october 2009
Join La Montañita Co-op! Your community-owned natural foods grocery store
Why Join? -You Care! –about good food and how it is produced -You’re Empowered! –you help support the local/regional food-shed -You Support! –Co-op principles & values and community ownership -You Vote! –with your dollars for a strong local economy -You Participate! –providing direction and energy to the Co-op -You Receive! –member discounts, weekly specials and a patronage refund
You Own It!
–an economic alternative for a sustainable future
In so many ways it pays to be a La Montañita Co-op Member/Owner!
Great Reasons to be a Co-op Member • Pick up our monthly newsletter full of information on food, health, environment and your Co-op. • Member refund program: at the end of each fiscal year, if earnings are sufficient, refunds are returned to members based on purchases. • Weekly member-only coupon specials as featured in our weekly sales flyer. Pick it up every week at any location to save more than your annual membership fee each week. • Banking membership at the New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union. • Member only discount days: take advantage of our special discount events throughout the year–for members only.
This year the Co-op is pleased to present the Executive Director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, author and local living economies activist, Susan Witt. Susan will be speaking on linking land, people and communities for a local living economy.
• Special orders: on order large quantities or hard-to-find items at a 10% discount for members. • General membership meetings, Board positions and voting. Co-ops are democratic organizations. Your participation is encouraged.
co nne ct io n
free
BUILDING ECONOMIES OF
PERMANENCE CONNECTING FOR
ed in the process of issuing and use flow to a few corporations and individuals, further creating discrepancies in wealth.
CHANGE!
all production, labor that transforms the raw materials into products, and capital that organizes the labor and facilitates distribution of the goods.
BY SUSAN WITT, Executive Director of the E.F. Schumacher Society This talk was given on October 15, 2005, at The Bioneers by the Bay gathering convened in conjunction with the national Bioneers conference, by the Marion Institute (www.marionin stitute.org)
Imagine if we were to start from scratch in building a sustainable economic system—not just tweaking the current system with a few affordable homes or one farm saved out of the fifty in town which once were productive. Imagine us thinking boldly as those are thinking boldly who rebuild their communities following a natural disaster.
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What would be the role of land in our new local economies? Land that we all need to build our homes, maintain a healthy environment, and make those products needed by others in a common society.
ike you, I have watched and read reports of catastrophic humanitarian, community, economic and ecological events that have occurred recently. Like you, I have grieved. Like you, I have ached to help and comfort. Like you, I have been staggered by the enormity of the problem. How can we remotely understand the crushing human suffering and loss? How can we comprehend the scope of community devastation? How can we envision such sweeping changes to entire landscapes—landscapes which were the ground of neighborhoods and villages, of collective memories and common dreams?
And what of labor? How do we again dignify the role of labor in an economic system? How do we move from commodifying labor through hourly wages to ensuring that workers retain ownership of resources? COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP Let us again try to imagine our new local economies, where the goods consumed in the region are produced in the region in an ecolog-
Aldo Leopold, the great American conservationist, warned against treating land as private property. He argued that "land should be a community to which we belong, not a commodity that is bought and sold." The commodification of land and other natural SUSAN WITT resources means that those who control Yet from underneath this enormous weight, I hear a new spirSpeaks! Oct 24! ownership benefit unfairly by the need of all ited voice, as people who appear to have just lost everything, for land. Land prices increase simply from talk of rebuilding their communities. There is a ring to their this common need, not from any work on voices—of tenacity, cooperation, belief in community, action the part of the owner. The nineteenth century political scieninformed by knowledge of place, trust in their capacity to ically, socially, and culturally appropriate way. tist, Henry George, called this speculative gain, an unearned achieve a goal together. It is not a government led initiative. In To achieve this vision, we would want to make increment, and noted that it distorts the economic system, fact, it seems to occur around and outside of government aid, sure that we used our innovative skills in the placing value where no real value has been created and transa local citizens' movement, somewhat raggle taggle and disorcreation of new regional products: new approferring wealth unfairly. priately scaled technologies for on-site energy production, efficient and healthy homes, safe DECOMMODIFICATION and efficient transportation, extension of growBut how do we go about decommodifying land in our ing methods for local foods, responsibly probold plans for new sustainable economies? Robert Swann, duced clothing. When extra spending power is the founding President of the E. F. Schumacher Society, in the hands of a few, then the innovation goes was inspired by Henry George and his intellectual descento luxury goods. To create innovation in basic dents, Leo Tolstoy and the Gandhian Vinoba Bhave, to goods, the wealth must be distributed widely. develop a new land tenure system for North America, When workers have access to land to create which he called Community Land Trusts. A Community their import-replacement businesses and access Land Trust is a regional non-profit corporation with open to affordable local capital for financing, they membership and a democratically elected board of directhen have more of an opportunity to be owners tors. It acquires land by gift or purchase, develops a landof the means of production rather than wage use plan according to local need, and then leases out the hour employees. This participation in ownersites. Individuals own the buildings on the land but not the ship means a fairer distribution of wealth. It is land itself. At resale, the buildings must be offered back to our responsibility as conscious consumers to the land trust at no more than the replacement value of seek the opportunity to support these workerimprovements, adjusted for deterioration. The owner is and community-owned businesses. able to carry away the fruits of labor applied to natural resources, but not the land value itself, which is held for n summary, the task of building sustainable the community. When fully applied, when a significant local economies is urgent, not only in this amount of land in a region is held by a community land country but around the world in village trust, the economic role of land is transformed. after village. Our humanity is at stake, our There are over one hundred and fifty community land landscapes are at stake, our varied and rich cultrusts in the United States. They serve as one of the major tures are at stake. It will take citizens working providers of permanently affordable home ownership together, employing new locally-based ecoANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING A G E N D A opportunities throughout the US. But they have yet to nomic tools to solve the problems of rebuild5:30pm: Music as people gather 5:45pm: General welcome meet their potential as vehicles for land reform. It will ing. The work will bring us together in new • State of the Co-op Reports • Board of Directors’ Report • General take voluntary participation by citizens committed to alliances, with unexpected courtesies. It will Manager Report • Member Questions • Upcoming Board Elections bold change to bring about such reform. Do we have the look ragged to some. The blueprints are not • Candidate Introduction and Election Highlights courage, do we experience the urgency, to reconsider our entirely clear and will, out of necessity, vary 7pm: GUEST SPEAKER, SUSAN WITT own private land ownership or to call upon others to from region to region. But working together 8pm: Local Food Fiesta and the SITE Santa Fe Exhibit reconsider theirs? Are we willing to return speculative we will feel the excitement of engagement, and gain on land to the regional community as a whole? How we will know that strange and wonderful This is a FREE Community Event alchemy at play when our full capacities as ALL ARE WELCOME! For more info contact Robin at committed are we to a new vision? human beings are engaged in a process that 505-217-2027 or 877-775-2667 • robins@lamontanita.coop And what about money? What is the role of money in our links people, land, and community.
Membership
I
MEETING
Oct. 24th at SITE Santa Fe 5:30-9pm
ganized, with unexpected leadership and alliances—unprofessional some might call it, but filled with exuberance and surprising generosities and common courtesies. It is a citizen train, chugging ahead, solving problems, building the bridge just in front of it with materials at hand, a bridge sturdy enough to carry all the members of their diverse community along. Perhaps not the most sleek looking or the most efficiently planned. But it is certainly where you find the most positive energy and where you want to be at work, shoulder to shoulder with neighbor, feeling a pride and joy that is infectious.
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his emerging spirit gives me hope, for it is this same spirit that is needed to rebuild our local economies—temporarily dwarfed by the sleek, monotone, faceless products of the global economy. There is no one formula for this rebuilding. It will vary as our communities vary and landscapes vary and local cultures vary. But there are some common principles behind the building of local "economies of permanence," to use Fritz Schumacher's phrase. ELEMENTS OF PERMANENCE The given elements of any economic systems are land, labor, and capital. Land and other natural resources that are the basis of
new and vital local economies? Money is simply a tool for issuing credit and tracking exchanges in a community. By giving up control of monetary issue to a centralized coalition of for-profit banks and national governments, we are engaging in a system that favors the largest borrowers. The consequence is an increasingly centralized manufacturing and distribution system that efficiently hides the ecological and social consequences of making the goods we use in our daily lives. In addition, a monopoly-issued global currency means that the fees generat-
OCTOBER is MEMBER A P P R E C I AT I O N
On October 24 at SITE Santa Fe, come hear and dialogue with Susan Witt on how we here in New Mexico can link people, land and community for a strong local/regional economy. This is a FREE community event. open to the public.
Watch your home mailbox for your volume discount shopping coupon. Bring it to any Co-op location during the month of October and get up to 20% off one shopping trip! The more you spend the more you save!
Up to 20%!!! $0.00-$74.99: get 10% off $75-$149.99: get 15% off $150 + : get 20% off!
VOLUME
DISC COUNT SHOPPING MONTH!
national co-op
month
A Community - Owned Natural Foods Grocery Store La Montanita Cooperative Nob Hill/ 7am-10pm M-S, 8am-10pm Sun. 3500 Central SE Albuq., NM 87106 265-4631 Valley/ 7am-10pm M-Sun. 2400 Rio Grande Blvd. NW Albuq., NM 87104 242-8800 Gallup/ 10am-7pm M-S, 11am-6pm Sun. 105 E. Coal Gallup, NM 87301 863-5383 Santa Fe/ 7am-10pm M-S, 8am-10pm Sun. 913 West Alameda Santa Fe, NM 87501 984-2852 Cooperative Distribution Center 3361 Columbia NE, Albuq., NM 87107 217-2010 Administrative Staff: 505-217-2001 TOLL FREE: 877-775-2667 (COOP) • General Manager/Terry Bowling 217-2020 terryb@lamontanita.coop • Controller/John Heckes 217-2026 johnh@lamontanita.coop • Computers/Info Technology/ David Varela 217-2011 tech@lamontanita.coop • Food Service/Bob Tero 217-2028 bobt@lamontanita.coop • Human Resources/Sharret Rose 217-2023 hr@lamontanita.coop • Marketing/Edite Cates 217-2024 editec@lamontanita.coop • Membership/Robin Seydel 217-2027 robins@lamontanita.coop • CDC/MichelleFranklin 217-2010 mf@lamontanita.coop Store Team Leaders: • Mark Lane/Nob Hill 265-4631 markl@lamontanita.coop • John Mulle/Valley 242-8800 jm@lamontanita.coop • William Prokopiack/Santa Fe 984-2852 willpro@lamontanita.coop • Alisha Olguin/Gallup 575-863-5383 alishao@lamontanita.coop Co-op Board of Directors: email: bod@lamontanita.coop President: Martha Whitman Vice President: Marshall Kovitz Secretary: Ariana Marchello Treasurer: Ken O’Brien William Bright Lonn Calanca Stephanie Dobbie Tamara Saimons Betsy Van Liet Membership Costs: $15 for 1 year/$200 Lifetime Membership Co-op Connection Staff: Managing Editor: Robin Seydel robins@lamontanita.coop Layout and Design: foxyrock inc Cover/Centerfold: Co-op Marketing Dept. Advertising: Robin Seydel Editorial Assistants: Rob Moore, Josh Center robm@lamontanita.coop 217-2016 joshc@lamontanita.coop 217-2016 Printing: Vanguard Press Membership information is available at all four Co-op locations, or call 217-2027 or 877-775-2667 email: robins@lamontanita.coop Membership response to the newsletter is appreciated. Address typed, double-spaced copy to the Managing Editor, robins@lamontanita.coop website: www.lamontanita.coop Copyright © 2009 La Montanita Co-op Supermarket Reprints by prior permission. The Co-op Connection is printed on 65% postconsumer recycled paper. It is recyclable.
