The Compost Pile: Notes from my farmer
I get my meat from a small organic family farm. Every year I buy a meat “share”, and then get a monthly delivery, along with 4 dozen pastured (ponded?) duck and chicken eggs.
Not only is it delicious, I also develop a relationship with my farmers. I follow their adventures, what the kids are up to, etc. I know where my meat and eggs come from, and whose hands harvested them (or which teenager chased the wayward calves back into pasture this week). Plus, I know that my money goes directly back to them. Everyone wins. (And their roasts… oy. Transcendent.)
From time to time, Mr. Farmer sends round a newsletter (“The Compost Pile”) with some tidbits and insider knowledge. It’s often provocative and shocking in the sense that he pulls the curtain back from the nefarious goings-on within industrial agriculture.
Here’s a recent newsletter — tell me this doesn’t make you want to start raising your own goats.
Tweeting from AHS
Peeps: I’m at the Ancestral Health Symposium! Follow the factoids and experience on Twitter — @stumptuous.
Ladies Who Lift
A beginner’s weight training course in the UK, taught by women, for women aims to change stereotypes around weight training. In order to get started and build confidence, an all-female environment is an excellent solution for many women. Here, creator Sally Moss of Gubernatrix describes the project.
Spezzatino Vol 14: Citrus now available!
Just in time for summer’s hot, hazy days — how to set up your own lemonade stand, power a clock, and bleach your hair! It’s all here. All in one volume. From Spezzatino: The food magazine that really does feed people.
Contributions from some Stumpamaniacs! As always, if you love writing about and/or making pictures of food, please contact me and see how you can volunteer.
Feminist Figure Girl
Ahhh I love when feminists fuck around with expectations.
43-year old University of Alberta art history professor Lianne McTavish, who was once a self-described “dowdy ass-kicking feminist,” has devoted her research and activism to reproductive rights and teaching students about body image in the Renaissance period. Oh yeah, and competing in a figure competition — just because it was there.
Check out her well-written and engaging blog here. It’s full of great lines, such as her contemplation of her future physique career: “Would I become a figure addict, repeatedly drawn to the allure of sparkly tits, slippery muscles, and a purse full of cold, cooked egg whites?”
Naturally, I’m sure that many mainstream media morons and clueless academics alike have already started cackling about how she’s selling out. And hell, maybe she’s selling out like a Wal-Mart whorehouse (sorry, discount store sex worker place of employment). But she’s messing with your head as she does it, isn’t she? Aren’t you already asking yourself some tough questions, like What is a feminist doing in a bikini? and Could her references to Louis XIV possibly be more apropos and droll?
Ha ha! Now you are hooked!
Don’t sell yourself short
Great example of the kinds of athletic performance that average schlubbettes can reach. As women we are too quick to underestimate our capacities. Check out these three ladies for inspiration.
“Shut off your head and let your body decide how far you will go. The picture in your mind of the perfect you is probably a far cry from what you are truly capable of achieving. Stop blocking your own path and who knows where you might end up.”
Road Warrior Update: Stockholm, day 3
More road warrior tips from the land of extremely polite blond people.
Road Warrior update: Stockholm, day 2
Folks often ask how one can possibly eat well and stay active while traveling. To me this question is an excuse framed as an inquiry. It is absolutely possible to do both things, IF you simply begin from the premise that you WILL do them. Then, your question becomes: “What needs to occur in order […]
Weight lifting could change your life
I am a big fan of The Guardian so I was especially thrilled to get an interview published there. Check it out!
“When you do your first pull-up, or push-up, it’s an incredible feeling of accomplishment… You start to feel like maybe you could do anything. You also conquer fear and apprehension. Getting underneath a heavy bar can be terrifying.”
Shaky Man TV
Shaky man update!
Neil is featured in this short video created for Professor Bastiaan (Bas) Bloem, a world-leading neurologist in the field of movement disorders. In this video, Neil runs through some neurological tests and gym exercises, demonstrating some of the form that won him university freshman 100 m sprint champion in 1964.
At age 65, Neil bench presses, busts out some weighted dips, and scorches through some biking and rowing. Parkinson’s or no Parkinson’s, this man is in damn good shape.
