Bike Ballet

One of the three major pro bike races of the year, the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy), began yesterday. It features a TTT—a team time trial. That's when all nine members of a pro team ride together over a prescribed course, one team at a time, racing against the clock. The team that rides the prescribed course fastest wins the TTT segment of the three-week race. The TTT is one of the most popular stages in a pro bike race for the fans who watch on TV. The TTT is a carefully choreographed ballet—nine riders flying in a straight line at upwards of 30 mph, tire to tire. They can lose up to three members (crashes, mechanical problems) and still win if they cross the line with six of the starting nine. The time of the fifth rider to cross the line (I think) is the time given to the entire team.

Michael Barry, who rides for the British Sky Team (and writes about pro bike riding), published this video of the Sky Team practicing near Amsterdam for the Giro d'Italia TTT. There is a camera attached to his handlebars, and another attached to a trailing motorcycle (I think) that Barry turns on as they set out. In the video, watch how fast they move and how closely they ride to one another—and how the lead rider in the train, who does the hard work of breaking the air barrier at the front of the line, peals off after about 20-30 seconds of hard pulling at the front, and fades back to last place in line to catch his breath. The line cycles that way for the entire length of the course. And watch for the HUGE two bladed wind-powered electrical generator (near the beginning of the video)—Europe is way ahead of the U.S. in alternative energy.

Watch for a yellow car that passes the team on the road and throws something at the riders, and the reaction of the Team Sky rider in white. I might expect that in the U.S.—surprising to see it in Holland where biking is ingrained in the culture. Idiocy knows no nationality, I guess.

And check out the Team Sky bus that ferries the riders from race to race. Nice.

In the words of the lyrics to the techno rhythm accompanying the video, "If you got a pair of headphones—you better get 'em on and get 'em cranked up!" (See more of Michael Barry's writing and videos about life as a pro bike rider at his blog, Michael Barry: Le Métier.)

Oh, and I have to say: Team Sky rides the Pinarello Dogma 60.1 (the Pinarello Graal is the brand new time trial version of the Dogma), a fold-out picture of which is taped to my bathroom mirror. It's an Italian dream machine. I have never ridden a time trial bike and would be scared to. They're like regular race bikes except, instead of regular handlebars, they have tiny hand grips jutting off the front of the handlebars that the riders grasp, with their elbows resting on the handlebars, to create more of an aerodynamic position for speed. Thus, in the video, you see the camera on Barry's bike shooting between his two hands. The closer your hands are together, the less control one has over the bike. And at 30 mph . . . ? I would love to do this—bike ballet!

Cold Spring, Mt. Pleasant, NC

I came across a great web site—findaspring.com—that identifies fresh-water springs all over the world. Turns out there is one, Cold Spring, in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina, about 30 miles from where I live. (Note: This obviously isn't the only spring near Charlotte, it's just the only one that a user has uploaded to findaspring.com. The site is user-generated, so reflects only the springs that individuals have visited and uploaded to the site.) The web site provides directions and how to locate the spring, and finding it was a snap. If you want to look for a spring near you, just drill down through the world map on the web site until you get to your locale—it's pretty self-explanatory.

Cold Spring is located behind Cold Springs United Methodist Church and the water is free for the taking. The church has a traditional Southern "supper on the grounds" pavilion right by the spring, and all the grounds are neat and well maintained. The spring runs 24 x 7 x 365—one long-time resident of the area I talked with said he'd never known it not to run, even in periods of severe drought. The spring is down in a low place behind the church with hills rising up behind it. I can only assume that the high water table in the hills keeps pushing the water out at the low place. It is a beautiful, quiet place. The church has constructed a sort of grotto with a reservoir out of which the spring runs from two outlets.

Armed with all the jars and containers I had on hand, I set out after church this morning to get some real live spring water and had a pleasant afternoon in Mt. Pleasant. I've included more pics and movies than you want to see—but hope you enjoy your virtual tour.

Here's where Mt. Pleasant is located in relation to Matthews, near where I live:

This is Cold Springs United Methodist Church, a modern facility that stands on the grounds of the original church. I was surprised at how big the church is for the rural area in which it is located.