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IN IT FOR THE
LONG HAUL!
TOGETHER WE WALK THE TALK Letter from your Co-op Board President BY MARTHA WHITMAN, BOARD PRESIDENT nother year has come and gone, a year I will not soon forget. At our last annual meeting our guest speaker, economist Gar Alperovitz, individually challenged us to determine what we were personally prepared to do to bring about true economic and political reform. He asked if we were in it for the long haul, as it’s a project that will take decades. After his presentation we then all headed over to UNM minutes before presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived to speak to thousands of his supporters. I was struck by the inspiration of contemplating our individual influence coupled with the potential of so many banding together with the goal of achieving a better world. It was a heady night.
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Until that night, the Co-op hadn’t yet felt the effect of the recession; we were on a six-month lag from the rest of the country. Soon after, it hit and our sales went flat; the experience of the individual became the collective story of the Co-op. We see members searching for ways to stretch their food dollars; we see a rise in bulk food purchases and a significant increase of members participating in our working member discount program. But while members may be stretched by the effects of the recession, they continue to recognize the social benefits of supporting the Co-op with their food dollars; a concrete example of banding together to preserve our integrity. While this year we didn’t achieve the sales growth of years past, we recognize the Co-op could have fared worse and that’s another piece of the story. For years we’ve all witnessed the effects of poor corporate policies, in our nation and in our community; and at La Montañita we have had to be flexible to cope with the influence of those policies upon the marketplace. Luckily during hard times it helps to be a co-op. Together we utilize the cooperative advantage to accomplish our goals, and in a challenging year we have achieved significant progress. Our phenomenal staff has preserved our financial health while continuing the various outreach programs and avoiding employee layoffs. The staff strives to be competitive in the marketplace while we fulfill our commitment to
LOCAL CO-OP ECONOMICS:
HEALING POWERS TIMES FIVE! BY ROB MOORE s the world economy continues to struggle to recover, finding solutions to economic woes becomes more urgent than ever. With so many explanations of the world economy described as being “linked together,” it is helpful to look at how our local, everyday purchasing and economic decisions can impact our communities.
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Spending our money is investing our money. According to the American Independent Business Alliance, locally owned businesses on average return approximately 80 percent of each dollar received back to the community. And every dollar spent at a locally owned business returns five times that amount within the community through city taxes, employee wages and the purchase of materials, supplies and services from other local businesses. In this way, shopping and spending locally encourages sustainable practices: local businesses don’t need to support far-flung locations in distant areas, support that would involve increased use of fuel and resources. Local businesses spend higher portions of their own energy budgets locally, too. Reducing our carbon footprint by supporting places near to us is another benefit of spending locally. Spending locally encourages variety and choice in goods and services. The quirky, the handmade, the unique and the higher quality are often obtainable only from smaller businesses, places where the level of care and attention to detail is greater than what a large chain can provide. Think about local “bestof” polls… restaurants, galleries, goods and services… almost every category is won by a local business. The range of choice and value offered by spending locally is real, and our enjoyment of these places and the people
product quality and customer service, fair prices to local food providers, and the staff Living Wage program. It is a challenge, a welcomed challenge, to respond to member needs and support member values while pricing our groceries fairly. It’s a balancing act requiring constant attention; it’s also an endeavor that speaks truly to the long-term economic and social welfare of our world. La Montañita’s history is rich with action regarding food and environmental issues. A logical progression was the opening of our Cooperative Distribution Center (CDC) and Foodshed Project. For the past three years we have been supporting local providers through our distribution system and establishing an avenue producers could rely upon and thus expand their operations. What an exciting venture to be a key player in preserving farms and ranches in the 300-mile radius we refer to as our Local Foodshed! It’s your patronage of the Co-op that funds this endeavor. The dollars you spend at the Co-op create a direct and positive impact on the health and wealth of our state. There’s no other grocery store that can truthfully make such a claim. We walk the talk, and we are indeed all in this together. I believe most of us feel it in the stores; it’s a part of why you enjoy shopping at the Co-op. We are the community and you know you belong. Finally, I’d like to touch on the personal financial benefit to members who support the Co-op through their food dollars. Members economically participate first by joining and maintaining their membership with an annual fee. The participation continues as members shop, hopefully taking advantage of all our member specials; the Co-op, in turn, returns as much of the surplus earnings as possible back to the members while honoring the health of the cooperative. In all but one of the past nineteen years La Montañita has declared a cash patronage rebate and while this was a challenging year, we fully anticipate the ability to do so again this year. You can be pleased with your Co-op and your decision to support all that we stand for. Your membership supports your well-being as well as the well-being of those around you. Thank you for being a member of La Montañita Food Co-op. It is through our cooperative efforts that we look to the future with great confidence in what we will achieve together. Always know the board of directors is eager to hear from you, so please drop us a note at bod@lamontanita.coop, or even better, join us for any of our monthly meetings.
CO-OP MEMBERSHIP
MEETING
HEAR SUSAN WITT Executive Director of the E.F. Schumacher Society OCTOBER 24TH 10AM: Immanuel Church, 114 Carlisle Blvd. SE Albuquerque (across from the Nob Hill Co-op’s back door) 5:30PM: SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta
behind them is a clear indicator of how vital local businesses are to supporting our quality of life. Spending money locally helps our schools as well. Local schools depend on property taxes and other tax bases for a good measure of their funding. No matter how much local-washing advertising they buy, a big-box store simply doesn’t make the kind of contribution that a small local business can. The ideal of community-centered business is central to the mission of your Co-op. As a member-owned business, La Montanita puts people before profits. Your membership is anchored in democratic principles, and the co-op model ensures that the decisions regarding business development are focused on social responsibility and healthy growth instead of the profit-at-any-price corporate model. Your membership is ownership! Now more than ever, co-op ideals make the best sense for communities, economically as well as socially. Ultimately, spending our money locally generates hope. Helping local businesses is helping our neighbors. Knowing that the money we work hard for goes farther when we use it in our communities, that we help our friends and neighbors make a livelihood for themselves and their families is a powerful way of taking economics from the realm of the abstract to something that happens every day. Our actions reach beyond our immediate awareness. Understanding how our behavior impacts the world and what we can do to help those around us is the essence of cooperation.
October 2009
national co-op MEMBERSHIP is
OWNERSHIP O BY MARSHALL KOVITZ ctober is National Co-op Month. Cooperatives and their members around the country celebrate their contributions to the nation's economy and their local communities. Here in New Mexico, we have a great deal to celebrate in this regard. La Montanita has contributed mightily to our local economy and to the overall well-being of our communities. And October is particularly important for us because it's the month for our annual membership meeting—a meeting that brings together several important cooperative principles that help us understand how the Co-op plays such a vital role in our community.
have of ensuring that the Co-op meets your economic needs and accomplishes other good works that are consistent with your values is to elect qualified board members. In advance of the November board election, board candidates will be given an opportunity to speak and to answer your questions. Our guest speaker for the annual meeting is Susan Witt. She will be talking about issues related to land trusts, preserving farmland and strengthening local economies. Her work speaks to both concern
The annual meeting is, among other things, a time of reflection, a time to look back at our successes of the past year and a time to look ahead to new opportunities and challenges. Since the Co-op was created by its owners to meet their needs, it's essential to reflect on how well the Co-op has been doing in that regard. One of the most important measures of this success is the overall CONCERN FOR financial health of the Co-op. After all, if La Montanita C O M MUNITY is successful in meeting owners' needs, that success should be reflected in the Co-op's financial health. This mutually beneficial relationship is at the heart of the third cooperative principle, member economic participation. As we for community and to the fifth cooperative princialways do, we'll be presenting information about our financial perple, education, training and information. It's the job formance and answering your questions. of the Co-op not only to provide leadership in areas of healthy food and environmental sustainability But while La Montanita exists primarily to meet owners' economic but to explain why we do what we do. This means needs, we all have expectations for the Co-op to go well beyond that. talking about the world as it is now, its problems, Those expectations are grounded in owners' values and in the seventh and our proposed solutions. Susan will explain cooperative principle, concern for community. We are all familiar with some of the ways we can create a better world. the good deeds accomplished by the Co-op through its work in our schools, with non-profit organizations, with our governments and Finally, while having fun is not a cooperative prinwith local businesses and growers. This year we want to start a more ciple, co-ops everywhere behave as if it were. This systematic process of reporting to you about these accomplishments. year's annual meeting will be no exception. Come Over the past few years, the board has determined what kinds of meet your friends, make new ones, enjoy great results we want to see among our owners and among our many imporfood and music. Learn about how the Co-op bentant stakeholders. These expectations for results are expressed in our efits us all. And help us dream the future. policies, called ends (see sidebar), and they constitute a mandate for our general manager to achieve a reasonable interpretation of these The Co-op's annual meeting will be held at policies. Terry Bowling, our general manager, recently reported to the 5:30pm, Saturday, October 24. Location is SITE Board on the Co-op's accomplishment of our ends, and at the annual Santa Fe, near the Santa Fe Railyard. If you're meeting we'll be sharing some of the details. coming from Albuquerque, take the train! Another cooperative principle closely tied to our annual meeting is democratic member control. One of the most important ways you
LA MONTANITA
ENDS
THE RESULTS WE WANT OUR ACTIONS TO CREATE IN THE WORLD E. GLOBAL: A cooperative community based in the shared benefits of healthy food, sound environmental practices and a strengthened local economy with results that justify the resources used. E1. COMMUNITY a. A community based on trust, comfort and personal relationships.
SITE Santa Fe 2009 Annual Member
Meeting Partner
1606 PASEO DE PERALTA, ACROSS FROM THE FARMERS’ MARKET RAILYARD BUILDING. ONE BLOCK SOUTH OF THE RAILRUNNER DOWNTOWN SANTA FE STOP.
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a Montanita is pleased to partner with SITE Santa Fe on this year’s Co-op member meeting. SITE Santa Fe was launched in 1995 to organize the only international biennial of contemporary art in the US. Conceived to bring the global contemporary art dialogue to the art-rich Southwest, and as a major event on par with such renowned exhibitions as the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale, it has become an integral event for contemporary art aficionados, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from around the world. Following the success of the first Biennial in 1995, SITE Santa Fe expanded its operations to include 3-4 exhibitions per year, an extensive education and outreach program and catalogue publications. The Art & Culture series reaches out to a diverse arts audience by providing multidisciplinary programming that includes lectures and discussions with artists, curators, and museum directors as well as poetry readings, film, music, and dance performances.
month
YOU OWN IT
b. A vital gathering place c. People have healthier options E2. ECONOMY a. A direct linkage between the Co-op’s positive financial health and the members’ well-being. b. Local producers and manufacturers benefit E3. EDUCATION A community informed of: a. The cooperative model b. La Montanita’s values c. Broad producer/consumer impacts on local and global health E4. AGRICULTURE Farmland conservation is supported
Valley
Gallup
!
