I moved from the Hudson Valley region of NY to Washington, DC two and a half years ago with the hopes of advocating for and changing agricultural policy. It didn't take me long to learn that the road to positive change via the Hill...was not my road - probably not even a back road off the county route exiting from the Thruway of my life's path (more on my frustrations on a later date - for now I'm basking in the country sunshine pulling weeds and planting peas). But, we all take our chances and sometimes make mistakes. However, this mistake led me to meeting incredible people and making wonderful friends - friends I wouldn't trade a scoop of homemade, Guernsey cream and ripe June strawberry ice cream for.
Speaking of ripe June strawberry ice cream...that is one thing I'm looking forward to being back in the Hudson Valley - back on the farm in Austerlitz, NY (and you will see from the website we also have a blueberry festival). The freshness of our food is plentiful and found right down the road. My father has Red Devons and British Whites, my brother - 1.5 miles away - has Scottish Highlanders, fainting goats (yes, for real), piggies (7 little piglets, presently), chickens, and even an egg mobile. We get rice from our neighbor's rice paddy, along with goat milk and an assortment of fresh veggies to compliment our own grown in the backyard.
Home is lovely. Home is where the heart is and I'm so happy to be back. I did get a job further south near New York City and will soon be moving closer than my hour and 45 minute commute, but I hope to have a garden there, as well, though I will have to come up weekly for my supply of meat and goat milk :).
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
On a lighter note...Beer is a Beautiful Thing.
As I sit here on a brisk, yet beautiful, early Saturday afternoon, munching on some spicy scrambled eggs and beans (my own homemade brunch, unfortunately, minus the bottomless mimosas) I can't help but think back to my happy hour last Tuesday at Pizzeria Paradiso. I dined with a good friend of mine to catch up on recent events and was waited on by the same servers whom I worked with when I was a bartender in the Birreria of the Georgetown location. I have such fond memories of delicious beer tastings, too much pizza, and the various flavors of gelato while goofing around, sharing music, and sometimes even bellowing our hearts out to our favorite songs.
You know how sometimes a whiff of daffodils in the air on a beautiful spring day or the taste of an ice cream cone that melts faster than you can lick it up can bring you back to the days of your childhood? While happy houring at Pizzeria Paradiso Patrick, one of the servers, recommended I try the Bear Republic Ryevalry, and oh my good lord - the aromatic nose and complex spicy flavor of this rye-hopped beer was the taste of Paradiso. It encompassed all things good and fun, light-hearted and tasty. All of Paradiso.
So, thank you Bear Republic for making such yummy beer and thank you Pizzeria Paradiso for having such lovely beers, pizza, and people. Cheers!
You know how sometimes a whiff of daffodils in the air on a beautiful spring day or the taste of an ice cream cone that melts faster than you can lick it up can bring you back to the days of your childhood? While happy houring at Pizzeria Paradiso Patrick, one of the servers, recommended I try the Bear Republic Ryevalry, and oh my good lord - the aromatic nose and complex spicy flavor of this rye-hopped beer was the taste of Paradiso. It encompassed all things good and fun, light-hearted and tasty. All of Paradiso.
So, thank you Bear Republic for making such yummy beer and thank you Pizzeria Paradiso for having such lovely beers, pizza, and people. Cheers!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
I know it's more complex than this, but I'm just saying....
We're about amidst another global food crisis and the root of it all, according to a few articles (though I realize this isn't the ONLY root - more amazed that it could even be considered the catalyst of such a disaster) is because weather didn't permit Iowa a healthy harvest.
First of all, (and I know the issue is way more complex than this, but sometimes the complexities permit hidden scandalous, profit-making maneuvers that go unseen or even can be justifiable due to manipulative policies) let's just think about this. Why is one state located a little over 1,000 miles away from Washington, DC, let alone the gazillions of miles from countries around the world, so drastically affecting our food supply?
Why, it is our dependence on massive agriculture and the World Bank's push for trade-dependent agriculture rather than local, or even national, agriculture. Our Future Planet posted an article on their website last Wednesday that addressed such issues that come with our ridiculous food systems. Because so many countries depend on export agriculture of cash crops, they then import their staple grains, such as wheat and corn and then are vulnerable to climatic catastrophes affecting other sides of the planet, such as Iowa not being able to grow their $9B worth of export.
