About this site: “Cook, is the answer… Cook and evangelize.”

“By growing or buying good things and cooking them well, you, and your neighbor, can effect the small but collectively crucial changes that could take the human race, and its fellow creatures, safely through the twenty-first century. People often ask me, when I proselytize in public places: ‘But what can I do?’ Cook, is the answer. Cook with knowledge. Cook and evangelize.”
(Colin Tudge, Future Food, 1980.)

“Greens and Beans” sums up a modest proposal (or curriculum) for teaching people to garden on a small scale and eat better. I think just about any diet would be improved by the addition of greens and beans, and most yards have a 4 x 8 patch of sun that would support these easy-to-grow basics.

I’m interested in following Tom Philpott’s call for a “liberation politics based on food.” Also in developing local, accountable, carbon reduction projects, whether based on markets or volunteerism. Please share your ideas with me.

I started this blog to record my learning to run a household with a carbon footprint representing a 90% reduction from the American average, as laid out by “Riot for Austerity” founders Sharon and Miranda. The households involved are diverse; mine is a one-person, studio-sized apartment in college-town Pennsylvania. I help with a community garden and cook almost 100% of what I eat. A lot of my work I do at home. This is definitely low-dollar greening in a low-dollar neighborhood.

My community is largely Hispanic, and here the diabetes epidemic is clearly part of the sustainability project. I am very interested in the relationship between sustainable behavior and public health.