The church cemetery across the street—not sure of the purpose of this interesting structure in the cemetery:

This sign behind the church points the way to the spring. The church's web site indicates that people stopped for water at this spring as far back as the 1830's—and probably before. I assume "the 1830's" is as far back as written records exist:

Behind the church, looking down toward the spring. The hand rail is alongside steps that lead down to the spring and the supper pavilion:

Isn't this nice? Shady, cool, and not a sound except for the gurgling of pure water coming out of, and going back into, the ground. The stone work around the spring looks to be at least 50 years old:

This concrete cistern, I assume, goes down into the ground a ways and captures the water from the spring and channels it into the outlet pipe. The two outlets empty into a drain that runs somewhere—perhaps into a small creek that runs behind the spring? This reminds me of a cabin in the mountains outside West Jefferson, NC, where my son and his wife lived for a while (and where their first child was born). Water for the cabin flowed downhill through a pipe from a spring on the side of the mountain behind the cabin, into a pressurized bladder (holding tank) in the house, which then fed the kitchen and bathroom with water. That water also filled the large birthing tank set up in the cabin in which their first child was birthed. Being born in that mountain spring water probably accounts for Ellen's sweet disposition! :-)

The sounds of running water:

I filled up all the containers I brought with me—probably three gallons total:

I was so impressed that I decided, "I need more containers." So I set off looking for Mt. Pleasant to find a grocery store and saw more than one abandoned homestead:

While I was wandering around looking for Mt. Pleasant, I came across this repository of memories standing like a sentinel, a reminder of times past, on an abandoned farm. Who sat on this porch, and what did they talk about?

I'm speculating here, but I'm sure this house started as most old farm houses of this era did, as a two-story rectangle with chimneys on both ends. Sometime later, as resources allowed, the two sections in the rear were added—either at two different times (my guess) or at the same time. I'm thinking the smaller one was a bathroom (there would have been an original outhouse, separate from the main house), the larger a kitchen—most of the windows had blinds and I couldn't see in; where I could see revealed that most of the interior had been gutted, hopefully in anticipation of refurbishing. But there was no sign of recent activity, sadly.

A small "house" standing in a pasture about a hundred yards from the main house:

A beautiful black walnut tree in the side yard:

It wouldn't be a Southern farm house without a magnolia in the front yard—there were two of them:

In time, prosperity brought black and white images sent through the air and viewed on an electric screen, around which a farm family gathered to be influenced in ways they couldn't have foreseen (and might have avoided if they'd known who and what they were inviting into their home):

Another icon of abandoned farm houses: a hornets nest. While this one has been mostly removed, you can see the size of it by the stains, like tree rings, on the siding under the eave of the house:

I finally found Mt. Pleasant—a few shots of "downtown." The office of the local barrister:

Not sure what happened in 1929—perhaps Mr. Moose passed on and left the store to another:

The main business district:

I found a Food Lion, bought six gallon jugs of some kind of filtered water, poured out the water and took the jugs back to capture more spring water. (I know, I know—it's just the way I'm wired. I didn't drive all the way to Cold Spring to bring back tacky Food Lion water. I wanted the natural minerals from the spring water which are absent from distilled and reverse osmosis bottled water.)

On my way back to the spring, I passed a lovely house with bird feeders and bird houses for sale in the front yard. (Note the large "box" hanging underneath the table—it's the payment box.)

If the owner/builder, Troy Miller, hadn't been home, I would have obeyed the sign on his table and put my money in the slot (vertical slot beneath the word "cleaning"). Nice to know the honor system lives on in rural America:

Fortunately, Troy was home and we had a nice chat, and I bought this great bird feeder from him. He said he didn't think anyone had ever taken a bird house without paying. He found an I.O.U. in the box one time—it was from his daughter, who lives next door. :-)

I returned to the spring and filled up my six gallon jugs and made it home with about 10 gallons of wonderful water. On the way out of Mt. Pleasant, I saw these four monuments. The second from the left is a 1949-1950 era Ford. My family had one of these—a "ragtop" (convertible) when I was around 5-6 years old (around 1953) in Decatur, Alabama. My dad grew up in a car-business family and loved cars. Our beige '49-'50 Ford convertible was pretty snazzy for its day. These looked a little worse for wear. But they're available. Let me know if you want directions. :-)

A pleasant afternoon at Cold Spring in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. If I can rustle up some of those BIG blue-colored water jugs that you see in offices, etc., I'll probably go back for another load. I don't know who is behind the findaspring.com site, but I'm thankful for their efforts.

