Thursday, September 2, 2010

food

I have been reading a book about food.

Michael Pollan: “In Defense of Food.”

“Eat Food; Not too Much; Mostly Plants.”

That is the book in 7 words. Sounds like my mother.

What is food? Let me tell you what it is not!

A few weeks ago my brother in law came to visit (he comes over for 15 minutes every month). He had a jar of peanut butter that he did not want because he had gotten “chunky” when he wanted “smooth.”

It is a well known brand, but I looked at the label a bit. On the front of the jar, as if they were bragging: “Contains 60% peanuts.” My brand contains 99%, so I had to find out what was different.

The 60 percent jar had two kinds of sugar (one I particularly want to avoid), hydrogenated oil from more than one source, and some soy that sounded as much like filler to me. All of that instead of peanuts, which probably are cheaper.

That is the perfect example of a food look alike, but not food.

The jar will go away.

“Eat Food; Not too Much; Mostly Plants.”

OK.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010



Our campsite overlooking the river, and the view of the river a few yards from campsite two.
It was most beautiful, but, people are slobs. There was toilet paper everywhere.
Grr.

South Fork

We camped on the edge of one of Idaho’s most scenic areas.

This area is well travled and visited with lots of campgrounds, some with various degrees of amenities and some spots that are without any amenities at all.

We choose one of the latter. Saturday night we camped right on the very edge of the bank of the river. There was a small space with room, but none extra. The river still has a lot of water, and this is the last of August. The spot was beautiful and we slept to the sound of the river.

There was another site a hundred yards away, but it was occupied saturday night. Sunday the family packed up and headed home, so we checked it out and made the move. That gave us space to set up the tent and the shade shelter and have a camp fire, and be ready for more rain, if it came.

We were still very close to the river. The bank was a bit higher, which allowed a birds eye view of the river.
I wanted to check our skills camping in less than wonderful conditions. We were warm and comfortable. But we had the pickup and tear, so there were fewer gear or supply limitations.

We are doing better all the time.

Miriam is a trooper when it comes to accompanying me on my adventures. She complained that the 2nd site was closer to the highway (it was) and that it would be noisy. I was pretty sure it would be tolerable, and it was.

On our first trip this year, Daughter Lora offered me a hot water bottle for the tear. I accepted, knowing that while Miriam was always sure she was warm, when we went to bed I discovered her feet were very cold.

That hot water bottle came in handy. She complimented me on my thoughtfulness. I said it was pure selfishness. If she had something to put her feet on that was warmer than me, we both would be happier!

It worked!