Plants, the Planet, & a Bit of Nerve

60: (May 2023)

I’ve been planting rows of vegetable starts and seeds this weekend. I only started growing vegetables a few years ago when my husband wanted to give it a try. When he embarks on a project, he does it in a big way, so he measured out a 40 by 40-foot garden, fenced it in, carefully laid out 16 garden beds, created wood-chipped paths in between, and built trellises ready to support an insane amount of beans and tomatoes. While it seemed like overkill at the time, we eat a plant-centered diet, so all those vegetables come in very handy. In fact, we’re still finishing off vegetables that we froze from last year’s garden.

It’s fun to look back and see how my cooking and eating habits have changed over the years. I grew up eating lots of hamburgers, sausages, steaks, and pork chops, and I loved every minute of it. When I began to learn about the connection between meat consumption and planetary health about 30 years ago, I started to explore introducing more plant-centered meals into my diet. That has evolved over time to where I cook and eat a largely, but not entirely, vegan diet.

Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Diet, writes in her latest blog post, “When our dietary habits incorporate environmental, justice, and health awareness as well as animal welfare, might we be ‘planetarians’?” I think planetarian is a great word to describe the possible reasons behind the food choices we make.

Years ago, I would never have believed that I would be cooking this way, but I enjoy learning new ways to cook and discovering new things to eat. It can be daunting to move toward a plant-centered diet all all at once, but over the course of years, it starts to become second nature. Instead of thinking of what meat to pull out of the freezer to center my meal around, I think of what types of legumes and vegetables will be center-stage. Food choices can evolve over time, just like ways to prepare food evolves.

For the health of our planet, it is likely that eventually everyone will have to learn to focus more on plants. With so many vegetables, legumes, grains, and spices, a world of opportunity awaits! If you want to find out more about how your food choices affect the planet, check out Recipe for a Healthy Planet, an online resource on the Harris Center’s website.

Off to plant some eggplants, basil, kale, tomatoes, peppers, and so much more! I feel like a kid in a candy shop.

40: (May 2003)

While on vacation, my mother, daughters and I went to see a Broadway play in New York City. We drove into the city and parked a few blocks from the theater. I was getting over a bout of bronchitis and craved a cup of tea, so we walked toward Times Square from the parking lot, scanning the streets for a coffee shop.

Deciding to go into what is essentially a diner, long made famous by its cheesecake, we sat at a tall table on bar stools. “Sit on that side so you can get the view,” my mother directed the girls. They sat facing Times Square and we all looked at the menu. Water cost $5. My daughters ordered juice and an order of French fries, and my mother and I ordered tea and cheese blintzes, another feature of the diner. I was amazed when the waitress brought over four water glasses, filled to the brim. “Free water!” I joked. “How generous!”

It was at that point that I noticed a sort of vacant expression on my older daughter’s face. “I think the view is kind of weird,” she commented. My mother and I turned around to see two almost-naked people sprawled across an underwear ad the size of a city block, looming over the buildings across the street. Not exactly what I had had in mind. The toy store under the ad, however, was a little more wholesome, although a bit surreal; it had huge picture windows displaying a full-sized Ferris wheel operating inside the store.

Everything is larger than life in New York City: the ads, the stores, the price tags. After the play, which was wonderful, we headed for home. As we were crossing Times Square in our car, my mother said to the girls, “Look at the Square! All the lights! Isn’t it gorgeous?”  I looked in the back seat and saw my younger daughter’s eyes as wide as saucers, searching for that which my mother thought was gorgeous.

I laughed, “Mom, you sure love New York!”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Why do you laugh?”
“Well, not everyone would think this was gorgeous.”
“But it’s so pretty!” she exclaimed.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps it is not only the visual in New York that can be beautiful, but that the city can be so outrageous. There is a different kind of beauty in the very imagination of the city, its boldness, its boundless energy, its nerve. We took a little of that home with us. I pull it out of my memory when I need the flash of bright lights to wake me up. And it sure makes me appreciate what a bargain I get on water every day.

60-40:

Beauty certainly is in the eyes of the beholder. I don’t necessarily find lots of city lights to be appealing, but I have grown to find a deep purple eggplant peeking out from under the leaves in my garden to be ridiculously beautiful. Perception can change over time, just like eating habits.

The important thing is to be open to change, open to growth and new ways of doing things. The planet’s depending on us. We can’t keep the lights on forever unless we break new ground – and maybe break new types of bread together in the process.