Wilbur

I look forward to picking up my CSA box at New Town Farms on Thursdays this year because I get to see Wilbur, the Koenigsberg's French Mastiff (Dogue de Bordeaux, Bordeaux Mastiff, or French Mastiff). He is such a sweetheart. He has jaws that could probably separate your foot from your calf, but is Mr. Laid Back. I woke him up from a sound sleep in the hot sun this afternoon:

He seemed underwhelmed with my efforts to be friends:

Another wonderful harvest in today's box: kale, BIG bag of spinach, BIG bag of salad greens, and BIG bag of braising greens, plus beets, turnips, and full size bok choi:

What Warren Buffet Did, and Didn't, Give His Children

An interesting interview on today's "Morning Edition" program on NPR with Peter Buffett, son of Warren Buffett, the world's third richest person (according to the March, 2010, Forbes ranking). Warren Buffett plans to leave his children with a good bit of training, but very few dollars. Peter Buffett, a musician, inherited $90,000 from his grandfather when he was 19. It would have grown to $73 million if he'd invested it in his father's holding company, but instead he bought music equipment to begin his successful career in music, and happily so. The money that the elder Buffett will leave his three children is $1 billion each with which to do charitable work, but none for themselves personally. An interesting perspective on how one of the world's richest people taught his children about money. (Like not being willing to give Peter a small loan when he was in his twenties. It made the younger Buffett angry then, but now he is glad for his father's decision.)

You can read or listen to the interview on the NPR web site here.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

If you, or anyone you know, suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, please read the testimony of a 40-year-old (female) competitive marathon runner who was struck with R.A. and cured of it (and other illnesses) within a few weeks after switching to a vegan diet under the care of Dr. John McDougall. This is a powerful testimony to the healing power of foods (and the elimination of animal products, which this person ate heavily prior to switching to a vegan diet). Read it here.

One wonders how much evidence it takes to convince people who live with sickness to adjust their diets. I have a post coming about a recent conference where TONS of information was presented about diet and health. Stay tuned.

This Can't Be Good, But It's Funny

Lance Armstrong is expecting his second child with gal-pal Anna Hansen, his second with her and fifth overall (the first three with his ex-wife).

The four-month-old, in-utero Armstrong already has a Twitter account ("cincoarmstrong") with 2,433 followers. This can't be good, but it is funny.

Creativity

Two illustrations of pure creativity:

First, a palindrome (read the same way in either direction, in this case with opposite meanings) written by a 20-year-old. You have to watch it all the way through to see how it works:

Next, for the younger generation who have never seen it, the most famous commercial in history: Apple's famous "1984" ad introducing the Macintosh computer. It ran only once, during the 1984 Super Bowl. It was produced by Ridley Scott and was based on George Orwell's 1984 with IBM pictured in the role of "Big Brother." This video is of Steve Jobs presenting the "1984" commercial at an Apple conference in the fall of 1983. Nobody can accuse Jobs of a lack of creativity and charisma, even 27 years ago. (Ironically, some wonder if Jobs has become "Big Brother," with Apple now being the third largest company in America [market cap] behind Exxon and Microsoft.) The commercial itself is powerful, but to see it in the context of Jobs' remarks is a part of cultural history (let it play past the opening sound track):

The Three Sisters

Southwestern Mexican/Indian populations historically grew a combination of vegetables known as "the Three Sisters": corn (maize), squash, and beans. The corn stalks grew tall, the squash grew low and provided shade and cooling for the soil while blocking weed growth, and the beans trailed up the corn stalks using them as a natural trellis as well as fixing nitrogen in the soil to feed the corn, a heavy nitrogen user. The U.S. Mint even produced a $1 gold coin commemorating the Three Sisters" on the reverse side:

Joel Gruver, professor of agriculture at Western Illinois University, uses backyard wading pools to create raised garden beds. I noticed in a series of pictures he posted on his beds project (here and here) that he is growing the Three Sisters in one: beans in the outermost circle, corn in the middle circle, and squash growing in the middle. Very creative! Something anyone could do to create a YardFarm in their own urban or suburban setting:

(Thanks to Joel Gruver for the use of the pic of his growing pool.)

