Some Heart Feelings about bringing Fresh Strawberries into Whole Foods.

Date:   5/13/2006 8:10:33 PM ( 18 y ago)

May 8, 06
4:38 PM


"A huckleberry never reaches Boston;
they have not been known there since
they grew on her three hills.
The ambrosial and essential part of the fruit
is lost with the bloom which is rubbed off
in the market cart,
and they become mere provender.
As long as Eternal Justice reigns,
not one innocent huckleberry
can be transported
thither from the country's hills."
--from the Chapter Ponds in Waldern
by Henry David Thoreau.


It's important that we each do what we can with the talents
that we have.

My experience with organic food, with locally grown
fresh food, goes back to Jensen's ranch in the early
70's when I had some of my first experiences eating
Live Foods off Living Trees.

When I was a kid, we had an avocado in our backyard
and maybe a fig. I do not remember
eating those foods, just maybe smashing them.

Most kids today imagine that milk comes from bottles.
I go into shock in the Apple Store, watching the kids
at the computer stations, and a whole generation
of young people who are more tuned in to making Apples
or PC's work that eating apples.

When I was a kid, we lived in East Los Angeles.
I remember on summer nights that even in the city
we could smell the stockyard not far away. There were
cows within miles. Go there now, and all you will get
is maybe a sniff of cars.

Blue Pastry, my fellow Blogger here, has a marvelous idea.
Why don't we all just go to the country to pick strawberries.
What is the big deal about bringing locally grown fresh
that morning picked organic strawberries into Whole Foods--
such a MEGA store that will likely only get bigger?

In San Diego, with the price of gas, it would
take about $40.00 per person to go out to where
Joe the farmer picks his strawberries. So
let's see, the cost of a pint would be around,
$42.00. Then again, consider that most of the strawberries sold today,
are great for helping us fill up on pesticides.
There are really not that many people in our city
who have ever tasted a fresh ripe berry, yet alone
an organic berry.

Once, there were little mom and pop health food stores.
Most of those are gone.

We now live in a world of the big stores.
In a place like San Diego, you can go to the Ocean Beach
People's Food Coop and find the kind of Comraderie that
I imagine many Curezoners would like. I belong to that
Coop, but mainly shop at Whole Foods because that
is a place that is closer, and where I am building community.

Whole Foods, and Big Cities,
are places that need community, and
reaching out when I have a chance, is one
of my favorite things to do.

I use to get real depressed in Whole Foods.
It seemed to support my sense of isolation.
I buy 95% of my fresh foods from the FM on Sundays
or Fridays where I have nerve to speak to lots of people.

In the Enchanted Garden, we teach that
"Not knowing who is growing your food,
is like being intimate with a stranger."
We also teach that we can all live in such a way
that something we eat every day can come
from our own soil. Even one pot does an
Enchanted Gardener make.

I am really getting some healing these past weeks
at our Hillcrest Whole Foods.

IT makes a big difference that I know numbers of
the people who put their sweat into creating these
companies, and of late, I am getting to know the
companies run by Heart and Soul people who
give money back.

The Organic Center as an example, fundraised
around $800,000 in one night from the heads of these
companies. Stoneyfield gave $50,000.
Walter Robb, the Pres of Whole Foods gave $50,.000
too if I am not mistaken. Seventh Generation gave
$50.000. The Organic Center aims to return our
country to 10% organic by 2010. Now we are at 2%.

So what can we each do?
One thing is support the companies that give back.
Support the products that are working to sustain
a Green Planet.

When I shop at Whole Foods, and when I was doing demo here
with these locally grown organic fresh picked strawberries,
I was having incredible experiences watching
people come out of themselves to buy this food.
The strawberries gave me an reason to talk to them,
and they had a reason to open up, smile, and say thank you.
Numbers could not resist giving me a pat on the shoulder
or something like that. I had a number of return customers
from week one to week two. I am also making acquaintance
with the staff and Team Leaders on a first name basis.
This is going to being very important in the years to come.

Whole Foods Hillcrest has these little carts for kids.
The kids are being exposed here to real food, and
did they love the strawberries.

A number of women, I was surprised to say,
told me things about their health conditions.
They could have just said no thank you, but volunteered
that they were on this or that diet where they could not
eat strawberries.

A number of people just reached out and took
the commercial berries that may or may not have
been sprayed. Most farmers haven't the time
or money to invest in learning how to grow
a berry organicaly. It took Joe the Farmer about
eight years to build up his soil.

Every one is so hungry to be touched.
Every one is so hungry to come out of isolation
and be part of a community feeling.

I can not get out of my head what Bo Lozoff was saying
a few months back. He said that 2./3rds of the world
go to bed each night, not knowing how they are going to make
it to the end of the month. The rest of us have a chance to
serve, and some of us, can even afford to buy our foods
in places like Whole Foods.

I eat like a pig, how about you?
I know I could eat a lot simpler. I wonder,
what is the price of all the consumerism and choices
we have?

I deeply feel we are meant to do something for the rest of the world.

A lot of those other countries want to follow in our consumer
footsteps. The issues in China are coming back to haunt us
because everyone else wants to live as one of the "Have's."

I was thinking, maybe where I belong is in some little Village
in the old Tihiti where I have my wife, or wifes and lots of children,
but I guess I will have to wait till the next life.

Right now, I know there is something that can be done
here and now.

I feel good helping my farmer friends.
I feel good being myself among the people
who still have a chance to make a difference.

I consider you one of the people who can make a difference.

Your Enchanted Gardener
Leslie

OTHER BLOGS
in THIS SERIES:

Farm to Restaurant Network in
Bay Area...New...
http://www.omorganics.org/page.php?pageid=174&contentid=171

I luv Whole Foods:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1604

Local Harvest:

http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1595

The Greatest Food of All
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1591
Some thoughts on the costs
of doing local in San Diego.


Organic Conversion,
The Power in an Organic Strawberry
transformed Anthony Zolezzi's Life:

http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1517

Strawberry Survey:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1577

Herbicides on Strawberries:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1585

Strawberries as Aprodisiacs:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1589

Garden Magic!
Preliminary Results
of my experience bringing
Super Ripe, Locally Grown
Organic Strawberries into Whole
Foods Market are reported here:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1587

The story starts here:
Religious Experience at Whole Foods Market:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=92&i=1558


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