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

NAAEE Crowd Inspiring and Supportive Community

This week, I have had the pleasure to spend time with some of the most innovative and determined individuals, who are responsible for the future of our Earth. They are the educators who work tirelessly to provide knowledge and instill responsibility in our future generations. I'm attending the North American Association for Environmental Education 41st Annual Conference, Gaining Perspective: Seeing EE Through Different Lenses.

My presentations to this group have been focused on music in education. This is where Earth Mama began, working in my son's classrooms, with his peers and his teachers, advocating an understanding of our human impact on the Planet Earth. This week I've met many teachers who are continuing that work, creating programs and curriculum in diverse environments, covering a multitude of issues, facing the challenges of budget cuts, apathy and outright opposition to the realities of climate change.

For all those teachers who are working to connect with young minds and raise awareness in those communities, here are some tools that use today's media of choice, video.

YouTube Teachers is a collection of videos and tools created just for teachers by the developers at YouTube along with a global network of contributors. There are over 700,000 videos collected on a wide variety of topics, along with instructional videos on how to create a YouTube channel of your own.

And that brings me back to music, which has been my teaching tool of choice. I'm involved in the efforts of Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (M.U.S.E.) to create and continually expand a database of environmental music. This is a daunting project and we need volunteers for all aspects of this effort! Recently, Stan Slaughter covered our efforts in a Mother Earth News article, detailing how the collection of eco-audio is available 24/7 on EarthDayFM, an online radio station. Encouraging today's youth to learn through music, listening to the songs telling stories of history and science, sharing life experience in a memorable context, this is how I use music as an education tool.

As I return home to the mountains of Virginia after this week in California, it is my intention to share what I've experienced here with this energized group of educators. Thank you, for your ideas, your determination, your creativity and your enthusiasm to honor our Planet Earth.

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Joyce Rouse AKA Earth Mama creates blog posts on timely topics in collaboration with her communications manager, Bonnie Cranmer. Please refer any questions or requests for permission to use any material contained on this blog to earthmamaoffice@gmail.com.

Falling into Fall Rhythms

This year, the Fall Equinox falls on Saturday, September 22 at 10:49a.m. in my part of the world. It's a time of harvest, seeing the fruits of our labors, both in the garden and in our kitchen. It's been a good growing season for us, yet in other parts of the US as well as across the globe, drought has brought devastation. As I was placing the colorful display of our luscious tomatoes around the fountain this morning, I became even more grateful for the wealth of food we have grown this year. The drought in other regions have made this kind of harvest impossible.

Which has me thinking more about our Earth Mama than usual... asking questions with no easy answers. When will more people begin to take responsibility for their individual and collective roles in caring for our planet, simply pay attention? What could be an inspiration that will move people from apathy to action? How can I be more visible with the work I do to show and teach how simple steps lead to big results?

My traditional rhythm during the fall is to clean up outdoors and create space for winter's chill. The lush gardens of summer and fall are fading, transforming the beauty of flowers and succulent tastes of fruits and vegetables into the stripped and mulched beds of soil, ready for the quiet rest of winter. The songs of sunshine and dances of the wind through the string bean poles are silent now. I may continue to dance through the rows, as the garden has always been a place of refuge for me, a place to touch the soil and become truly connected to the living and breathing Earth Mama on which we live.

I'm grateful to have full shelves of colorful bounty, ready to share with family and friends at our dining table. I'm also grateful to have time to be still in the knowing that another season has past, providing an abundance of earthly goodies, demonstrating the cycle of life continues. Which got me wondering, what goodies have grown in your gardens this summer? Did you have a bountiful harvest? Was there any new varieties of vegetables or fruits that were above the rest in volume or flavor? We usually try a few new selections each growing season, but must admit this year none of the new ones really stood out...

So, now I have spent massive hours in the kitchen, and I still have work to do, but the jars are filling the shelves and the freezer is getting packed. We're better prepared to face the cold winds of winter, knowing our harvest will carry us through.

Enough is good as a feast...

Gratitude #8,791

Ok, so I have not done 8,790 other blog posts about  feeling gratitude that I probably should have, but I felt it in my heart and soul.

