Friedman: Learning to Speak Climate

In a recent op-ed piece in the NYT, Thomas Friedman shares three phases that make up Climate-Speak. They are:

• “Just a few years ago ...”
• “I’ve never seen that before...”
• “Well usually ...but now I don’t know anymore.”

That pretty much sums up our experience here in Alaska this summer. Global weirding indeed.

The Great 08 Veggie Adventure

As I've written about before, this summer I am participating in not one, but two CSA programs. One, Arctic Organics, is local. The other, Full Circle Farm, is based in Carnation, WA.

Every Tuesday I meet with three friends on my front deck for the Veggie Divide. We split two Arctic Organics shares between the four of us. It's been an interesting exercise in sharing and compromise. We've adjusted for scheduled and emergency absences. We've worked around differences in styles and tastes. And through this weekly practice we are getting to know each other more deeply than we could with conversation alone.

Every other Thursday I pick up a small box from Full Circle Farms. FCF allows its members to swap out up to five items each week, so I adjust my box contents with Arctic Organics in mind, choosing apricots rather than kale, blueberries rather than mixed greens, and sweet corn instead of broccoli.

It is still more than the two of us (plus the dog) can keep up with, but even when the collard greens wind up in the compost pile, I am glad that I'm part of both programs.