Update: I heard from Joel -- his variation on the "Three Sisters" was that the beans were bush beans instead of climbing (pole) beans, and the center planting is cukes instead of squash (the starter leaves on both plants are similar, so I had assumed squash). He said the corn was a tropical variety that got over 12 feet tall (!) planted in the pool. The cukes didn't fare as well because of the shallow soil and need for continual watering. But, as the pics I linked to above testify, the pools are perfect for growing mesclun mix and other salad greens that require less depth.)

Imitating Intergenerational, Indigenous Eaters

Another fine passage from The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller, M.D., this time on how our modern culture has disrupted the age-old, powerful process of youngsters learning how to eat by imitating their elders:

At the same time that the mass media are pushing us to imitate celebrities, we have lost our opportunity to imitate our elders. It is now customary for people to leave home oat a young age and live apart from their parents or grandparents, often being separated from one another by hundreds of miles. With this distance, we have lost our opportunity to learn how to grow, collect, and prepare our indigenous foods. In addition, the family meal during which a group sits down together on a daily basis is slowly becoming extinct. Most of us find ourselves eating alone and often in front of the television. [WK—Guilty as charged.) This is a practice that invariably leads to overeating, since television prevents us from noticing our body's natural cues that tell us we are full. In addition, eating in isolation offers people little chance to learn table manners, share food lore, or appreciate the recipes of the previous generation. For many, celebrations involving feasting of fasting have also lost their importance. As a result, modest everyday meals punctuated by monthly or bimonthly feasts have given way to daily feasts where every meal becomes an overindulgence in calorie rich foods. (P. 42)

Yet another reason to preserve and protect the near-extinct practice of intergenerational living arrangements.

YardFarm

Taken this morning in my tiny front yard garden spaces.

A beautiful, HUGE (8-9" across) zucchini female flower:

The backside of the same flower with the new zucchini at the base:

Russian kale coming up:

Yellow squash:

Several varieties of tomato:

Peppers in a pot:

America and Bordeaux spinach in a planter:

Basil coming up:

Intensive gardening:

Mint, flowering dill, and oregano (growing in kitty litter buckets):

Aloe in a row (begging to be separated and re-potted). When cooking pasta recently, pouring off the boiling water, I managed to pour a stream of near boiling water over my index finger while holding the pot. It turned red, and within a couple minutes I could see a large blister forming. I immediately cut a large stem of aloe, split it open lengthwise, and taped it around my finger and kept it there the rest of the day until bedtime. I then removed it and coated the finger with wheatgrass cream and bandaged it, then another piece of aloe the next morning. After 24 hours, my finger was fine. No pain, no redness, no blister—from what I'm guessing amounted to a second-degree burn. Everybody should keep aloe handy:

Why I Rarely Eat Out

From the book I'm reading, The Jungle Effect by Daphne Miller, M.D.:

Recently, as I was waiting to use the restroom in my favorite Thai restaurant in San Francisco, I was reminded of [how restaurants can turn healthy food unhealthy]. Tucked back in the kitchen, I spied a huge case of Skippy crunchy peanut butter. So this was the secret ingredient in all those peanut dishes! Thai recipes that were originally meant to include whole peanuts, rich in monounsaturated fats and protein, now contained Skippy, a nut butter mixed with other manipulated fats, that happens to have sugar as its second ingredient. This illustrates how important it is to cook your own foods and do most of your [healthy] eating at home. (p. 20)

Somehow, I began developing a sense a few years ago that, when I sit down in a restaurant, I am at the mercy of the people in the kitchen. Literally, I place my health in their hands. And given what I know (and the Bible says) about human nature, that's not a transaction I'm willing to make easily. To get Skippy peanut butter (sugar, hydrogenated oils) instead of pure nut-based peanut sauce in a Thai restaurant is the refined version of stories that came out a few years ago about teenage cooks spitting in the food (for fun or spite) and picking hamburgers up off the dirty floor and putting them back on the grill at fast food joints.