SITE Santa Fe is a 18,000-square-foot warehouse space, formerly the Coors-Maloof beer warehouse, turned into a flexible exhibition space which allows the galleries to accommodate a wide variety of exhibitions. In October 2003, SITE finalized the purchase of its building located in Santa Fe’s historic Railyard District. Parking is free in the city lots behind SITE Santa Fe and Warehouse 21 after 6pm. Please feed the meter before 6pm. Enjoy the exhibit at the Co-op Member Meeting on October 24. TALKING PICTURES Since the wide acceptance of video as an artistic medium in the 1990s, artists have put it to many uses including videos that resemble abstract paintings, videos that form parts of sculptures, videos that tell stories, and videos that are largely still images. Talking Pictures exhibits works in which various qualities central to human understanding are questioned, intensified, and radically opened up for an experience that both enriches and unsettles our own concepts of communication. Artists in the exhibition include: Stephen Dean, Diller + Scofidio, James Drake, Kota Ezawa, Christian Marclay, Bruce Nauman, Nic Nicosia, Nadine Robinson, and Javier Téllez. The exhibit runs through January 10, 2010.
Santa Fe
for more information
www.lamontanita.coop Co-op Values Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. Co-op Principles 1 Voluntary and Open Membership 2 Democratic Member Control 3 Member Economic Participation 4 Autonomy and Independence 5 Education, Training and Information 6 Cooperation among Cooperatives 7 Concern for Community The Co-op Connection is published by La Montanita Co-op Supermarket to provide information on La Montanita Co-op Food Market, the cooperative movement, and the links between food, health, environment and community issues. Opinions expressed herein are of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Co-op.
CO-OP
YOU OWN IT October 2009
3
futures Sparrow Hawk Farm:
sustainable
LIVING LEOPOLD: THE LAND ETHIC and a NEW AGRARIANISM “Bread and beauty grow best together.” –Aldo Leopold BY COURTNEY WHITE, QUIVIRA COALITION his year, we celebrate the centennial of the arrival of the great American conservationist Aldo Leopold to the Southwest as a ranger with the US Forest Service. Over the course of a diverse and influential career, Leopold eloquently advocated a variety of critical conservation concepts, including wilderness protection, sustainable agriculture, wildlife research, ecological restoration, environmental education, land health, erosion control, watershed management, and famously, a land ethic.
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Each of these concepts resonates today – perhaps more so than ever as the challenges of the 21st century grow more complicated and more pressing. But it was Aldo Leopold’s emphasis on conserving whole systems – soil, water, plants, animals and people together – that is most crucial today. The health of the entire system, he argued, is dependent on its indivisibility, and the knitting force was a land ethic – the moral obligation we feel to protect soil, water, plants, animals, and people together as one community.
QUIVIRA COALITION’S 8TH ANNUAL
Conference
Save the
DATE! NOV.4-6
turn, this encourages what Leopold saw as the role of individual responsibility for the health of the land. “Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal,” he wrote, and “conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.” In other words, the new agrarianism is ecological – it blends scientific understanding of land health with local knowledge into a manageable
THE 2009 CONFERENCE BRINGS together a community of ranchers, conservationists, researchers and natural resource managers to celebrate the centennial of the arrival of the great American conservationist Aldo Leopold in the Southwest as a ranger with the US Forest Service. THE WATER SYMPOSIUM will focus on induced meandering to restore health to degraded stream channels. Invited speakers, including Bill Zeedyk, will explore watershed conditions, drainage patterns and riparian restoration throughout the Southwest. THE RANGE SCHOOL will explore practical strategies that promote coexistence between wildlife, livestock and conservation. FOR MORE INFORMATION contact Catherine Baca at cbaca@ quiviracoalition.org or call her at 505-820-2544.
TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE GO TO WWW.QUIVIRACOALITION.ORG
After Leopold’s death in 1948, the idea of a whole system was broken into fragments by a rising tide of industrialization and materialism. Even environmentalism played a role in the breakup of the world Leopold encountered a century ago by cleaving nature from work and segregating the ecological from the economic. Fortunately, today a scattered but concerted effort is underway to knit the whole back together, beginning where it matters most – on the ground. Leopold’s call for a land ethic is the root of what is being called a new agrarianism – a diverse suite of ideas, practices, goals, and hopes all based on the persistent truth that genuine health and wealth depends on the land’s fertility. Aldo Leopold is the spiritual mentor to this hopeful effort. Agrarianism is on the rise for three main reasons: first, it requires that we feel “the soil between our toes,” as Leopold put it, meaning it requires an intimate understanding of how land actually works. In
R E D U C E Y O U R E N V I R O N M E N TA L F O O T P R I N T
ONE TRASH CAN PER YEAR
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 7PM Unitarian Universalist Church, 107 Barcelona, north of Cordova Louise Pape, vice chair of the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission, will present a FREE workshop on how you can reduce your household waste to one trashcan a year. Learn practical ways to reduce your environmental footprint. Presented by the Northern Group of the Sierra Club, a nonprofit organization. http://riogrande.sierraclub.org/santafe/
reduce your
foot print
oct 20
October 2009 4 whole. One goal of this blending is to build resilience, which is the ability to handle shock and change. And as the earth warms under climate change, building resilience is becoming crucially important. Second, it’s economic. Unlike environmentalism, which never developed an economic program to go along with its preservation and human health programs, agrarianism is a practical retort to industrialism. It confronts our economy, the source of most environmental ills, and thereby gives the average American an alternative to participating in an unsustainable model of economic growth. It’s not theoretical – it exists and it works, as evidenced by the many examples of good stewardship across the nation. Third, the new agrarianism walks the talk of a land ethic. It encompasses soil, plants, animals, and people, striving for a harmonious balance between all. “There is only one soil, one flora, one fauna, and one people, and hence only one conservation problem,” Leopold wrote in the Sand County Almanac. “Economic and aesthetic land uses can and must be integrated, usually on the same acre.” A land ethic means coexistence – between urban and rural, domestic and wild, people and nature, bread and beauty. Just as importantly, a new agrarianism sparks joy. It requires care and affection and love and laughter to succeed, including affection for one another. There is one more reason why this movement is on the rise: we are all agrarians now. Our health and wealth depends on what we choose to eat, how we produce our energy, where our water comes from, who benefits from sustainable practices – and each has its root in the land. As we edge deeper into the challenges of the 21st century, the issues of resilience, coexistence, food, and hope couldn’t be more important. The Quivira Coalition’s 8th Annual Conference “Living Leopold” takes place November 4-6th, 2009, at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque. For more information and to register go to www. quiviracoalition.org or call 505-820-2544.
SALCI: Saving Small New Mexico Farms
BY SARAH NOSS, SANTA FE FARMERS’ MARKET INSTITUTE ALCI is the acronym for the “Small Agricultural Land Conservation Initiative.” It’s a strange name for a concept that the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute and all of the area’s land conservation groups feel is very important: namely that small agricultural land owners should qualify for tax credits when they put their land into conservation easements. Tax credits would help offset the cost of doing an easement, but so far, small agricultural land owners don’t qualify. SALCI was convened by the Institute in May 2009 to identify viable means of preserving small agricultural parcels in New Mexico in a way that rewards a family for the equity they’ve built up in the land and honors the cultural and agricultural traditions inherent in the land.
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According to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA), in 2004 there were 17,500 farms in New Mexico, of which 3,586 are considered small farms of 1-9 acres. NMDA research shows that between 2000 and 2005 New Mexico lost over 200,000 acres of farm land and 500 farms. The State of New Mexico’s primary emphasis in putting land into conservation easements focuses primarily on two issues: its scenic value and its value as a wildlife habitat. While both of these issues are very important, the Small Ag-Land Conservation Initiative feels that the Natural Land Protection Committee must also consider the value that small agricultural parcels bring to the state. These smaller farms provide owners with direct sales opportunities to consumers via farmers’ markets and other venues totalling more than $6.6 million in sales annually. Small farms provide food and enhance our food security. They provide economic development opportunities, rural sustainability and help to preserve our state’s agricultural heritage.
Small farms, especially in the north, are often irrigated and therefore tie water rights to the land and to rural communities. The state has not yet awakened to the value of small (often irrigated) farms for New Mexico’s future food security and will not grant tax credits for their protection through conservation easements. As more and more farmland is developed and water rights transferred to urban areas, the members of SALCI feel it is imperative to address this situation to preserve farmland to ensure the sustainability of NM’s local food supply. SALCI is working on starting a bridge loan program with the Permaculture Credit Union that would loan the cost of creating conservation easements to property owners and allow them to pay it back using state tax credits. Monthly meetings are underway to try to create ordinances at the County level that "would encourage and assist landowners who choose voluntarily to protect in perpetuity the open space or agricultural character of their land, and for this purpose, to establish a clearly delineated county policy under which such protection may occur..." (from a Taos county resolution). At SALCI we hope to get other counties to do a similar resolution or ordinance to help make headway on farmland preservation with the state committee. To save our farmland, we need your support! We are raising funds for attorney Matthew McQueen, (who has already donated a substantial amount of work) to continue his research and writing of ordinances for N.M. counties that have the most small agricultural parcels, including Santa Fe, Socorro, Rio Arriba, San Juan and Mckinley. To direct your donation to this effort, write “SALCI” on your donation. For more information contact Sarah Noss at sarah@farm ersmarketinstitute.org
sustainable
futures
October 2009 5 GET PHARMACEUTICALS
Water Utility Authority Acts on Pharmaceuticals BY MICHAEL JENSEN, AMIGOS BRAVOS he Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (WUA) held a press conference on August 31, 2009, to announce a new public education campaign – Agua-Rx – on how to dispose of pharmaceuticals so they won't get into the wastewater stream (see http://www.abcwua.org).
