11 Ideas to Honor Earth for Earth Day

 Earth Mama’s Random 10 11 Ways To Honor Earth!

1. Resist the urge to buy the latest high tech coffee making device, especially if each cup results in single use disposable plastic trash. So many ways to make great coffee with just beans, water and heat. If you must buy something new—my favorite low tech version is the Aeropress (found at World Market)  for kitchen or camping, and tiny little paper filters can be cleaned and reused!

2.Plant a tree—I know you have heard it before, but it is important to repeat often. Trees are the lungs of the planet.

3. Contact one elected official per week. Now it is EASY by phone or email to let them know you are a person who votes and you want GMO free foods, meaningful organic labeling, attention to climate change issues, protection for pollinators, better recycling programs and any other important issues you feel strongly about. Keep message short and to the point. And be polite.  Let them know that there are voices like yours, otherwise all they hear is money interest lobbying from corporate polluters.

4. Carry small reusable food containers in your car and one in your backpack or purse.  Use these for takeout and leftover portions from restaurants.  In a year's time you can avoid use of piles of Styrofoam® and plastic.  Model the idea for friends and you'll have a bigger impact. Decorate them to personalize for gifts. 

5. Stop using disposables in your home. Cloth napkins, real plates. Get out the real dishes for a crowd! Let doing dishes together become part of the holiday fun. Your grandma would be proud.

6. Re-frame your brain to think of ways to re-purpose items before disposing. Toilet paper roll tubes makes great plant protectors in the early spring garden, then they decompose right into the soil! Dry cereal wax paper bags can be reused for wrapping sandwiches for lunch and to cover food in microwave.
Etsey and craft websites are filled with good ideas of making beautiful useful things out of discarded item!  Old roof gutters become artistic planting troughs for herbs.

7. STOP before you print and ask yourself if you will read it more than once...
Ink cartridges, besides being expensive, require gallons of petroleum to manufacture, fill, transport and print.

8. Try growing something new this year. A row or pot of lettuce or spinach is easy—easier than driving to the store!

9. Plan your driving, limit the trips. If you forget the bread for sandwiches, make a salad instead.   When you feel like taking a drive, try taking a walk instead.

10. USE the cloth shopping bags. Keep a stack in your car and replenish when needed.  Yay, Hawaii for banning plastic bags from the islands. They can see first hand the damage it is doing to the oceans. I hope someone bans the K-cup coffee plastic next!

11. OK, I could not stop at 10—Recycling is now like basic hygiene.  This of it as bathing and flossing for the planet.
  
And “Only Take What You Need, uh, huh, Only Take What You Need!”  (from Around the World with Earth Mama CD)

NO ONE is doing this all perfectly, but we can ALL make an effort to do a little better for the Earth each day.
Love your Mama, your great Earth mama.  Thanks for all you do for her in your life.
Happy Earth Day!

Go Green Soup for Winter!

 

Local and homegrown garden fare can be a rich source of flavor and nutrition all year long if stored properly. But coming up with fresh ideas and getting past the same old standard preparations we are in the habit of making can become a drag.

Last year we had a beautiful bumper crop of asparagus, so we blanched and froze generous portions for 2 to use over the winter.  Because the spears or cuts are a little mushy when thawed, I generally do a simple heating in salt water or milk on the stovetop, or braise with olive oil, fresh mushrooms, garlic and seasoning.

But it has been a long winter. Tonight when I got home from the office I found a simple, tasty way to freshen up a winter meal.

I used the rest of last night's asparagus heated in milk and added it to a can of cream of chicken soup,  heated through, then pureed with my soup wand.  Added a little salt and pepper and a splash of cream.  YUM, EASY and pretty in the bowl.  Great with an omelette and salad. And won't break the bank.

ONE BREATH, a little Earth Mama music to cook by from Pay Attention CD

                                                                 (click to play)

Hmmmmm, just right for St Paddy Day dinner next month.

All That's Gold, A Sense of Place, track 5

Three of the songs on A Sense of Place were recorded at Watershed Recording in Nashville and feature a cast of mighty fine pickers I don't get to work with often. Right is Bryan Sutton, IBMA multiyear best guitar winner. Below, are
Wanda and Mark Burchfield, gifted players and studio owners.

All That's Gold, Heaven Down Below and Ribbon of Stone  all carry the sound of rural southern Appalachian music. This is the place I have called home for many years.  Though I am a child of the prairie, I am now deeply rooted here, in the Blue Ridge mountains, where the local music scene is rich with the heritage and culture of the region.  These three songs reflect the musical sound of southern Appalachia.