One assumes that this kind of thing doesn't happen at Chez Panisse or Millennium in San Francisco, or the Candle Cafe or Candle 79 in New York City. But how would one know for sure? This isn't paranoia, it's realism. In all of life, there's a time and place for faith (trust), but not blind faith.

The guiding principle about wealth is that nobody cares as much about your money as you do, especially when "caring" has a profit motive. And the same can be said about health and food: nobody cares as much about your health as you do—especially when there is money to be made at your expense.

So, get to know your food. Get to know the people who cook your food. And take nothing for granted in an age when the heart of man is demonstrably "deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jeremiah 17:9).

Doctors Don't Know Beans

The title of this post is an overstatement, of course. Doctors know a lot, and we have all benefited, at least once, from their skills—especially in emergency situations. America's trauma/emergency care continues to get the world's highest rankings among developed nations.

Sadly, America's doctors know little of curative medicine, depending on their allopathic training to change presenting symptoms rather than identify root causes. Especially is that true when it comes to nutritional approaches to the healing arts—letting "food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" (Hippocrates). The average doctor "doesn't know beans" about the healing power of food unless they gained such knowledge after completing medical school.

The following quote is from a book I'm reading, The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World—Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home by Daphne Miller, M.D. (Collins, 2008). This is a book about the foods eaten in traditional cultures around the world, cultures that manifest few of the chronic disease associated with those who eat an American diet. The quote is the author's own confession of her lack of training in nutrition while being trained at some of the best medical schools in America. I find it refreshing when a doctor 'fesses up about what he or she doesn't know, and how s/he set about to fill in the gaps in his or her knowledge base and practice.

Like Angela, most of the patients that I see daily in my medical practice are trying to prevent or treat a chronic health problem, lose weight, and preserve vitality. For many years, I felt ill equipped to help them achieve their goals. After four years of medical school [at Harvard], three years of residency training [at UCLA], and two in a postgraduate fellowship, this is a hard confession to make.

Of course, I was well versed in using medications. Initially I found it satisfying to watch how rapidly many of these drugs took effect—sometimes lowering blood pressure, blood sugar, or cholesterol levels in a matter of days. However, after several months of practicing medicine out in the real world, it became obvious to me (and certainly obvious to my patients) that there were many unintended side effects from the treatments that I was dispensing daily with my prescription pad. Furthermore, it seemed that my standard approach was not getting at the root of so many of these health problems: the foods my patients ate on a daily basis.

These days, the majority of serious health problems can be traced back to a poor diet. (p. 9)

Who wouldn't feel confident being treated by a doctor who trained at Harvard and UCLA? Yet how many of us have ever sat in a doctor's office and been asked about "the foods we eat on a daily basis"? Good for Dr. Miller for taking a different approach.

Out of Touch Senators

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is getting some things right in Washington. He turned part of the Dept of Agriculture parking lot into a "People's Garden," aided by the delivery of a truckload of organic compost from the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. One of his latest initiatives is called "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food"—an effort to support local agriculture, small farms, and helping consumers understand more about the sources of their food. Here's a video he made to accompany the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative:

Not bad, right? A healthy direction for a federal government department that just a few decades ago told farmers to "get big or get out" of the business. (The words of Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture under presidents Nixon and Ford.)

Save the celebration. Just in time to throw ice water on an otherwise positive move by Vilsack come three Republican senators: Saxby Chambliss of Georgia (ranking minority member of the Senate Agriculture Committee), John McCain of Arizona (who was profiled during the last presidential campaign as living on candy bars and potato chips on his campaign bus -- a real junk food junkie), and Pat Roberts of Kansas (a huge commercial agriculture state -- grains and livestock).