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The media information kit handed out at the event incorrectly stated that no pharmaceuticals have been found near Albuquerque, although at least five studies conducted between 2002 and 2009 have found pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the river, the shallow groundwater, and – in an ongoing project Amigos Bravos is conducting along the Middle RĂo Grande – the ditches and drains. That point aside, the WUA correctly stated during the press conference that current treatment processes aren't equipped to remove pharmaceuticals from the waste stream. They also stated that pharmaceuticals – especially endocrine-disrupting compounds (natural and synthetic chemicals that act as or mimic human hormones) – do present possible environmental and human health impacts. Both these acknowledgements correct what the WUA has said publicly on the issue of pharmaceuticals in the river for the last several years. The WUA’s Recommendation Following are the steps the Water Utility Authority recommends people take to safely dispose of pharmaceuticals and help keep them out of the water system: • Remove medications from their original container • Put them in a disposable plastic container such as a used margarine tub or sealable plastic bag • Mix with water and clay-based cat litter to create a paste • Seal the container and place in the trash on the day of trash pick-up
RAIN HARVESTING BY NICK WARD here are a variety of different types of rain harvesting techniques available; from passive to active rain harvesting systems of some sophistication. However, all rain harvesting systems are made up of three principal components:
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Catchment areas may be as simple as sloping landscapes over which runoff may be channeled, or a roof that has gutters or downspouts diverting rain water to a designated area. The end-use, for which the captured water is intended, will determine the appropriate type of catchment area. If the captured water is intended for irrigation use, there will be many types of catchment areas appropriate for your application. If, however, the water is intended for potable use, you will be limited by a number of factors. Water intended for potable use should be captured using an area that will limit the possibility of contamination. This is best accomplished by using non-porous materials that have very few cracks or crevices, like galvanized metal roofing. This limits the number of areas in which bacteria, fecal matter or other contaminates may collect. Conveyance systems are the ways in which water captured from catchment areas is channeled to the intended end-use sites. As with catchment areas, the intended end-use will help determine the appropriate conveyance system needed for a given application. Collection devices are the areas and containers into which captured rain water is diverted for use or storage. A simple irrigation collection device is a mounded ring of earth surrounding a planting area. Rain water diverted into this ring puddles up instead of becoming runoff. This allows the water to slowly percolate into the earth. Collection devices in systems intended for stored use will not only need to be sealed against contamination but will also need to resist algal and bacte-
pharmaceutical take-back programs (currently, law enforcement needs to be present because of the possibility that unused or expired medications containing controlled substances might be present) • Work with the American Water Works Association Water Research Foundation to conduct research on enhanced treatment processes that will improve removal of pharmaceuticals from treated water
improve water
QUALITY
• Remember to cross out personal information on prescription bottles with a permanent black marker, or peel off the labels and destroy them, before placing empty medicine containers in the trash The pharmaceuticals will wind up in the landfill, which should keep them out of the water for a long time. Other Steps Amigos Bravos is pleased that the WUA is moving on this public education campaign. However, we view placing pharmaceuticals in plastic containers as a temporary measure until take-back programs and treatment processes are available. Therefore, we are even more pleased that the WUA used the press conference to announce some other important activities of the Agua-Rx program: • Begin quarterly sampling for pharmaceuticals in the “rawâ€? (river) and “finishedâ€? (treated) Drinking Water Project water and the inflow and discharge from the Southside Water Reclamation Facility (the wastewater treatment plant) • Work with other water providers to develop a regional strategy for addressing the issue • Discuss changing relevant regulations with the Legislature so that communities can implement
rial growth as well as stagnation and insect infestation. Tanks made of fiberglass, plastic, wood and ferrocement are among the types of collection devices that may be used in storage applications. The most basic of rain harvesting systems is a catch basin, capturing rain water from a catchment area, like a roof, and diverting it to a planting area in close proximity to the catchment area. A simple way to accomplish this is the installation of a “dry riverbed� leading from a gutter downspout, winding across a landscape and terminating in a planted bed surrounded by a raised mound of earth. In New Mexico, where annual precipitation mainly consists of infrequent but intense rain events, or storms, it is of great value to be able to store as much captured rain water as possible for use during the times of little precipitation. As the complexity of a given system increases, the numbers of applications to which the captured rain water may be applied also increase. Captured water that is stored may be used for irrigation, household uses and human consumption. It is wise to consider making a water budget that evaluates the amount of water needed for application and compares it with the amount of water available and the different sources from which it may be obtained. Once you determine how much water is needed for your given applications, you can begin to deduce exactly how much impact a rain harvesting system will have on your supply needs. In addition to helping with system design, a water budget can also lead to the discovery of water waste issues. This can be of great value, as here in the New Mexican desert water is in short supply. To contact Nick with questions on rain harvesting call him at his office: 505-821-6674 or cell: 505-261-0249.
agua es vida
OUT OF OUR WATER!
These are all things that Amigos Bravos recommended at our own press conference in June announcing the presence of PPCPs in the ditches and drains along the river. Some of the other recommendations we made include: A proposed federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule-making change that would allow pharmaceuticals to be treated as hazardous waste under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) procedures so they could be disposed of by hazardous materials handlers (this would seem to be necessary as part of any takeback program).
Passage of the PAMTA (Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Therapies Act; HR1549/S619), which would require the FDA to review approvals for all antibiotics from seven categories needed for human health and which show signs of antibiotic resistance from overuse by Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs). BACKGROUND In March 2009, Amigos Bravos found seven different pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the drains and ditches running along the RĂo Grande in the Albuquerque-Bernalillo area, including acetaminophen, DEET (insect repellant), sunscreen (oxybenzone), sulfamethoxazole (a sulfa antibiotic), carbamazepine (an anti-seizure medication), meprobamate (a tranquilizer related to carbamazepine), and caffeine. Our findings are in line with the results from national studies conducted by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Associated Press, documenting the presence of PPCPs in wastewater discharges and agricultural runoff into the nation’s rivers and streams, in wells, and in drinking water supplies. They also are similar to several other studies of PPCPs in the RĂo Grande as it runs through the Albuquerque area. Although not stating so publicly, privately the WUA said that they were taking these steps in part because of the work Amigos Bravos has been doing in monitoring the water quality of the drains and ditches and highlighting the discovery of PPCPs in those waters. Amigos Bravos announced our first round of sampling results at a June press conference and know that it caught a lot of attention. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) asked for the results and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District – whose drains and ditches we are monitoring – is considering doing some sampling of their own to complement ours. There are no standards for PPCPs, which means that wastewater treatment facilities, agricultural operations and drinking water suppliers do not have to test for these compounds in order to meet relevant regulatory requirements, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act. For more information about PPCPs, contact Michael Jensen (mjensen@amigosbravos.org)
Fall Foodshed Abundance: Look for apples, veggies, goat cheese and other local foods AT ALL CO-OP LOCATIONS!
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EXPERIENCE JAZZ IN NEW MEXICO LAND OF ENCHANTMENT Funded in part by the New Mexico Tourism Department
co-op news
October 2009 6
Co-op Health and Beauty Department:
CO-OP BRAND HERBS Quality & Value BY DAWN EVARTS, HBA DEPT., SANTA FE significant diversity of herbal products exists in today’s current market. Understanding which one to choose can be a challenging task for the consumer. Issues such as product quality, safety and potency are typically the top concerns for the discriminating shopper. Fortunately, the Co-op brand of herbal products delivers all of the above.
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under high amounts of stress. Perfect for stressful lifestyles that seem to be so much a part of modern living. Adaptogen: Ashwaganda A unique single herb from India that is a superior adaptogen is ashwaganda. It can be used preventa-
La Montanita Co-op is proud to bring to its customers an excellent line of herbal medicinal remedies that can be found in both liquid and herbal capsule form. The Co-op brand offers a wide selection of single herbs and formulations that can effectively target complex and specific health issues. In accordance with Co-op standards and principles, all herbs are processed according to Good Manufacturing Procedures (GMP). Most of the herbs used are certified organic from medicinal herb farms. Chinese herbs are tested for 300 pesticides to ensure purity. The gathering of wild harvested herbs is done sensitively to ensure that they remain a renewable resource. Plants such as echinacea, goldenseal and ginseng that are threatened are organically grown. The herbs have never been fumigated or irradiated thus ensuring that La Montanita Co-op brings the highest quality herbal preparations available to our customers. Herbal Product Spotlights A great place to start with is the Co-op brand Power Plant Antioxidant, herbal liquid filled veggie caps, to help fortify and enhance the immune system. Power Plant Extracts such as the Co-op brand Anti-Oxidant formula provide excellent free radical protection. Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage healthy cells. Antioxidants stabilize free radicals before they can react to cause damage. Power Plant Anti-Oxidant is a concentrated source of the most potent fruit, berry and tea extracts available. Antioxidants support cardiovascular health, prevent oxidation of LDL cholesterol and promote healthy aging. Additionally, anti- oxidants are indicated for virtually anyone and especially for those who are
Interestingly, elderberry offers cardiovascular protection by reducing oxidation of LDL cholesterol. It also reduces atherosclerosis by preventing platelets from forming to blood vessel walls and can reduce total cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It can also help with poor tively for those who put out more energy then they put back into themselves and want to avoid burn out. When we are exposed to unrelenting stress this can cause immune breakdown (colds, flu), headache, irritable bowel, blood sugar swings and any other genetic, predispositional or constitutional weakness. Ashwaganda gives the body more life force and can be used in a restorative way. Ashwaganda can be helpful in chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, debility, recovery from wasting diseases, chemotherapy and balancing emotions. Additionally ashwaganda can help chronic neuro-muscular disorders such as fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis (MS). Oregano Oil Another great herb to have on hand during the changing of the seasons and the winter months ahead is oregano oil. Wild oregano oil has a long history of medicinal usage that dates back to ancient Greece. It was used extensively both internally and externally. To the Greeks this plant was sacred and synonymous with health. Current research has found carvacrol to be the biochemical that provides its antimicrobial actions. Oregano oil is the most powerful natural antimicrobial compound for acute use. It is also safe. It is best to think of oregano oil as an antibacterial herb that will kill microbes on contact and not to see it as booster like echinacea. Its action on acute situations is immediate and it can be used safely long term for those with immune deficiency who are prone to getting sick easily. Carvacrol circulates in the blood with anti-microbial action including: Antiseptic, anti-fungal, antiparasitic, anti-spasmodic and expectorant. Oregano oil is one of the most effective natural products to kill the proliferation of candida. It is a good medicinal to bring while traveling as it will help keep parasites (from amoebas to giardia) at bay and protect from miscellaneous bacterial and viral situations.
october 12 1-4pm
YOUR SANTA FE CO-OP PRESENTS
A & WELLNESS& TASTING FAIR
The Santa Fe Deli will be sampling their 100% organic juices, smoothies and healthy Co-op pizza! Enjoy Health and Beauty product demos, samples and important wellness information. Enjoy healthy snack samples thoughout the store.
Additionally, oregano oil can kill parasites in pets when added to their food. The list for conditions that may be improved when using oregano oil is impressive. Everything from acne (oral and topical), athlete’s foot, bad breath, bed sores, bladder and urinary infections, coughs/colds/flu, diarrhea, eczema (oral and topical), food poisoning, gum disease, IBS, nail fungus (oral and topical), sinus infections (oral and when applied topically on the upper lip at night, results can be dramatic), candida and ulcers (helicobacter pylori). It can also be effectively combined with other Co-op formulas and single herbs for a more potent effect targeting specific heath issues.
STAYING HEALTHY THIS COLD AND FLU
MEMBERS: WATCH YOUR MAILBOX! for your CO-OP Elections
BALLOT ELECTIONS: NOV. 1-14
The CO-OP Foodshed Project: Bringing local farmers together with Co-op shoppers for the best in fresh, fair and local food.
Elderberry: Pleasant and Effective One of the more pleasant tasting and effective medicinal herbs for the flu in the plant kingdom is elderberry. Recent studies report that elderberry shortens the duration of flu symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, headache, sore throat, cough and body aches. Elderberry has proven to be effective against numerous strains of influenza. The herb’s constituents neutralize the activity of the virus to deactivate it so it is unable to infect body cells. It can be used during an active flu when optimally combined with oregano oil or echinacea/goldenseal or used as a preventative. Since elderberry is high in antioxidants, including quercetin and rutin along with high levels of vitamins A and C, it can be taken on a longterm basis to increase resistance to illness and help rebuild a strong immune response.
Create synergistic action with a wide variety of CO-OP BRAND HERBS! night vision and help to reduce stress and shorten recovery time from physical exertion. Elderberry can be added with other complementary formulas and single herbs to help enhance its effects for more specific health concerns. Cold and Sinus Blaster Finally there is the La Montanita Co-op brand Cold and Sinus Blaster in a liquid herbal formula for immediate and fast acting response to sinus infections, sinus headaches, colds/flu that are active, fever, bacterial infections and viral infections. It can also be useful for congestion due to allergies and environmental sources. Cold and Sinus Blaster has an immediate, dramatic and direct impact on the sinus. It is an extremely pungent formula with aromatic compounds that produce vapors that open and dilate the sinus passageways in order to drain them, deepen breathing and help kill microbial inundation. It produces a short-term intensity that is followed by a mellow warming sensation in the sinus which is comforting. Cold and Sinus Blaster will open even the most stubborn and clogged sinus cavity for a short to a prolonged time period. Repeated doses throughout the day can help maintain breathing and sinus drainage reducing overall healing time. It can be used many times per day when in acute stages or on occasion when temporarily needed. It has synergistic action with other immune formulas to increase immune response. Combine it with echinacea, goldenseal or oregano oil to additionally stimulate white blood cell activity. For lung congestion or sore throat, combine with Respir-Ease/ Respiratory Complex. For long-term immune weakness, combine with Immuno Tonic/ImmunoStimulant or elderberry. Stop by your local Co-op and check out the Co-op brand medicinal herbal section to see the wide variety of quality medicinal herbs. Thanks to herbalist Mitch Coven for references. The above information is for educational purposes only. Consult a health care professional.