But there are nations who are working towards what some refer to as 'food democracy' and others refer to as 'food sovereignty.' As stated by Our Future Planet, "The local organic farms with whom we have been spending time in the Phillipines and elsewhere are less affected by these price swings precisely because they consume much of what they harvest, and they sell the rest to local markets." In that way, they are able to feed their communities and make a little money for themselves to put back into their farms. That is being food sovereign and as a nation so obsessed with democracy, why aren't we fighting for world Food Democracy?
We obsess about using corn for energy. We need to be energy dependent hence the growing demand for corn and other commodity crops for biofuels, another factor playing into this global food disaster. But it seems we are so obsessed with fuel, and quite content as a country with our food supply (speaking on the whole) that we forget the most important form of energy is food. There are no people without food. There is no one to care for our children, to run our industries, to do anything without food. Food should be the focus. It should be healthy and easy to access. For everyone.
We are one planet, functioning under one massive ecosystem on which we depend on. Ecosystems are healthier and stronger when they have healthy, balanced micro-ecosystems. Right now, the dominating food system tries to override that, and in turn the role of humans in that system, our system of survival, is in turmoil on a spiral towards starvation and suffering.
So, if we mimicked our human systems on the ecosystem and lived within its means, as was done pre-agricultural-trade dependence, dependence in imported food staples would decrease. We wouldn't all rely on the corn crop from Iowa to keep the global food economy at somewhat of an equilibrium. In turn, rates of starvation and malnutrition would decrease, not to mention our food systems' carbon footprint (which will be a topic at a later date, I'm sure), and our local economies would flourish (another topic to be delved into at a later time).
First of all, (and I know the issue is way more complex than this, but sometimes the complexities permit hidden scandalous, profit-making maneuvers that go unseen or even can be justifiable due to manipulative policies) let's just think about this. Why is one state located a little over 1,000 miles away from Washington, DC, let alone the gazillions of miles from countries around the world, so drastically affecting our food supply?
Why, it is our dependence on massive agriculture and the World Bank's push for trade-dependent agriculture rather than local, or even national, agriculture. Our Future Planet posted an article on their website last Wednesday that addressed such issues that come with our ridiculous food systems. Because so many countries depend on export agriculture of cash crops, they then import their staple grains, such as wheat and corn and then are vulnerable to climatic catastrophes affecting other sides of the planet, such as Iowa not being able to grow their $9B worth of export.
But there are nations who are working towards what some refer to as 'food democracy' and others refer to as 'food sovereignty.' As stated by Our Future Planet, "The local organic farms with whom we have been spending time in the Phillipines and elsewhere are less affected by these price swings precisely because they consume much of what they harvest, and they sell the rest to local markets." In that way, they are able to feed their communities and make a little money for themselves to put back into their farms. That is being food sovereign and as a nation so obsessed with democracy, why aren't we fighting for world Food Democracy?
We obsess about using corn for energy. We need to be energy dependent hence the growing demand for corn and other commodity crops for biofuels, another factor playing into this global food disaster. But it seems we are so obsessed with fuel, and quite content as a country with our food supply (speaking on the whole) that we forget the most important form of energy is food. There are no people without food. There is no one to care for our children, to run our industries, to do anything without food. Food should be the focus. It should be healthy and easy to access. For everyone.
We are one planet, functioning under one massive ecosystem on which we depend on. Ecosystems are healthier and stronger when they have healthy, balanced micro-ecosystems. Right now, the dominating food system tries to override that, and in turn the role of humans in that system, our system of survival, is in turmoil on a spiral towards starvation and suffering.
So, if we mimicked our human systems on the ecosystem and lived within its means, as was done pre-agricultural-trade dependence, dependence in imported food staples would decrease. We wouldn't all rely on the corn crop from Iowa to keep the global food economy at somewhat of an equilibrium. In turn, rates of starvation and malnutrition would decrease, not to mention our food systems' carbon footprint (which will be a topic at a later date, I'm sure), and our local economies would flourish (another topic to be delved into at a later time).
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
My story in a capsule.
March 9, 1984, in the small town of Austerlitz, NY, 122 miles north of New York City, a little girl was born on the couch of a 1770s farmhouse on Schoolhouse Road. Delivered by her grandmothers, this little girl would be named Deborah Elizabeth Schober. And so my story begins.
