm is world-renowned for its model of natural, sustainable practices.

That being said, Salatin is kind of a curmudgeon. He has a very strong opinion about things like big business, the USDA, and the role of government, and he isn’t afraid to tell you all about it in this book. While I found myself agreeing with a lot of his basic premises, some of it was a little bit too radical for me (no, I don’t want to live in the side of a hill with a hoop house as a roof and air dry all of my clothes). However, I really liked that he addressed some of the “haters” who think that eating local and organic is too expensive and that because they live in a city they aren’t able to have a garden or eat locally.

My favorite part of each chapter was when Salatin offered practical tips that anyone can apply. Of course, I found myself thinking that I could apply them a bit more easily than some of my counterparts given that I’m lucky enough to live on a farm and related to someone who farms animals for a living. Either way, here are my biggest takeaways from those chapters.

Some things you can do to support local agriculture are…

1. Go to the Farmer’s Market. Obviously the Market on the Square on Saturday mornings in Madison is of course amazing, but don’t forget about smaller markets like the Monona Market on Sunday mornings and the Fitchburg Market on Thursday afternoons.
2. Eat local, grass-fed animals. Of course I’m going to recommend to you the delicious Highland beef and pork at Highland Spring Farm! If you're out of state, choose a farmer that practices sustainable grazing and feeds their animals what they should be eating!
3. Support restaurants that use local foods. So many Madison restaurants are awesome at this, including: The Old-Fashioned, Charlie’s on Main, Lilliana’s, Graze, Graft, and Harvest.
4. Start a garden. Lots of vegetables, including tomatoes, are super easy to grow in a pot on your porch or in an actual garden if you have room. We personally grow tomatoes, peppers, celery, and carrots in our garden.
5. Join a CSA. CSAs, or Community Supported Agriculture, are a great way to support local farmers and get some seriously delicious food. Matt and I tried a CSA for the first time last year, and although sometimes it was a challenge to eat all the vegetables before they spoiled, it was also a really fun experiment to get new foods we had never cooked- bok choy, kohlrabi, acorn squash- and try to do something with it.

Many of those items Matt and I already do, but my wheels are still spinning with the knowledge that I can do more. More changes we plan to make are:

1. Buy chickens! We just ordered 5 chickens from mypetchicken.com (yes, that’s a real website!) which will be arriving next week!!! Chickens are great for eating extra kitchen scraps and we are obviously looking forward to some delicious eggs from our own backyard.
2. Find new ways to eat local. We just found a local mill in Lone Oak, WI that uses local Wisconsin wheat farmers to ground their flour. Another item to add to our local pantry! Thinking ahead, we could also find bread and butter that are more local than we already buy. We have found that while the Willy Street Co-Op is one of the best places to buy local, the Hy-Vee also flags local foods and Wisconsin producers, so we usually look for those.
3. Plan new ways to can and preserve food. We did a pretty good job last winter of freezing our garden peppers and sweet corn, making strawberry jam and canning some delicious pasta sauce and salsa. This summer we have plans to try to freeze rhubarb, and can other fruits like apples or applesauce. We could also get better at storing root vegetables like carrots, onions, and potatoes.

Joel Salatin’s voice may not be your style, and I might recommend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle before this book. However, it was still a great reminder for me to continue to eat local, support small business, and do what’s best not only for my health but for the animals, soil, air, and earth.

2015 Review

Thought I forgot about this blog, did ya? Hasn’t been my best year of blogging, but better late than never, right? I know 2015 was, like, soooo last year, but here’s the year of books in review!

In 2015, I read exactly 50 books. Didn’t quite beat last year (57), but still quite the accomplishment of booking it!

Non-Fiction: 20

Fiction: 30

Audio: 7

I LOVED so many of the books I read this year, and it’s hard to narrow down my favorites, but here are my top 10 in no particular order:

1. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer
2. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Harkins
4. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
5. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
6. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
7. Columbine by Dave Cullen
8. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
9. Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
10. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Definitely read a lot more fiction than I have in the past- it was fun this year to rediscover compelling, well-written fiction not targeted specifically for the young adult crowd.

And just for the heck of it, let’s all admit that we’ve read books we really didn’t enjoy so much. Here are five books I read that I wasn’t too fond of:

1. Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
2. The List by Siobhan Vivian
3. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
4. Reality Boy by A.S. King
5. 10% Happier by Dan Harris

If you have read any of these and liked them, let me know- I’d love to chat with you about why you have terrible taste in books (har har har).

What’s up for 2016? I have already started a list on my Goodreads account of books I’ve been meaning to read for ages and ages, but have never gotten to. Most of these are a) bestsellers from years past that I’d like to read before I'm the last person on the planet who hasn't (And the Mountains Echoed, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) or b) classics that I embarrassingly have never read (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Joy Luck Club).

Here’s to a new year of reading and loving life! Happy 2016!