These three teamed up and wrote a letter to Secretary Vilsack challenging the reasonableness of the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program. From the Agriculture Law blog comes this summary of their complaint:

While the letter requests information, its assault on the program is clear. The letter notes that "while the concept of educating consumers about production agriculture is a worthwhile endeavor, we have serious misgivings about the direction of the Know Your Farmers program." The Senators complain that the program does not direct funding to "conventional farmers" but instead is "aimed at small, hobbyist and organic producers whose customers generally consist of affluent patrons at urban farmers markets."

There are so many things wrong with their words that it's hard to know where to begin -- so I won't. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time you can imagine how infuriating and condescending this kind of language is. I don't know much about Chambliss and Roberts, but there is NOTHING in John McCain's background that would qualify him to judge what is happening agriculturally in America -- or in his personal lifestyle and habits. I'm bordering on an ad hominem attack here, so I'll stop.

Except for this: When this kind of movement is made by lawmakers, the first smell one gets is of money. If it were possible to "follow the money" in this case, I wouldn't be surprised if it led directly or indirectly to corporate lobbyists for the agribusiness industries of America who make huge campaign contributions to lawmakers. The movie Food Inc. demonstrated clearly the connection between the federal government and corporate agribusiness interests. There is a revolving door between the offices of FDA, USDA, EPA, and other agencies in Washington, and lawyers, executives, and board members of major agribusiness companies. In short, these companies cast a huge, intimidating shadow over Washington. I have no proof that these three senators are responding to such pressure, but who would be surprised if they were? The "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program is one of the healthiest, sanest initiatives on behalf of family and small farmers—and consumers who need healthy food—to ever come out of Washington.

Why would any lawmaker, on the face of it, be opposed to such a program? What could be wrong with a program that supports local food production, especially since the average fruit or vegetable consumed today travels 1,500 miles from field to fork? What's wrong with a program that encouragers citizens to learn more about their food, how it can nourish their health, and the people who devote their personal (not corporate) lives to growing it? Something doesn't smell right here.

You can read the Agricultural Law evaluation of the senators' letter on the AgLaw web site. And more about the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program here.

[Thanks to my son, David, for the heads-up on this issue.]

Alien Rule

Robert Weissberg is Professor of Political Science-Emeritus at the University of Illinois-Urbana. He has written a great piece (April 29; AmericanThinker.com) on what it is about the presidency of Barack Obama that unsettles so many people. He calls it "alien rule"—the idea that America is now being run by an invader, an outsider; someone who doesn't "get" America; someone who is doing things in ways that we are becoming rapidly more uncomfortable with. It is well worth a few minutes. It helps explain why a man who was elected by a majority of Americans now has such a low approval rating going into his second year. Obama is making an increasing number of Americans nervous.

Why the Arizona Immigration Law Is Not Unjust

A law professor who helped draft the recent Arizona immigration law explains away the myths and untruths that have arisen about the law in this New York Times op-ed.

CSA First Harvest

Picked up the first delivery from the New Town Farms CSA today -- an amazing bounty for this early in the Spring. On the back row, left to right, is a big bag of two varieties of spinach, then a bag of arugula; middle row is a big bunch of kale followed by four HUGE heads of different lettuce varieties; front row is a bundle of baby boc choy, followed by a bundle of radishes, then a bundle of white turnips. I made a huge salad for lunch. Amazing to eat food that was picked just a few hours before:

I stood a couple of the heads of lettuce up with a yardstick behind them—the one on the right was 15" tall:

This little friend was relaxing in a chair on my front porch when I drove up. S/he roams around the neighborhood like a stray, though I think she belongs to somebody. Doesn't have too much interest in people, but I got close enough two days ago to give him/her a good scratching. Maybe that encouraged her to come back for more. I had always been highly allergic to most cats, but since switching to a plant-based diet that is no longer a problem. Cause/effect? I don't know, but I'm happy now to be around cats without the itching and watery eyes.

"The Last Crop" Movie

It's exciting to see how many independent documentaries and films about food and health are being made. The Last Crop is a film about the struggle to preserve small sustainable farms from being lost to developers who turn them into parking lots. The film's tag line is, "Asphalt is the land's last crop." (As if often true with Vimeo videos, this one's streaming isn't great.)

The Last Crop - Trailer from Chuck Schultz on Vimeo.