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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] KGI Monthly Newsletter Issue 6: December 2003

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] KGI Monthly Newsletter Issue 6: December 2003
  • Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 10:23:59 -0700


KGI Monthly Newsletter Issue 6: December 2003


But, .we should first learn the winds and the nature of the sky,

the customary cultivation and the ways of place,

what each region bears and rejects.

Here corn shoots up, and there grapes do.

Elsewhere young trees grow strong and the wild grasses.

-Virgil, The Georgics, Book I, 29 B.C.

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

It's that time of year when the balance of kitchen gardeners' thoughts shifts
away from the glories of last year's garden to the promise of the winter
kitchen. It's a time for mulled wines, eggnog, and hearty comfort foods that
fill the stomach and warm the soul. It's also a time for thinking about what
we'd like to do differently, in our gardens, in our cooking, and in our lives.

Making New Year's resolutions usually ranks quite low on my own list of fun
things to do during the holidays - somewhere in between shoveling wet snow
and listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks sing their "Greatest Christmas
Hits". If this is how you tend to see New Year's resolutions, I have one
that might just change your mind: eat more local foods this year, whether
from your own garden, from neighboring farms, or both.

By resolving to do this in 2004, you will do more good things than you
probably realize, both for yourself and for others. Most of us have some
sense of the inherent goodness of buying local foods. According to a recent
marketing study by the University of Iowa, the terms "locally-grown" and
"family farm" when attached to a food product are the advertising equivalent
of homemade hot cocoa on a frosty winter afternoon. They give us a warm,
comforting feeling that the corporate food giants with their faceless and
placeless products could never convey, try as they may, sometimes to great
comic effect.

At KGI, our resolution for the coming year is to reach out to and involve
more people in our activities and in promoting what Virgil calls "customary
cultivation and the ways of place." We've had some good luck in the past
month in that we were featured in the monthly newsletters of ICANGARDEN.COM
and Johnny's Selected Seeds. We thank our friends there for making that
happen. This spring, we'll be featured in other newsletters and in an
article about kitchen gardens in "The American Gardener" magazine.

We've recently jumped through the last legal hoop in becoming a bona fide
public charity by securing status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
This good news means two things: 1) we can start applying for grants from
foundations who share our goals for food systems change and 2) individual
supporters can now make a tax-deductible membership contribution (which a few
of you have started to do...thanks!).

Many of you have expressed an interest in new KGI activities such as a paper
newsletter, internet-based discussion boards, recipe and seed swaps, online
gardening and cooking tutorials, and the organization of an annual
food-and-gardening oriented trip. The KGI board and I are looking for ways
to deliver these activities, but can only do so if people like you step up to
make it happen. So, please, give what you can and spread the word about KGI
to your food-loving, gardening friends.

Unfortunately due to time and resource constraints, we weren't able to get
our page together about the organic wine-making family from Maine, but we
hope to put it up on the site soon. I'm also planning on being back in touch
next month with the complete, bubbling results of my first foray into the
world of home sauerkraut making. So far, so good. Until then,

Happy Holidays, Joyeuses FĂȘtes, Feliz Navidad,

Roger Doiron
KGI founder/board member/worker bee
----------------------------
Kitchen Gardeners International is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in
Maine, USA with friends from around the world. Our mission is to celebrate
home-grown, home-cooked foods in their many international forms as well as
their role in building a healthier, tastier, and more sustainable food
system. To subscribe or unsubscribe to our free email newsletter or change
the way in which you receive your it (ie text vs html), see:
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/newsletter.html






  • [Livingontheland] KGI Monthly Newsletter Issue 6: December 2003, Tradingpost, 12/18/2003

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