My roommate rocks.

My dear friend (and my best friend) CC once said, “You and C have such an odd relationship.” And she’s right. C and I do have an odd relationship. We’re roommates. We’re unmarried and well past the age of 40. So we’re spinsters. We split the expenses on the car and the apartment. We care for a motley crew of pets: 1 mini-lop rabbit, 1 English Angora rabbit, 1 (17 year old) Persian cat.
Basically C let’s me enjoy the experience of being me which means she let’s me run rampant. And I’d like to think that I’m cool enough to return the favor. But C is not the rambunctious type. She gets thing done, in her own time, in her own way. She’s never moody (which is something I find hard to comprehend). I try to stay out of her way but I’ve got the personality of an overly-caffeinated person, even though I rarely touch the stuff, so I’m always pestering C about every little thing. She has rightfully stated, many times, “You’re lucky I’m such a good natured person.”

This past summer – when I was being extra moody & yet sometimes extra Zen (I refer to this as the paradox of my personality) -- I’d get cranky with C for no apparent reason. And some days I’d be cranky but then I’d think of all the cool things she’s done and I’d be really glad that we’re friends. In particular, my spinster roommate started a low-income CSA in NYC. Yup. That’s how cool she is.

C works in the non-profit world and she partnered with a bunch of other non-profit folks, hung up a flyer, and before you knew it she’d lined up a farm and lined up members and then once the first week of June rolled up, folks were filing into the community center to grab their shares.

The way the system worked, 30 members paid full-price so that 15 members could receive a discount. This means that 30 people paid $450.00 per share and 15 members paid $225.00 per share.
I ask you: How cool is that?
Answer: Very.

C & I had dinner with my mother over the weekend. The whole time they were talking food politics I had one thought rolling around my very tired brain: I have to get back to farming.

Listening to them go on and on was enough to make me cranky. Not about their conversation but about just how broken the food system is across the globe. They were talking about the farmers who have committed suicide in India.

My mother asked, what can I do?

I said, you’re already doing. Eat organically locally grown food.

She said, but that’s not enough.

I said, then convince more people to do the same.

It only takes a patch of dirt 10’ x 10’ to feed a family of 4. And gardening is not that hard. Throw some starts in the ground. Maybe amend the soil now and then. Water the plants. And voila. Food.
When I farmed I was amazed time and again that a little tiny seed could yield a head of broccoli, or cabbage, or lettuce. Have you ever seen a carrot seed? It’s like the tiniest thing ever. And a month after sowing the darn thing, you’ve got delicious carrots.

Ok. My point here is this: my roommate is an awesome person who puts up with my many moods and she put organic food into the hands of a lot of people this season.


Thank you C.