1-7-10

Butternut squash, floral beet, spinach and beet greens,
and quinoa with tomato topped with chia seeds










Damn that looks good.









Our fully stocked kitchen, dry supplies










Beautiful AND talented...like the propane tank??







Step one in making Pocohicara
---cracking all those hickory nuts!






Living in NYC, we often pondered the environmental impact of our personal actions. Was riding the subway better than riding in a cab? The subways were faster sometimes, but certainly were less convenient than hopping in a cab. If everyone rode on the subway, there would be less pollution since cabs emit more pollutants per rider than subways. Buses of course are more energy efficient than cars, particularly when it comes to commuting into and out of cities, as so much less fuel is required, but anyone who has sat in the Lincoln Tunnel helix knows that being on a bus is miserable. The point here is life is about trade offs; if something is more convenient and pleasurable yet has a negative impact to the environment in the form of carbon footprint, is it worth it?

Back in Brooklyn we both tried to limit our impact on the earth to a minimum. We recycled, tried to conserve electricity by unplugging anything not in use, composted our food scraps, and tried to utilize mass transit as much as possible. Coweeta Heritage Center is an off the grid, completely self-sustaining facility. It appealed to us because it seemed take our ideas to a whole new level. Now that we're here, we're wondering if they are living off the grid for totally different reasons than those that might have inspired us. It's a lot less romantic than we'd imagined.

The hydro-electric system, which generates its own energy, doesn't require a huge plant burning fossil fuel to deliver energy to our cabin. However is this system in place to minimize our carbon footprint and be eco-friendly, or is it in place to avoid paying big corporations for set up and delivery of energy to a remote location? Is it a matter of principal or is it a matter of saving money? It's quite possibly a combination of the two, for being thrifty has certain advantages. Jen and Aaron are no strangers to thrift stores, but Paul and Lara seem to be a bit more extreme. In passing conversation today, Lara said "I try to never buy anything that is brand new" while Paul said "Look at all this great stuff I got from the dump" (in reference to a bucket of rusty nails and screws). It's true, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Don't misunderstand us, we both find it incredible that Paul and Lara possess the skills to harness the nearby spring into indoor plumbing and turn the force of the river into electricity to power their home. It is a pinnacle of human innovation and we are quite humbled by this expertise. While we understand their battery powered car and their well-water system doesn't add to pollution, we don't think that is why they're living this way.

This is all quite interesting to us, since it never occurred to us to employ these methods for any reason besides trying to reverse the negative trends of global warming and keep our earth as clean and green as possible. If we saved a bit of money by eating locally it was more as an added benefit, but it was not the reason we chose to eat locally; we did so because it's better for us AND it's better for the environment and we were trying to do our small part to save the planet for future generations to enjoy. To Paul and Lara, their way of livings' neutral impact on the environment is their added bonus but their monetary savings appears to us as the driving force for their lifestyle choices. This is a foreign concept to us. They may be saving money, but they sure are spending a lot more time and man power in order lower their cost of living. In city life, one works most of their time in order to pay their bills and lead a certain type of lifestyle, but little of the work they do directly contributes to their ability to meet the basic needs of survival; specifically food, water, and comfortable shelter, the things most of society now takes for granted.

While that's food for thought, enjoy the photos of food for our stomachs. We've been talking about it lots, so here are some photos of us in action in the kitchen.