Yesterday I sent off the master for a new CD I've been working on for...well, a long time. At first I was going to write that it has been in process for 2-3 years, but two of the songs I wrote and recorded back in the early 1990s.  The songs, titled Joy in the Light  and Place in the Kin-dom (originally Place in the Kingdom before I adopted a practice of gender neutral language) were just never a good fit for my recording projects until now. So I guess you could say that this one has been a labor of love for 20 years!

The CD is titled Blessings of the Universe.  I thought it was in the vein of contemplative, meditative music, but my dear friend, wise woman (and marketing wiz) Rita G decided after listening that it was more brain and heart stimulating, so she encouraged me to describe it as "Songs for the foreground and background of your days."  That just made my day!  Since then I have pictured YOU (my beloved listeners) listening as you drive, or weave (but NOT as you drive!) or garden or cook or type or plan, as listening to these 13 songs of prayers and blessings, and I feel so grateful to know that we can connect through time and space with music.

I often hear from my listeners who express their responses to the live or recorded songs. Like Rita,
they see and hear things that sometimes surprise me.  When I'm composing, perhaps I get stuck in the emotion or psychic place I exist in while writing, then the music takes on its own energy, not unlike the original flaring forth of the Universe. After all, sound, music is physics, energy and it circulates in the curious, mysterious ways of the Big U.

This will be my 10th recording (9th as Earth Mama®) and it carries the same love, joy, care, concern and prayers for our Amazing Earth, but with a new deepening.  Another post in the future will share the source of inspiration for these blessing songs for water, women, gathering, children, peace, solar energy and more.

This photo is my personal alter where I meditate. It is a locally turned wooden bowl by artisan Terry Clark, filled with some of my favorite simple gifts from the Universe—stones, fossil, wild flowers, an elephant, feather and  bowl of sacred water (Sister Water). These things remind me daily of my gratitude, my soul felt appreation of beauty and fragility of the Web of Life.

Shop Local Success for Community and Business

Last week I dashed into my local Food City store to grab a few things for a pot of "Ward Off the Cold" chicken soup. While a very nice clerk scanned the celery, I complimented her on the cool eco T-shirt she was wearing.

She beamed and explained that my local Food City store had:

— recycled beyond target goals

— reduced their electric bill significantly

The result of this accomplishment was that Food City corporate had gifted all employees in the local Independence, Virginia store with groovy eco T-shirts, a bonus casual dress day, AND cash gift cards!

Here's a big shout out to Food City for rewarding their inspired employees at this small town store. I have long appreciated the company's commitment to efforts in buying local produce, increasing organic offerings and support of our local Earth Day events. They have even embraced social media with an active Facebook page where their sense of community is demonstrated daily.

Now I have one more reason to be a loyal customer....and remember to bring my own reusable bags!

Again, kudos to all the committed individuals in the Independence, Virginia store who love Mother Earth with both their words AND their actions, Thank YOU!

Recognizing Women She-ros for International Women's Day

Funny how many times I have heard International Women's Day mentioned this year.  News casts, talk shows, conversations...you don't suppose all the news about Women's Health initiatives has raised the visibility factor?  I don't recall International Women's Day getting much attention in the past, though it has been around over 100 years.  In many countries it is an official holiday!

Since Oxfam America is encouraging women to celebrate and honor their inspirations for IWD, this seems like a good time to share my joy at getting to meet one of my sustainability She-ros, Vandana Shiva, nuclear physicist by training, sustainability educator and activist by calling. Attending the 2010 Sisters of Earth biennial conference in New York, l anticipated hearing Dr. Shiva speak about her books Stolen Harvest, Water Wars, and others, or the many advocacy campaigns she has launched to help women.  From preserving water rights for indigenous women to seed integrity protection from GMO polluters, her work for conservation  has touched millions of people.

Engaged to deliver the keynote address, she stayed for all three days of the conference, brought her sister (a noted public health physician in India) and addressed the group with 3 brilliant presentations.  And she and her sister, Mira, were the most humble, gracious and warm experts I could imagine. Thank you sisters and doctors Shiva for leadership, sustainability, education, modeling the power of women—for poorest rural regions to sophisticated university settings. I am grateful for all of your years of work, your wisdom, your humor amid a landscape of despair and for your encouragement to always see the hope for our future. I feel blessed to live on the same planet with Sisters Shiva.

Who are your inspiration? I invite your comments here and for you to share with me on Twitter or Facebook.