SEASON
In the next few weeks you will be receiving the Co-op Board of Directors Election Ballot in the mail. Again this year we are using an independent third- party organization to verify our elections. Included with the ballot and candidate information will be a postage-paid return envelope. Please fill out the ballot, follow the directions for folding so that we may verify that your membership is current but maintain the confidentiality of your ballot. Then please place your ballot in the postage-paid envelope included with the ballot mailing.
co-op news
October 2009 7
THE INSIDE BY TERRY BOWLING Budget planning, annual membership meeting, slow money conference, National Cooperative Grocers Association annual meeting, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements, the list can go on and on. As I conduct the business of the Co-op, I try to keep in mind our ends policies and how important the achievements of the ends are. October is National Co-op Month and a good time to review and think of the importance of our ends policies. La Montanita is your Co-op; your board of directors has worked hard to make sure the Co-op is more than grocery store. See our Ends Polices on page 3. Please take a moment to review the ends and think of how they align with what we do. To celebrate National Co-op Month we are pleased to offer our members a Volume Discount Shopping
PUMPKINS FALL’S ICON
BY JOSH CENTER t is a symbol of fall and an icon of Halloween. Baked into a delicious pie (with a generous scoop of ice cream on top), or carved into a ghastly grin, October simply would not be the same without the multi-talented pumpkin.
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Carving pumpkins into lanterns is primarily a North American tradition. Although the British Isles have a long history of carving vegetables into lanterns, especially turnips, the carved pumpkin was a harvest tradition in North America and wasn’t specifically associated with Halloween until 1866. Pumpkins and other squash have a very long history in North America. Along with corn and beans, it made up the “Three Sisters” planted by Native Americans. When planted together, these three plants form an amazing bond of cooperative growth; the corn provides a natural climbing structure for the beans, the squash works to keep the soil moist, the weeds at bay, and defends against intruders with its spiny stems, while the beans give nitrogen back to the soil. Pumpkins are surprisingly versatile in the kitchen, as well. Most commonly seen on our tables as pumpkin pie, pumpkins can also be mashed like potatoes, made into soup, baked with butter and sugar, and used to flavor drinks. Very young pumpkins can also be eaten just like zucchini. The seeds are often roasted and eaten as snacks, and contain many nutrients, including protein, magnesium, zinc, and magnesium. In addition, pumpkin seed oil contains fatty acids that, among other things, can promote good prostate health.
SCOOP
month. By the time you read this you will have received your Volume Discount Shopping coupon in the mail. Co-op members can receive up to a 20% discount on one shopping trip during this month. Also I would like to extend a personal invitation to our Annual Membership Meeting; this year on October 24th at SITE Santa Fe. We are pleased to be hosting a free talk and community dialogue with Susan Witt, the Executive Director of the E.F. Schumacher Society. Susan is a pioneer in the development of alternative solutions that build local economies. Come hear her, enjoy a Local Foods Fiesta and learn with us how we can take our Co-op to the next level of community service.
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If you want to harvest greens in the winter, now is a good time to build a cold frame. Choose a south-facing spot near your kitchen. There are plenty of places online to get myriad design suggestions for a cold frame. My favorite reference for hand crafted garden accessories is an out-of-print Rodale Press publication: Build It Better Yourself. Very retro. After you’ve constructed a cold frame, make sure you fill it with a high quality planting soil. When purchasing garden soil, look for a few key words for quality indication: cow or steer manure can be high in salt; peat moss is a diminishing non-renewable resource with no
October is Member Appreciation Volume Discount Month! See page 1 10/12 Wellness and Tasting Fair, Santa Fe Co-op, 1-4pm 10/20 BOD Meeting, Immanuel Church, 5:30pm 10/24 Susan Witt, Immanuel Church, 10:30am 10/24 Annual membership meeting with Susan Witt at SITE Santa Fe, 5:30pm, see page 3 for info
10/26 Member Engagement Committee, CDC, 5:30pm
CO-OPS: A Solution-Based System
s A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.
MASTER OF DRIP IRRIGATION
Pumpkins of course, are just one of the many varieties of squash. Even more common to the kitchen are butternut, acorn, zucchini, crookneck, and spaghetti squash. While most of us think of squash as a vegetable, in reality, squash is a fruit. Squash is usually broken down into two categories: summer squash and winter squash. It may seem obvious that these two groups describe when the varieties are grown, but actually this can be deceiving. These categorizations actually have more to do with how well the squash keeps and when they are eaten, rather than its harvesting season. Summer squashes are usually thinner skinned and harvested before becoming fully mature, and they must be eaten soon after harvesting. On the other hand, winter squash are usually thicker skinned and harvested at full maturity. In the right conditions, these squash can be kept for several months to be eaten during the winter.
to satisfy every need from seedlings to mature trees and everything in between
345-9240 Classical Homeopathy Visceral Manipulation Craniosacral Therapy
MARY ALICE COOPER, MD St. Raphael Medical Center 204 Carlisle NE Albuquerque, NM 87106
505-266-6522
Squash features a huge dose of vitamin A, while also providing vitamins C and B6. Squash are also rich in dietary fiber, as well as phytonutrients, which may help prevent cancer and heart disease. All this in a delicious package that is also low in calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium. Adding this healthy and tasty food to your diet is remarkably easy, thanks to squash’s huge variety and versatility. Squash can be as simple as a quick roast eaten with butter, or as complex as an elaborate soup. Get creative. Turn to our recipe section in this month’s newsletter for some helpful tips.
LOCAL SALE ITEMS SHOP LOCAL & SAVE
Fall in the Garden: Compost T ime BY WALTER DOD all is a great time to be in the garden. As the weather turns cooler, the garden slows down. Many people take this time to move on to other things for the winter, like collecting firewood or preparing for Thanksgiving. I would suggest that the cool weather offers a great opportunity to get back out there and work your garden some more. A quick Google search leads to hundreds of sites suggesting chores to perform in the fall garden. I’ll stick to what I know: soils and mulches.
Calendar of Events
available nutrients; bio-solids (human manure) are high in metals and extremely salty, forestry products generally mean high bark content. If you are ready to shut down your garden for winter, now is a good time. Remember how much it has given you this season. Thank it, and give something back. After removing debris, work some compost into the soil. This will regenerate the microbial population and replenish the organic content of the soil so that your garden is raring to go in the spring. It is equally as important to mulch just about everything in your yard (with the exception maybe of some penstemons and other hardy natives.) Local pruning experts tell me to think of mulch as a winter blanket for your plants. Remember that the feeder roots are away from the trunk so apply from 3”-5” of mulch all the way around the drip line (the outside edge of the foliage) of your trees and shrubs. Be careful not to put the mulch directly up against any trunks as this will invite rot and insects. After you’ve taken care of your garden and the soil that sustains it, now you can go inside and dream of next year’s crop.
Udi’s Denver, CO Whole Grain Bread, 12 oz Reg. $5.39, Sale $4.49
Herbs, Etc. Santa Fe, New Mexico ChlorOxygen Chlorophyll, 60 soft gels Reg. $13.99, Sale $9.99
Zuke’s Durango, Colorado Power Bones Dog Treats, 6 oz Reg. $4.29, Sale $3.49
Even more
LOCAL PRODUCTS
on sale in our stores! VALID IN-STORE ONLY from 9/30-11/3, 2009
NOT ALL ITEMS AVAILABLE AT ALL STORES.
OCTOBER SPECIALS WANT TO SEE YOUR LOCAL PRODUCT ADVERTISED HERE? Contact Eli at elib@lamontanita.coop Walter Dods has worked at Soilutions for 8 years. If you have compost, mulch, or soil questions, he can be reached at 877-0220. Watch for their bags of compost at the Co-op this fall!
squash season golden
Heat oil in a deep saucepan. Drop batter by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and serve immediately. Great topped with sweet mustard, dipped into fruit sauce, or with yogurt, too!
orange
DELIGHT! Whether you choose savory or sweet, the flavor and good nutrition of the wide variety of winter squash can’t be beat. Baked Whole Butternut Squash 1 (2 to 3 pounds) butternut squash 1 to 2 tbsp lime juice Salt and coarsely ground pepper to taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place whole squash onto an ungreased baking sheet and prick in a few places with a sharp knife, deep enough to reach the center. Bake, uncovered, 1 hour or until tender. Remove from oven. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove fibers and seeds. Season each half with lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. Cut each half in half again and serve. To enliven the squash, try a light dusting of chile powder or a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Pumpkin Fritters 1 1 1 1 1 1 4
cup pumpkin puree egg, lightly beaten cup all-purpose flour tsp baking powder tsp curry powder tsp salt cups vegetable oil for frying
Curried Pumpkin Soup 1/3 cup chopped onion 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp curry powder 2 tbsp butter or margarine 1 cup pureed pumpkin (or about 1/2 can of pumpkin) 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/8 tsp sugar 2 cups veggie broth (or can use chicken broth) 1 1/2 cups milk 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot or tapioca powder (use as thickening agent) 2 tbsp heavy cream (optional) chopped chives (as decoration) In large pan cook onion, garlic and curry in the butter or margarine for a few minutes until onion is tender. Add pumpkin, nutmeg, sugar and the bay leaf. Stir in the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. Take out the bay leaf. Stir in 1 cup of the milk and cook over low heat. In another bowl, stir together the remaining milk and the cornstarch until dissolved, then add it to the pan. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Swirl the cream on top and garnish with chives. Stuffed Acorn Aquash
In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, egg, flour, baking powder, curry powder and salt. Mix until smooth.
4 good, firm, acorn squash Salt and pepper, to taste 4 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped 3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs such as
October 2009 10
oregano, thyme or basil 1 cup bread crumbs 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese Set the oven at 400 degrees. Have on hand a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt. Halve the squash lengthwise, remove seeds and drop them into the boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes or until the squash are almost tender. With a slotted spoon, remove the squash from the water and leave them to cool. With a teaspoon, scoop out the flesh and transfer it to a bowl. In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the squash flesh, herbs, salt and pepper. Cook with stirring for 2 minutes more.
We certainly can’t forget Halloween! Boo! Kids of all ages love strange and cheerful Halloween treats, and with a little care and imagination you can give them sweets that aren’t full of artificial or heavily-processed additives.
Pumpkin Seed Brittle
Spooky Eyeball Cookies!
1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1/8 tsp fine sea salt 3/4 cup raw green (hulled) pumpkin seeds (NOT toasted)(about 4 ounces)
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 1 (1-pound) package confectioners’ sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips 2 tbsp solid vegetable shortening 1 (3-ounce) package Sundrops chocolate-drop candies
Put a 24-by-12-inch sheet of parchment on a work surface and anchor corners with pieces of tape. Bring sugar, water and sea salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Cook mixture, without stirring, washing down any sugar crystals from side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water, until syrup
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Return pan to moderate heat and cook, stirring constantly, until sugar melts completely (sugar will continue to dry and become grainy before melting) and turns a deep caramel color, 4 to 5 minutes more (seeds will be toasted). Carefully pour hot caramel mixture onto parchment and carefully cover with another sheet. Immediately roll out (between sheets of parchment) as thinly as possible with a rolling pin, pressing firmly. Remove top sheet of parchment and immediately cut brittle into pieces with a heavy knife or pizza wheel. Cool brittle completely, then peel paper from bottom. (Alternately, break brittle into pieces once cool.)
Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the bread crumbs, remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and Parmesan. Fill the hollowed squash shells with the stuffing mixture. Set the filled squash in the 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake them for 15 minutes or until they are very hot and crisp on top.
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registers 238°F (soft-ball stage) on thermometer, 10 to 12 minutes (sugar syrup will be colorless). Remove from heat and stir in seeds with a wooden spoon, then continue stirring until syrup crystallizes, 3 to 4 minutes.
Blend the peanut butter with the butter, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl. It may be easiest to use your hands. Kids love doing this.
squash season Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper. Roll the peanut butter mixture by teaspoons into small balls and place on the baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to firm up the eyeballs. Put the chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave-safe bowl and melt the chocolate in the microwave: Heat on high for 60 seconds and then stir well. If it’s not quite smooth, heat in two or three 10-second bursts, stirring well after each burst. (Alternatively, you can melt the chocolate, stirring frequently, in a double boiler, over justsimmering water. Avoid overheating, which can cause chocolate to seize up into a stiff mass.) Take the sheet of balls from the refrigerator; use a fork or a toothpick to dip each one most of the way into the chocolate, leaving a round or oval opening of undipped peanut butter on top. This opening in the chocolate will be the cornea. Hold each ball over the chocolate to catch the drips, and then return to the wax paper, cornea side up. Place one Sundrop in the center of the peanut butter cornea to make an iris (or two to make a monster eye!). Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Store the eyeballs in the refrigerator or freezer and serve chilled.
October 2009 11
baked. Brush with egg. Bake cookies, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until dark golden but still soft, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Cut crosswise into 1 1/2-inch wide bar cookies. Serve, or store bars covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Personal Growth Childhood Trauma • Illness Drugs/Alcohol • Loss Women’s Issues
Louise Miller, MA LPCC NCC
Pumpkin Flax Quickbread
Psychotherapy
2 tbsp flax seed meal 6 tbsp water 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 cup canned pumpkin puree 1/2 cup applesauce 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves
louise@louisemiller.org www.louisemiller.org
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505.343.0552 Connie Henry PhD, ND, RN, CHF, CADS/ Digby Henry MA, CHF, BBP, CADS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Whisk together flax seed meal and water. Mix in sugar, pumpkin and applesauce. In a large bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and cloves. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture; stir until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
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Spiced Bars 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp fine salt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar 3 large eggs, plus 1 large egg, beaten, for brushing 2/3 cup molasses 3/4 cup golden raisins 3/4 cup dried cranberries 1 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts 2 1/2 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter and flour 3 baking sheets. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt together in a large bowl. Beat the butter and brown sugar together in another bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add the molasses and beat until smooth. Mix gently while adding flour. Fold in the raisins, cranberries, walnuts and ginger. Divide dough into 6 pieces and with slightly damp hands, shape each piece into a 1-inch wide log. Place 2 logs on each of the prepared cookie sheets, leaving plenty of space between each log, since the cookies spread considerably when
Body-Centered Psychotherapy and Trauma Healing
Penny Holland M . A . , L . P. C . C , L . M . T.
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Bake in preheated oven for 65 to 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Stir-Fried Pumpkin 3 tbsp olive oil 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 tsp minced garlic 4 cups cubed fresh pumpkin 1/2 cup grated carrot 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp salt 1 tsp ground black pepper 2 tsp black sesame seeds
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Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onions begin to brown. Stir in the pumpkin, carrot, soy sauce, salt and pepper; cook another 5 to 7 minutes, until pumpkin is tender. Sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving. These recipes have been adapted and reprinted from the following sources: www.epicurean.com www.aliciasrecipes.com www.allrecipes.com www.epicurious.com
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FALL
It’s time to mulch and get your order in for firewood
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health &
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October 2009 12
Staying Healthy this and every season CYNTHIA BEHRENS, HBA DEPT. MANAGER, SANTA FE t’s October already! Leaves are falling, the kids are back in school and it’s cold and flu season again! Yuk! But don’t despair, there are several things you can do to stay healthy this season.
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properties. Osha root has strong antiviral properties; therefore it should be taken at the first sign of a cold or flu. The herb is very beneficial and effective when combined with echinacea. Osha root is available as a tincture, with honey, in syrup and bulk herb. The Co-op brand osha tincture is a high quality choice.
natural remedies
Research in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that people with low levels of vitamin D (known as the "sunshine vitamin") were more likely to catch cold and flu than people with sufficient amounts. What this means is that healthy adults, who typically get two colds a year, might suffer an extra one if they're vitamin D deficient. At the Co-op we have a broad selection of vitamin D products in doses ranging from 400 IU to 5,000 IU.
HELP
First, wash your hands. Sounds simple, but it’s your best defense against invading germs. Wash often with soap and water. If you don’t have access to water, keep some hand sanitizer handy. At the Co-op you can find All-Terrain’s Hand Sanz in 8 ounce or travel size and EO brand 8ounce pump or box of 24 wipes. These kill 99% percent of germs. Get plenty of rest and try to minimize stress. Easier said than done, but your body needs adequate rest to regenerate itself and stay healthy. Stress is probably the number one reason we get sick. Stress lowers our immune systems and makes it easy for invaders to attack. There are also some natural remedies you can use to help maintain your health this winter. As soon as you start feeling run-down or have other flu-like symptoms, take Oscillococcinum. Oscillo® is regulated as a drug by the FDA and is supported by published clinical studies, as well as being used throughout the world for more than 65 years. These little pellets, taken under the tongue, can reduce the severity and duration of flu symptoms. It is safe for everyone 2 years of age and older. At the Co-op we also have Flu-Plus by BHI Heel which works as effectively in a quick dissolve tablet. A 2001 study shows black elderberry extract appears to “short-circuit” flu symptoms. These findings were presented at the 15th Annual Conference on Antiviral Research in 2002. If taken as soon as you feel flu-like symptoms, black elderberry could help people get through this year's flu season a bit easier. In folk medicine, flowers from the black
elder bush have been used to ease flu symptoms, colds, and sinus problems. At the Co-op you can find black elderberry with the brand names Sambucol or Sambu Guard and, of course, our own fabulous Co-op brand. New Chapter also makes an elderberry lozenge that provides broad spectrum herbal components guaranteeing potency in every lozenge. See Dawn’s article on page 6 for more information on elderberry. Colloidal silver is another effective product to keep in your medicine cabinet. It seems to annihilate flu virus. In a report by Dr. Eric Gordon, colloidal silver is effective against 24 major upper respiratory tract infections, such as the flu. It is sold in a dropper or convenient spray that can also be used externally. At the Co-op you can find brands by Sovereign Silver and Natural Path. Osha herb smells a little like camphor because of its essential oil. It’s this oil that gives it its healing
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The Santa Fe Deli will be sampling their 100% organic juices, smoothies and healthy Co-op pizza! Enjoy Health and Beauty product demos, samples and important wellness information. Enjoy healthy snack samples thoughout the store.
october 12 1-4pm
Th e No b Hi l l Growers’ Market
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Oregano oil is recognized in the Mediterranean for its capacity to stop infections (cold and flu), fighting yeast and fungi and knocking out allergies, hay fever and sinusitis. At the Co-op we have it in capsules or liquid form. Our Co-op brand is very high quality and a great bargain. See Dawn’s article in this issue for more information on this product. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Swine FLU, Regular FLU: FACTS & fear BY AMYLEE UDELL love fall in New Mexico. This year, my usual anticipation is tinged with a little anxiety. I'm being bombarded by news of the swine flu. The flu is with us every year, will this year be so much worse?
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 20-40% of US Americans could become ill from swine flu over the next two years. That's twice the number of a normal flu season. Pregnant women and children are at more risk. H1N1, as a new virus that our bodies do not recognize, will spread faster than regular flu. Symptoms will be similar to the regular human flu (fever, cough, sore throat, aches, chills and fatigue). See flu.gov for a full list of symptoms and emergency warning signs. A vaccination is being developed now. This is a three-part series, including a regular flu shot and two shots for H1N1. According to the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, no one will be denied a vaccine due to cost. You will need to weigh the benefits against the risks (there ARE risks) and discuss both with your healthcare provider to make an informed decision. So what CAN you do to improve your chances of a flu-free winter? My research unveiled some other easy options to consider. I'm not a medical professional, but a mom who wants my kids to be healthy. So read on, do your own research and make a plan for your family. 1. Remember, this is a flu, not ebola. Yes, you will feel downright awful if you contract any type of flu, but unless you are in an at-risk category, you will probably recover fairly easily. Even if you are in an at-risk category (children, pregnant women, the elderly), if you are otherwise healthy, you will most likely pull through. So, reduce your stress over this to further increase your immunity.
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Yin Chiao is one of the most well known Chinese herbal remedies. When taken immediately upon the onset of cold or flu, it has the ability to support and strengthen the body. It will help with symptoms of sneezing, itching of the nose or throat and itchy watery eyes due to hay fever or other upper respiratory allergies and flu.
2. Add kimchi, sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables to your diet. Studies done on bird flu infected chickens at Seoul National University found feeding the birds kimchi (fermented cabbage) cured them. These foods are quite easy to make and even if you doubt the curative powers of fermented foods against the bird flu, they do boost your overall
immunity with the numerous benefits of real food probiotics. Fermentation increases the vitamin C content of cabbage. Look for Bubbie's brand sauerkraut and pickles and the Rejuvenate brand of kimchi and other ferments. 3. Vitamin D has been grabbing many headlines lately. Recent research has linked vitamin D deficiency to everything from obesity to cancer to osteoporosis. Several respected researchers and MDs feel proper levels of vitamin D are as or more effective than the flu shot at preventing the flu. Vitamin D can be found in fatty fish and poultry raised naturally in sunlight, egg yolks, and my favorite, quality high vitamin cod liver oil. Most of our modern diet's vitamin D sources are from enriched (and therefore processed) foods, which I cannot recommend as easily as I can real food sources. If those real foods don't fit into your diet, then you need sunshine and plenty of it. Not only does sunshine increase your vitamin D levels, but fresh air can only help your mental and physical health during those cooped up winter months. Visit www.vitamindcouncil.org for more information. 4. Coconut oil is known for its anti-microbial properties, both internally and externally. Many people with systemic infections use coconut oil as part of their path to health. You can cook with it, take it as a supplement and even make yummy candies with it. Look for cold pressed virgin coconut oil on the Coop's oil shelf. 5. What works for you most winters? Meditation? Green tea? Astragalus? Echinacea? Olive leaf? Zinc? Homeopathic remedies? Green chile? Vitamin C? Can you use these prophylactically to keep your immune system in its best shape? This year, make sure you have plenty on hand. Amy Udell is a mother of three and co-owner of Inspired Birth and Families, a learning center with classes for parents and kids on pregnancy, birth, parenting, movement, nutrition and more. To learn more about flu remedies and treatments join Mary Lou Singleton, midwife, herbalist and RN at Inspired Birth and Family's Flu Facts class on October 14. See www.InspiredABQ.com for more details and to register.
health &
healing
October 2009 13 M A I N TA I N O R R E G A I N V I T A L I T Y
FLU FIGHTERS AND OTHER HERBAL HINTS BY ROBIN SEYDEL ith all the media time given to the swine flu (H1N1), the coming cold and flu season is looming large. We constantly have streptococcus in our throats, yet we rarely experience strep throat. The same is true of this swine flu and other viral strains. Exposure will lead to disease when your immune system is suppressed or you are experiencing lowered vitality due to stress, poor nutrition, lack of sleep and other basic health factors. Using herbs, homeopathy and vitamins will increase your health and reduce your susceptibility. But most importantly a healthy lifestyle will give your body the resources it needs to fight off an attack.
