Gardening is Gangsta! Resistance is Fertile, suckas!

I freakin' love the whole process of gardening. From taking the little seeds and nurturing them as they sprout- I love to watch the little baby seedlings grow. I become very fond of them- I kind of love them, truth be told. I think they know it, too. So when they are finally old enough to be planted in the tower, its like a Bar or Bat Mitvah. So exciting that they are old enough to live on their own!




my little babies!

Here are those babies three weeks ago- just a gleam in my eye

Even cooler is when its harvest time, and you are able to make salads and smoothies with the harvest. I have harvested three times now, and its amazing to know you grew what you are eating. This novelty, I know, is lost on old school garden growers. But for me, having been citified for so many years, I lost the relationship with growing food. I thought it was impossible, given that I live in an apartment. And above all, I wasn't interested- as everyone who has read my blogs knows, until recently I wasn't about to eat anything green.

I am invigorated by the movement when it comes to food- from the revolutionary stance, such as I take, to the nutrition freaks, to the vegans who love animals, to those who are concerned for the environment and buy local for that reason (I am one of those, too)- its a full on movement, and its exciting as hell. Like Jamie Oliver, raising so much Cain that McDonalds is going to stop using the ammonia in the McNuggets (they still will be total crap, but better than before), to documentaries about the farming industry revealing the truth about what the FDA is doing to small farmers, to local merchants trying to simply sell raw foods, or raw milk, and the people who want to buy those items (Farmageddon- click here to see movie), to all the facebook postings about Monsanto, and the revived interest in farmer's markets, urban beekeeping and gardening...its amazing! Its...GANGSTA!

Gardening is Gangsta- I told you!

Gardening is GANGSTA- especially when you do it urban style, either in an aeroponic garden tower, or guerilla gangster style- planting food bearing plants in public spaces). Eating healthy is gangsta- just check out THUG KITCHEN ("eat like you give a fuck").  I personally love when there is a saucy dose of irreverence, like PUNK ROCK HOMESTEADING ("Resistance is Fertile"). These earth friendly, body loving practices all comes from the past, but this is the future, its necessary, and its radical, revolutionary, and a movement worth joining.



Thug Kitchen is totally gangsta- love those punx!

If you think you can't grow your own fruit and vegetables because you live in an urban setting- you're wrong. Check out Garden Towers- they have a pretty sweet payment plan.

 If you think you can't afford to eat locally or organic- I am doing it, and I raise a family of two teenage girls and 5 animals on one small income, smashed into a two bedroom apartment, and I'm doing it. Trust me, its not as expensive as you think.

I am gonna eat that arugula tomorrow

If you think you can't live without your certain processed foods- go back and read my first blog and keep reading until you catch up to this one- I am you. You are me.  I'm on day 4 of no coca cola- the longest I have gone in 34 years without a Coke. I know how hard it is, but I also know what it feels like once you do it. Its like...discovering you were a slave and freeing yourself. Nothing bad about that. You deserve to experience it for yourself.

If you have any other resistance- look at it. The human Ego was designed to resist anything that is truly and deeply good- for you, for your life, and for the planet. The Ego is like a disease. It would prefer you be a robot to your programming, a puppet to your tastebuds and a slave to your insecurities, than to question any part of your life and habits. THATS EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT. Don't be a robot, or a puppet, or a slave. Question yourself. Then Occupy Yourself. Start here, start now, start small, but by all means. start. You will be in good company. And you might, like me, love it. And you might even be, like me,  a GANGSTA. Yeeeoooow!

OCCUPY YOURSELF!


Love, Ashley Dane