Green Acres Village, early to mid-August, part two: CSA, Community Dinner, plus synchronicity!

Note: part one.

Last Friday’s CSA held a good haul, though rabbits had gotten the early beans. Pictures follow. In prep for this week’s CSA, Solan’s message to share-holders included this important information:

This year, Indiana farmers planted over 6 million acres of soybeans, and over 5 million acres of corn. That accounts for over 2/3 of the farmable land in our state. The narrative goes that Indiana and states like it, are feeding America and the world. But are they?

Unfortunately, no, they are not. Over 76% of that corn goes into biofuels or animal feed, much of the rest is exported at rock-bottom prices to countries like Mexico, and the rest goes into high-fructose corn syrup. Very little shows up as those buttery golden ears on our dinner plates. A recent ranking of each US state’s ability to feed its own people a healthy diet placed Indiana in 49th!! Only 0.2% of Indiana agricultural land is actually cultivated in fruits and vegetables. Well, count us in!

When you purchased a CSA share from us, you helped sustain the tiny fraction of Indiana farmers trying to actually feed the people and sustain the land. We are small, but together we are a force for change. Thank you for being a part of this important work.

You can read the Union of Concerned Scientists’ report on “Why the Midwest’s Food System is Failing” here.

Workers this time included myself, as  usual washing vegetables in the outdoor sink, Dan, Solan, and his friend Stevia, who was visiting from Tennessee.

Last night’s Community Dinner went off without a hitch, thanks to the fabulous homemade burdock/dandelion ale Rebecca provided. She finally took the gallon jug away. We had consumed about 3/4 of it! And there were only a dozen of us present, so each of us had, how much?

Ale in glass in this photo.

Last night’s Dan Dessert was hilarious. The strangest looking cake any of us have ever seen, embedded with whole, peeled clementines! Non-gluten! Delicious!

I asked Dan just now, “Did you ever tell people that the clementines were obtained during a dumpster dive?”

“Only when there were about four people left.”

Finally, I end with a wondrous (and typical) synchronicity.

Sometime last week Rebecca said we need some large stainless steel pans for canning. And, as Dan put it, “‘the lord provided’ — and his name was Joe Berry!” Dan’s friend Joe, who is a brewer, was clearing out his supplies, and handed this glorious assortment to Dan!

As my old friend Judy always says, “Moving right along!”