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DIGESTION Some say that the flu "begins in the gut and ends in the gut". This means that if you have good digestion, you will increase your resistance to this and other flu strains. Take a probiotic daily. Live probiotics are available at the Co-op, in yogurt and kefir and even in chocolate. Burdock root and other herbs with bitter principles improve digestion; add to your favorite soup, stew or tea. HOMEOPATHY The homeopathic remedy Ferrum Phos is effective in treating the early stages of the flu, when used in the first 24 hours. Also the remedy Influenzinum can be taken as a prophylaxis. This remedy is made from the same disease strain as the CDC uses to make each season's flu vaccine. Other remedies that work for influenza include: Baptisia Tinctore, Arsenicum Album Byronia and Gelsemium and Anas Barbariae (also known as Oscillococcinum). Homeopathic remedies are extremely symptom specific, so be sure to choose the remedy that fits your particular symptoms. Peppermint, camphor and caffeine may interfere with the beneficial action of homoeopathic remedies. HERBS CAN HELP 1. ECHINAEA activates the body's infection-fighting capacity. When taken at the onset of a cold or flu, echinacea can help you get better faster and reduce your symptoms while you are sick. In clinical trials when administered to people at the onset of flu-like symptoms it significantly reduced symptoms such as headache, lethargy, cough and aching limbs and was found to reduce the length of colds by about 30%, (the length of illness was reduced from 13 days to about 9.5 days), when administered instead of placebo. In a double-blind study involving 180 people with flu-like illnesses, participants were given either a
beat back attacks!
placebo or 450 mg or 900 mg of E. purpurea daily. By the third day, those participants receiving the higher dose of echinacea (900 mg) showed noticeable relief in the severity of symptoms. There was no real benefit in the placebo or low-dose echinacea group. Echinacea can be taken every two hours (20 drops or a dropper full) in acute stages—or drink 3-5 cups strong tea. 2. OLIVE LEAF—First used by ancient Egyptians it is an antioxidant that boosts immune function, is an antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, antiseptic, and its tranquilizing effects help bring sleep. 3. GOLDENSEAL helps clear mucus from the throat. It also contains the natural antibiotic berberine, which can help prevent bacterial infections that often follow colds. As goldenseal is an endangered plant, use with discretion. Berberine is also found in the mountain grape (aka Oregon grape) that is not endangered and grows well in central New Mexico. 4. GARLIC one of nature’s most famed antibiotic and anti-virals appears to shorten a cold's duration and severity. Any form seems to work: capsules or tablets, oil rubbed on the skin, or whole garlic eaten raw, roasted or cooked in other foods. Onion is close to garlic biologically and contains many similar antiviral chemicals. 5. GINGER contains nearly a dozen antiviral compounds. And it tastes good. To make a tea, add 1 heaping teaspoon of grated fresh gingerroot to 1 cup of boiling water. Allow to steep for 10 minutes. If you use dried ginger powder, use 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon of powdered ginger per cup. 6. MULLEIN flowers and leaves soothe inflamed conditions of the mucous membrane lining the
LIFESTYLE HINTS FOR STAYING HEALTHY 1. GET PLENTY OF SLEEP: To improve your resistance to any disease, the most important thing you can do is get enough rest. Your body knows how to heal, and it does this best when sleeping. Get adequate rest on a daily basis, and if you begin to feel fatigue during a time of increased stress to your immune system, take naps, get into bed earlier, relax and let your body do what it does best: restore and rebuild. 2. WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY, using warm water and soap, scrubbing all surfaces for about 15-20 seconds. Some flu viruses can live up to two hours on surfaces such as desks, phones and door knobs. When soap and water are not available, hand sanitizers containing 60-90% ethyl alcohol or isopropanol may be used. 3. HYDRATE: Our bodies are 80% water. Drink plenty of water each day to stay hydrated and to allow the body to flush toxins from the blood and the liver. Drink pure water, not soda or juice, for best results. 4. EXERCISE increases your resistance to disease. It stimulates the cleansing blood flow and increases your natural stress-reducing hormones. Exercise doesn't have to be strenuous to be beneficial. Science has shown that walking daily is good for your health and well-being. 5. SPEND TIME OUTDOORS: The healing benefits of nature are yours and all you need to do is step outside.
The fresh air cleanses your lungs and the vitamin D from sunshine is great for general health. Even on a rainy day or at night, the fresh air is beneficial. 6. AVOID TOUCHING YOUR FACE, unless you have just washed your hands. The eyes, nose and mouth are entry ports for flu viruses. Cover your mouth with a disposable tissue when coughing and sneezing. Dispose of tissues and wash your hands immediately. If you do not have a tissue, use your sleeve at the elbow to cover your face when coughing or sneezing rather than your hands. 7. AVOID SHARING OBJECTS (cups, utensils, etc.). Wipe down shared equipment such as phones and keyboards. 8. EAT HEALTHFULLY. Remember to eat the recommended 5-9 servings per day of fruits and vegetables. 9. LIMIT ALCOHOL INTAKE. Alcohol can be dehydrating which, in turn, may decrease your resistance. 10. FINALLY, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Stay home if you have a fever and are coughing. You will feel better, recover faster if you rest and reduce the risk of infecting others. Seek medical help if symptoms persist or if you develop a high fever.
throat and relieves coughing. To make a pleasant tasting tea put a small handful of the mullein flowers in 1 pint of boiling water. Allow to steep 15 minutes. Strain and sweeten with honey. HEALING HERB For a good healing tea, combine equal parts of elder berries, peppermint, and yarrow and steep 1 to 2 tsp of the mixture in 1 cup hot water. Take it hot just before going to bed to induce a sweat. Other herbs that may be added to the infusion to add flavor and healing action include: CAYENNE: a favorite North American Indian remedy that stimulates the circulation. CINNAMON: use a cinnamon stick, and break it into the mixture of herbs for a gentle, warming and sweat-inducing effect. THYME, BONESET, SAGE: Taken together as a tea help to break up congestion and bring down a fever. Take a cup of tea up to three times daily for three to five days. LICORICE contains antiviral compounds that induce the release of interferons, the body's own antiviral constituents. MARSHMALLOW and other mallows have been used for thousands of years as a soothing herb for cold-related cough and sore throat and other respiratory conditions. SLIPPERY ELM BARK contains large quantities of a mucilage that acts as an effective throat soother and cough suppressant. HOMEMADE COUGH SYRUP: Steep raw garlic or onion slices and chopped fresh giner overnight in honey. Take 1/2 teaspoons full of the resulting mixture at intervals like a cough syrup. INHALATIONS—Use inhalations of chamomile, eucalyptus or thyme to help loosen mucus and heal the throat, nasal passages and bronchial tubes. Horsetail inhalations reduce swelling of mucous membranes. Onion or nasturtium inhalations disinfect. Ginkgo biloba leaf inhalations kill bacteria and heal the cells of the damaged mucous membranes almost immediately. Inhale steam for fifteen minutes three times daily in acute stage; when the condition is improving, inhale steam in the evening before retiring, for a week or so to help heat the bronchial passages. The above information is for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Consult a health care professional.
gardening planting
farming &
GARLIC
tified disease-free seed isn't worth it. Planting the right variety, on the other hand, is extremely important. But that doesn't mean you should purchase seed garlic.
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As spring continues, your plants will continue to skyrocket, and in late May—assuming you planted a flowering variety—you'll be treated to a funky display of garlic blossoms curling from the plant tops. These should be harvested and enjoyed, both because they're tasty and because not harvesting the flowers will result in smaller bulbs. The flowering varieties of garlic are collectively called hardnecks, so named because of their woody flowering stalks. Hardneck garlic generally has better flavor, peels easier and has larger and more uniform cloves, but most large producers grow softneck garlic, which is what you're more likely to find at the store. Softneck garlic is less labor intensive to produce, because there are none of those pesky and delicious flowers to harvest in spring. To home gardeners, those flowers are more asset than liability and yet another reason hardneck garlic is better suited to the garden. The first step in growing your own garlic stash is getting your paws on some good garlic for planting. Seed garlic, marketed expressly for planting, is available from nurseries, seed catalogs and online, but there's a negligible difference between that and any other garlic you'll find. The only advantage to buying seed garlic, which is considerably more expensive, is that you can choose your variety and efforts have been made to ensure it's disease-free. While commercial growers have good financial reason to be wary of crop diseases, the chances of backyard garlic getting sick are low enough, and the consequences non-dire enough, that paying for cer-
order to generate a self-sustaining garlic crop. I devised an equation in which "x" is the number of bulbs one needs to plant. To solve for x, you need the following values: y = the average number of cloves per bulb of the variety of garlic you're planting. In my case, Romanian Red averages five cloves per bulb, so y = 5. z = the number of bulbs you want for eating (in my case, z = 365, or one bulb per day) The equation is: x = z/(y-1). In my case, x = 365/(5-1), or 91.25 bulbs, which I round up to 92. Working backwards to check my math: 92 bulbs contain 460 cloves, each of which will grow into a bulb. If I then harvest all 460 bulbs, and subtract the 365 bulbs I intend to eat, I'm left with 95 bulbs for planting next year. And the cycle begins again
BY ARI LEVAUX haven't bought garlic since 1996. That's because I grow enough to eat a bulb of garlic every day, year 'round. While most of my garden adventures are hobby-level attempts at self-sufficiency, my garlic crop is for real. Garlic is an overwintering crop, planted in fall and harvested mid-summer. So if you want to have a crop next year, it's time to think about planting. A year's supply of garlic hanging in your garage hints at many great meals to come, but by the time you reach that milestone the rewards have already been flowing for months. Your first return arrives in early spring, when your garlic races out of the ground. It's a foot tall when your neighbors' gardens are still empty brown patches.
October 2009 14
Now for the easy part: planting the garlic. You must find a variety suited to your home region, and the obvious way to acquire such variety is to buy high-grade locally grown garlic—which obviously grows well where you live. A great option is the farmers’ market, where growers will be able to tell you the conditions in which their garlic grew, and will probably be able to tell you what kind it is. In addition to being a stickler for hardneck garlic, I also look for large bulb size, peelability, and a minimum of cloves per bulb. Fewer cloves means bigger cloves, and there's nothing more annoying than dinky little hard-to-peel cloves. In addition to determining which garlic you want to grow, you'll need to calculate how much you need to plant to get the size crop you want—enough to eat, plus enough to plant next fall. My high school algebra finally came in handy when it came to figuring how many bulbs to plant in
Garlic is generally planted in October or November. It's a heavy feeder, so you want good dirt with plenty of organic material and nitrogen. Carefully break the bulbs into individual cloves, leaving the peel on and making sure the little scabby plate at the bottom of each clove remains intact. Plant the cloves with the scabby side down, an inch deep, six inches apart, in rows. Then mulch your patch with straw—not hay—about an inch deep. The mulch will keep your garlic warm in the winter and help the soil retain moisture. Come spring, the young garlic will poke through the mulch, and then it's off to the races. Make sure to keep it well-watered. When the leaves start turning brown, despite your dedicated watering, it's time to harvest. Entire books have been written on this subject, so if you're serious about investing your time, money and land into a big garlic crop, you might want to consult a more in-depth source. I recommend Growing Great Garlic by Ron Engeland. In the meantime, hit the farmers’ market, get some seed and get planting.