 All That's Gold Does Not Glitter—who said that first? Probably some Biblical sage or perhaps Shakespeare.  I remember reading it on a Christmas card quoting Tolkien back in high school.  It nagged at me as a song title until my buddy and frequent co-writer, Lindy Gravelle and I decided to tackle it as a song. Our hope was to make it sound like an old gospel chestnut.  Note the stunning background vocal (with bluegrass swoop) by Kim Parent, fiddle embraces by Wanda Burchfield,
steady bass by Mark Burchfield and fit-like-a-glove guitar and mando by Bryan Sutton.

Sound clip, listentrack 5

WHY is there a Reggae song for kids about Local Foods and Local Economy on A Sense of Place?

Lettering by Todd Price

A Sense of Place, by Earth Mama

1.  Because Kids are our future and our responsibility. (And they are fun to sing with and make great volunteers at my shows!)













 2. Cause kids are so danged cute, smart and fascinating that they deserve to be part of this whole Local Foods and Local Economy movement. Who better to carry the message of Live Local and Love Where You Are Planted!

This baby crawled up the aisle at St Catharine's College (KY) chapel while I sang The Compost Song (Let It Rot). He jumped into my arms and cooed and gurgled along on the last 2 verses.
What a show stealer!







 3. Because THAT song— If You Need a Chair—whined and complained like a child begging to go to the circus to be on THIS CD, not wait until the next  youthful release.

4. Because it is soon to be a Picture Book, illustrated and hand lettered by noted artist, Todd Price.

Wait til you see the page with the Tamaleologist!

Peace and all good things, Joyce

A Sense of Place and "wisdom of one place"

The following article by Fred First captures much of my own concern about our current lack of knowledge about what lives and breathes around us.  Thank you, Fred, for letting me share your work.


Wisdom of Nature: Children and Nature, Fred First


Find something unique about your own Place on the Planet today.

Coming next: 
WHY a children's reggae song about local foods and local economy on
      A Sense of Place  ?
              Blessings,
                           Joyce

cosmos and black eyed Susans 

To An Oriole, A Sense of Place, Track 2

Baltimore Oriole, Wikipedia

The lyrics for To An Oriole is a poem sent to me by a fellow Earth Literacy grad, Bruce Allen, from St Mary-of-the-Woods College, IN. Bruce is also a weekend farmer, birder, and all around good guy.
He sent me the verse, telling me it was his all-time favorite poem and wondered if I might set it to music. He had several of my CDs and asked if I could provide a suitable melody for the words written over a century ago by Edgar Fawcett.

I am always reluctant to take on this kind of a project for several reasons. First, it is hard to live up to others' expectations of what a melody might be for a favorite verse.  Secondly, it can be a copyright nightmare if you do not have a direct relationship with the co-writer.  Clearly, the long deceased Mr. Fawcett, would not be able to protest my adoption of his succinct verse about he ethereal wonder of his favorite bird. My research showed the writings he had authored had all aged into the Public Domain.  I was encouraged to continue.

So I spent some hours at the piano noodling with steps and jumps of melody possibilities until his words began to speak to me with their own cadence, with pauses and lilting questions. The words themselves took command and TOLD me how to write the melody.  Thank you, Bruce.  Thank you, Mr. Fawcett.   And thank you, Beautiful Oriole.

Listening Clip, Track 2

WHO is that harmonica player? Sense of Place liner notes

 Enjoy! Detour Road, Track 1
There is a new player on this project.  He is making his harmonica recording debut.  He is 83 years young and only began playing "the harp" about 4 years ago.  He has a natural sense of melody and crouches and sways when he plays, just like an seasoned old blues player!  He is my best friend and husband of...MANY years.  Introducing  Richard Rouse on his first record release, blowing along on Detour Road.

Nearly 10 years ago I got an email from Indiana farmer/scholar/birder/listener of my music, Bruce Allen. He asked if I would consider writing music to his favorite piece of poetry, To An Oriole, by Edgar Fawcett.  He sent me the poem and what he knew about the author (1847-1904).  It sat at my piano for months while I checked to ascertain if it was in the public domain to allow me to work with it. As I read it over and over, I was touched by the creativity of the poet and wondered how I could ever make it into a song. It emerged like a tiny baby bird chippping its way out of the shell, then it stretched its little wet wings to dry and strengthen for a flight out into the world.

To An Oriole, in its form as (what we used to call) an Art Song, is included on A Sense of Place as a sort of Breathing Space.  I hope it wings its way into your heart, as did the original poem.  Thank you, Bruce, for trusting your favorite poem to my muse.   More about this in next post!