This farmhouse belongs to the Schober farm, a small dairy started by my late grandfather, Henry Schober. After completing his BS from Cornell University, Henry's son, Hans (Austrian, anyone?), took over and, following the trend of 60s/70s agriculture, expanded the farm and increased the herd. At the time I was born, my father, his cousin, Walter Wolfgang Schober, and a couple of my older brothers were milking about 80 cows. The farm was a part of the Cabot Cooperative, famous for their cheddar cheese. However, in the early 90s, the Cabot Coop merged with the larger New England Cooperative, AgriMark and as a result, our milk was distributed amongst a number of different dairy products.
As a wee tike of 7 years old, I started working on the dairy. I was official calf-feeder in the afternoons after school. I did little more than that for 8, or so, years when my younger sister could take over the duties. I then removed myself for several years studying Anthropology and Writing at Ithaca College. My senior year, I studied abroad in Belize focusing on Natural and Cultural Ecology. Something about being abroad brought me closer to home - that and getting a fresh, firm grasp on the role of agriculture in ecology - the role of humans IN nature - not separate from.
So, upon completion of my BA (honorary, if I may declare), with a new-found interest in the farm and all the systemic inequities I was raised witnessing, I returned home to work full-time with my Pa for one year while applying to graduate programs.* I then succeeded in getting into World Learning SIT Graduate Institute (SIT) where I studied Sustainable Development and Spanish. I catered much of that education to Agriculture Policy, thinking I wanted to get into Policy Advocacy, and my volunteer/intern work within SIT's Environmental Working Group and Stonewall Farm to community organizing and program development.
Since, I've interned with Representative Gillibrand, acted as Outreach Director with the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, traveled throughout Central and South America, and WWOOFed for three months at a biodynamic vineyard in Cauquenes, Chile.* I returned to the States, rather the not-state of Washington, DC last June and have worked at several different restaurant/bars including SOVA, Pizzeria Paradiso, and now Toyland (website to be up and running soon).*
Between farms, gardens, vineyards, winebars, beer bars, and cocktail bars, I've learned quite a bit about food and drink, love every bit of it, and plan on continuing this journey. I hope you've enjoyed the introduction and looking forward to sharing more of this life of creation and consumption with the world.
*Indicates more involved stories to be posted.
This farmhouse belongs to the Schober farm, a small dairy started by my late grandfather, Henry Schober. After completing his BS from Cornell University, Henry's son, Hans (Austrian, anyone?), took over and, following the trend of 60s/70s agriculture, expanded the farm and increased the herd. At the time I was born, my father, his cousin, Walter Wolfgang Schober, and a couple of my older brothers were milking about 80 cows. The farm was a part of the Cabot Cooperative, famous for their cheddar cheese. However, in the early 90s, the Cabot Coop merged with the larger New England Cooperative, AgriMark and as a result, our milk was distributed amongst a number of different dairy products.
As a wee tike of 7 years old, I started working on the dairy. I was official calf-feeder in the afternoons after school. I did little more than that for 8, or so, years when my younger sister could take over the duties. I then removed myself for several years studying Anthropology and Writing at Ithaca College. My senior year, I studied abroad in Belize focusing on Natural and Cultural Ecology. Something about being abroad brought me closer to home - that and getting a fresh, firm grasp on the role of agriculture in ecology - the role of humans IN nature - not separate from.
So, upon completion of my BA (honorary, if I may declare), with a new-found interest in the farm and all the systemic inequities I was raised witnessing, I returned home to work full-time with my Pa for one year while applying to graduate programs.* I then succeeded in getting into World Learning SIT Graduate Institute (SIT) where I studied Sustainable Development and Spanish. I catered much of that education to Agriculture Policy, thinking I wanted to get into Policy Advocacy, and my volunteer/intern work within SIT's Environmental Working Group and Stonewall Farm to community organizing and program development.
Since, I've interned with Representative Gillibrand, acted as Outreach Director with the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, traveled throughout Central and South America, and WWOOFed for three months at a biodynamic vineyard in Cauquenes, Chile.* I returned to the States, rather the not-state of Washington, DC last June and have worked at several different restaurant/bars including SOVA, Pizzeria Paradiso, and now Toyland (website to be up and running soon).*
Between farms, gardens, vineyards, winebars, beer bars, and cocktail bars, I've learned quite a bit about food and drink, love every bit of it, and plan on continuing this journey. I hope you've enjoyed the introduction and looking forward to sharing more of this life of creation and consumption with the world.
*Indicates more involved stories to be posted.
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