G R O W G R E AT G A R L I C . . . AT H O M E
GMO Chile Breeders: Y O U C A N H AV E M Y C H I L E W H E N Y O U P RY I T O U T OF MY COLD, DEAD HANDS BY BRETT BAKKER, CHIEF ORGANIC INSPECTOR, NMOCC he good folks at the Save New Mexico Seeds Coalition want you to know about the threat of Genetically Modified Organisms in our chile peppers. It’s one thing to hear about GMO soybeans taking over what are vast corporate farms ’cause even if you eat lots of tofu it seems somehow distant. But if there’s one thing Nuevo Mexicanos are emotional about, it’s our chile. Red or green, gas or charcoal roasted, Barker or Sandia—we’re ready to throw down to settle the score. Tampering with our favorite pod is risky business.
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Case in point: one of my heroes is Fabian Garcia, a seed collector and plant breeder in the 1910s at what’s now NMSU. He worked with many New Mexico crops but particularly chile. Garcia developed the first commercial variety (the #9) by crossbreeding the wildly variable native chile, the result being uniform in size, heat and production. It might be strange to hear a long time semillero like myself champion crop uniformity, but in those days it gave the small farm a chance to make a few more bucks. Back then, exporting your crop meant packing it onto the old Chile Line railroad to move it between the Espanola Valley and the Mesilla Valley. Our native chile isn’t suited to mass production: it’s small (not very meaty), irregular in shape (hard to peel) and ripens over a longer period. But it has the best flavor of all and is well worth roasting yourself. The Chimayo is sometimes cited as the only native. Untrue! I’ve collected seed from farmers there who swore up and down to me that their big long meaty pods are the true natives. Those may indeed be the seeds inherited from their abuelitos and possibly descended from Garcia’s breeds, but truly native? No, only a few viejos in Chimayo had and knew what I meant by chiles nativos. I collected them at almost every Pueblo (San Felipe, Jemez and Santo Domingo among my favorites) and a few northern ’manito villages but was most
amazed to find a puro nativo kept alive by one family in tiny Escondida near Socorro. That’s the furthest south I’ve yet found native New Mexico chile seed. I’ve worked kitchens in my time. Believe me, unless you’re willing to pay Kobe beef prices, no chef is gonna roast and peel tiny native chiles for your plate (except, of course, the little old ladies at the Indian Pueblos, bless ’em. I wish they were all my mother so I could eat their chile stews every day). No, if you want chile available 365 days a year, the “improved” peppers are the item. We have all kinds of commercial varieties that make mass production a snap but just don’t have the flavor of the natives or Garcia’s original #9. Heck, most modern breeds don’t even have the flavor one could find in 1962, which is why NMSU breeders are backcrossing their new varieties with their old ones. In all the press about the wonders of GMO chile I haven’t seen what the dang improvement’s gonna be. Over 86% of GMO crops have been bred to resist herbicide, not pests. The biggest problem NM chile growers face (besides competition from Texas and Mexico) are the diseases collectively called “chile wilt”. There’s a long way to go, but breeders at NMSU have been working on that with some success without resorting to genetic modification. Nope, once again the strategy is control of the food supply by monkeying with a good thing for a couple years, then gaining patents that guarantee sizable returns on something built on centuries of the sweat of farmers. Fabian Garcia is spinning in his grave.
CONCERNED? YOU’D BETTER BE. GO TO http://savenmseeds.org/ ITCHY GREEN
THUMB
community
forum
October 2009 15 act collectively
TRANSITION
FROM OIL DEPENDENCY TO LOCAL RESILIENCE From New Mexico to Vermont BY MAGGIE SEELEY AND ZAIDA AMARAL ransition communities are “scalable microcosms of hope.” The cities of Totnes, UK, and Kinsdale, Ireland, launched the world-wide movement in 2005. The Transition process enables citizens to look at such problems as peak oil, climate change, the economic crisis and the water crisis (especially here in New Mexico) squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of the community to address problems locally. There are fledgling Transition groups in Albuquerque, Corrales, Placitis, Santa Fe, Silver City, Truth or Consequences, Jemez Springs and elsewhere. They all share four key assumptions: 1) That life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and that it’s better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise. 2) That our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil. 3) That we have to act collectively, and we have to act now. 4) That by unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are
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SANTA FE
ALLIANCE
FOOD AND FUELS GATHERING Thursday, October 8th Santa Fe Alliance’s Regional Food and Fuels Gathering will be on Thursday, October 8, 69pm at the Santa Fe Complex. Hear panel discussions, project updates and lots of community information and enjoy refreshments and networking with like- minded community members. The Regional Food and Fuels Project is linking rural and agricultural economic development to
more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological limits of our planet. Montpelier, Vermont, has a very active Transition movement that began in June of 2008. (Contact: transitiontownmontpelier@gmail.com.) This group meets every week and speaks clearly about the urgency of taking action to prepare for worst case scenarios (winter freeze with no heating oil, food trucks unable to deliver groceries, clean water shortage or rationing). They are not “doom and gloomers” but believe in being prepared in good old fashioned Vermont style. FOOD GARDEN at State Capitol Transition Montpelier created two food gardens planted in front of the State Capitol Building, flanking the steps, midway in the expanse of a large green beautiful lawn. Veggies (cabbage, peppers, kale, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, herbs) grown there are given to the local food bank. The garden was constructed entirely by volunteer labor, donated seeds, plants and materials. The Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, legislators and the governor helped dedicate it. The idea
our urban economy in Santa Fe to localize our food system, increase food production by reducing costs through renewable energy projects and connecting small rural areas to one another. This program also seeks to create green jobs, which will address Santa Fe Alliance's workforce development initiative needs as well. Facilitated by leaders from the Santa Fe Alliance and community leaders from the food and renewable energy sectors. For directions to the Santa Fe Complex go to www.sfcomplex.org.
NOW!
was hatched by the Transition Group in Jan 2009 and executed in June 2009. It’s pretty, has great political visibility, involves lots of people and is independently maintained by a local non-profit organization. RE-SKILLING Projects e-skilling is a very popular part of the Transition movement. The Montpelier Transition Group is sponsoring popular classes on essentials: root cellars, growing crops to store and putting food-by (preparing for storage) because of long, cold winters. The Transition group is preparing “how-to pamphlets” on these three topics. Carpentry, weatherization, sewing, aquaculture, foraging wild edibles, installing wind turbines and mechanical repair classes are also sponsored by Transition.
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Particularly successful is a Time Bank. It has its roots in Vermont bartering. People make deposits and withdrawals, all based on hours of work which community members do or have done for them. It’s another form of barter, but with more community accountability. Because Transition does not necessarily sponsor or create new projects, it’s important to note that it serves as a connecting, networking and community-building link, and creates a sense of urgency about taking action before peak oil and climate change require dramatic responses. MAGGIE SEELEY teaches in the Sustainability Studies Program at the University of New Mexico and works as a Green Business consultant using the Triple Bottom Line. ZAIDA AMARAL is an architect and the Director of Eco Village Design Southwest. They are officially designated Transition Trainers, two of twenty-two in the US. Contact them at: MaggiHeart@aol.com. zaida@ecovillagedesign southwest.org or http: //transitionus.ning.com.
LA RAZA UNIDA and CAMBIO Present the 17th Annual South Valley
Dia De Los Muertos Marigold Parade Sun. Nov. 1 4-8pm
for more info call 244-0120 email: xicanisma@hotmail.com COME IN YOUR BEST CALAVERA ATTIRE!
GuitarVista fine acoustic instruments
earth building
buy • sell • trade
PRESENTED BY AMPERSAND S U S TA I N A B L E L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Stan Burg
WORKSHOP
Ph 505-268-1133 Fax 505-268-0337
3005 Monte Vista NE Albuquerque, NM 87106 E-mail: gitmaven@yahoo.com
WITH AMANDA BRAMBLE Saturday, October 17th, 10am to 5pm • $35 to $50 sliding scale
OCTOBER 24TH, PIEDRA LISA TRAIL DAY- 9-1PM
L
earn the basics of several earth-building techniques, including Earthbags, Cob and Adobe. Learn the pros and cons of these different structural earth-building methods and discover which is most appropriate for different sites based on local soil structure, water supply and labor resources. Everyone will get experience with Earth plasters appropriate for primary, secondary and finish coatings on Strawbale, Straw- Clay, or Earthen walls. Interior finishing techniques will be discussed. Observe these natural building processes at different stages of completion at Ampersand. Participants are invited to bring soil samples from their own properties for the class to compare and assess. Call Ampersand at 505-780-0535 to register, or go to www.ampersandproject.org
The Nicodemus Wilderness Project and ABQ Open Space’s Make a Difference Day. Projects include trail maintenance, trail building, trash cleanup, graffiti removal, etc. For more information about Make a Difference Day please call 452-5200 or email jsat tler@cabq.gov
stay healthy with
natural remedies
Two Locations! Nob Hill
october
17th
ALBUQUERQUE
OPEN SPACE’S 15TH ANNUAL Acupuncture Center Relief from stress, pain, digestive discomfort, colds & flu Most insurances accepted. 3415 Silver SE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106 P: 505-265-5087 103 East Hill Gallup, New Mexico 87301 P: 505-863-8018
DIO DEL RIO CELEBRATION
SAT, OCT. 17, 8:30-1PM At The Rio Grande Nature Center, 2901 Candelaria NW, Albuquerque. To register stop by REI at 1550 Mercantile Ave NE or call 247-1191. Bring gloves, sun protection, sturdy shoes and plenty of water. Call 452-5200 or email kswan son@cabq.gov to organize your cleanup or for more information.
october 2009
Join La Montañita Co-op! Your community-owned natural foods grocery store
Why Join? -You Care! –about good food and how it is produced -You’re Empowered! –you help support the local/regional food-shed -You Support! –Co-op principles & values and community ownership -You Vote! –with your dollars for a strong local economy -You Participate! –providing direction and energy to the Co-op -You Receive! –member discounts, weekly specials and a patronage refund
You Own It!
–an economic alternative for a sustainable future
In so many ways it pays to be a La Montañita Co-op Member/Owner!
Great Reasons to be a Co-op Member • Pick up our monthly newsletter full of information on food, health, environment and your Co-op. • Member refund program: at the end of each fiscal year, if earnings are sufficient, refunds are returned to members based on purchases. • Weekly member-only coupon specials as featured in our weekly sales flyer. Pick it up every week at any location to save more than your annual membership fee each week. • Banking membership at the New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union. • Member only discount days: take advantage of our special discount events throughout the year–for members only.
This year the Co-op is pleased to present the Executive Director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, author and local living economies activist, Susan Witt. Susan will be speaking on linking land, people and communities for a local living economy.
• Special orders: on order large quantities or hard-to-find items at a 10% discount for members. • General membership meetings, Board positions and voting. Co-ops are democratic organizations. Your participation is encouraged.
co nne ct io n
free