Anarchist Bookfair This Weekend!

A very exciting event is going on this weekend: the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair!

It's called a "bookfair", but I think it's more accurately described as a "convention" or "conference".  Yes, there's a main hall full of countless wonderful books, zines, fliers etc., but there's also art on exhibition, films showing, and a bunch of workshops and talks.  I'm very happy to be part of one of those talks, a panel on radical education!  From the site:

RADICAL LEARNING AND EDUCATION 

An introduction to alternative forms of education, beyond compulsory state education. We will explore ways to support kids in leading their own learning and education. Find out about education alternatives in Montreal and beyond.

The first part of this discussion will look at radical education alternatives in the Montreal-area presented by members of the Rad School, Cap Libre and a presentation on “Unschooling: Learning through Living”.

The second part of this discussion will look at other worldviews of radical alternative education. Presenters will include Jerry Mintz from AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization in New York).

Our presenters will be speaking about their experiences creating radical spaces for education of children. Various examples of “free schools” and “autonomous schools” will be presented, as well as examples of home-schooling. Our presenters collectively have many years of experience with seeing children grow and thrive in spaces that encourage and value true freedom and independence.

This workshop is part of the Anarchist Parents Discussion Room, which also includes an Alternative Birthing workshop (which includes a great local unschooling mom and blogger) and a workshop on Supporting Parents Dealing With State Authorities.  There is also an Indigenous Solidarity room and an Anti-Capitalist Resistance room, as well as assorted other workshops.

Last year, I went to the bookfair, but didn't know anyone, and didn't go to any workshops.  Even then, I really enjoyed wandering around, loved the atmosphere, and came home with lots of goodies!  I'm looking forward to attending a bunch more this year, as well as actually contributing by being a part of one of these workshops!

If you're anywhere in the area, I hope to see you there! :-)

Peace,
Idzie

P.S. A post on my trip to Gaspe, the reason I haven't posted in so long, will be coming soon...

Speaking Out About Unschooling

Recently I'm realizing more and more, as I've been in contact with an ever growing amount of local unschoolers and alternative schoolers, as well as similar "radical" educational types, how very precarious the state of all non-institutionalized schooling is in my home province of Quebec.

I grew up hearing some homeschoolers worrying about having the neighbors call child protection services, and I remember hearing of a couple scary stories when they were called...  Things never seemed all that bad, though, overall.

But in recent times, it seems to me that the climate here is becoming increasingly unfriendly to those outside of traditional schools, even as (or perhaps because of) the steady rise in the amount of people choosing to stay far away from the school system.  I'd wonder if maybe my personal perspective has changed as I've gotten older, and I'm just noticing it more now, except that others in the area are saying the exact same thing: from speakers at a local Christian homeschooling conferences, to freeschool advocates and anarchist unschoolers.  The government really is cracking down on what they seem to see as a potential threat to their control of the minds of children and teens.

When I commented about this on Facebook, several people suggested it was a fallout from the recent publicity unschooling has been getting.  I can't speak for anywhere else, but I know that that's certainly not the case here!  The general population in Quebec pays very little (I'd go so far as to say no) attention to news in the States.  And even beyond that, this isn't something that recent: I think the last several years have shown an increase.

But those comments raise an important point (one I've talked about a bit before, and thought about a lot more), about whether publicity, and whether being very outspoken, is a good thing or not?

Many unschooling and homeschooling families choose to be "under the radar".  To just quietly go about living their lives, without bringing much if any attention to *how* they're living.  I totally understand and respect that as a personal choice: either because you don't want to deal with the annoyance of being constantly questioned, or even more importantly because unschooling is borderline legal where you live (as in Quebec), so being open about it can be downright dangerous, depending on your situation (I know that my family didn't even admit to being homeschooled [let alone unschooled] when we were younger, if we could help it.  We all felt safer that way!).

But I take issue with the idea that people in general who have chosen non-traditional paths in education *should* keep quiet about it, stay under the radar, for fear of government crackdowns and restrictive laws.

I think that's a horrible way to go about things, and honestly a very selfish way.  People who are unschooling, people who have started or send their children to or go to democratic or free schools, people who are natural, autonomous learners of all types, are showing that the alternatives are wonderful.  We're going beyond the theoretical and actually showing, through our lives, how joyous life can be without a coercive schooling system.  To keep these alternatives quiet seems a gross injustice to everyone currently in the school system.

I watched The War on Kids last night, screened as part of this month's Festival of Anarchy.  It's a GREAT film, though very depressing.  I cried at multiple points during it, and I just kept thinking "thank you mom, for never sending me to school!".  To allow things to continue the way they are, to keep quiet when so many are suffering--depressed, self-harming, suicidal--in school doesn't feel right to me.

I think that those who feel comfortable, and those at least risk by doing so, have, well, I'd almost go so far as to say a *duty* to be outspoken.  To share our stories, speak out, write about it, write "Ask Me About Unschooling (Freeschooling, Homeschooling...)" on our shirts... ;-) Just to be OUT THERE, willing to discuss and share.

My family is at a point where both my sister and I are old enough to be safe from government intervention.  I'm past compulsory schooling age, and Emi would be finishing her last year of high school were she in the system.  So we're in an excellent position, and one we're taking advantage of, to be very outspoken.  My mother, sister and I spoke at a local homeschooling conference last month.  I'm speaking as part of a panel on radical education at the upcoming Anarchist Bookfair.  We've been connecting with lots more local educational radicals of all stripes.  And there's also other amazing local stuff going on, promoting alternatives to the traditional educational model: a local mother is helping to start a freeschool, as well as writing a book about how harmful the school system is (which I'm helping to edit/organize); a young Quebec teacher is putting together a documentary on how bad a job the schools are doing, and how many wonderful alternatives are out there!

I'm thrilled to have connected with so many locals recently, excited to be a part of this movement for educational freedom in Quebec, and looking forward to connecting with many more people in the coming days...

Not only do I think being outspoken is incredibly important, it also just feels so GOOD to share something I'm so passionate about, to be a part of a movement I think is so important!

For all of us who have solutions outside of the mainstream, institutionalized models, I really do believe the best way forward is to speak up!  The more voices, the better. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Unschooling Grows Up: A Collection of Interviews

A collection of interviews with grown unschoolers, both on this blog and on other sites.  If you're a grown unschooler who'd like to answer a few questions about your unschooling journey, please find out more about how to do so here.  I'd love to hear about your experiences!

On this site:

Hannah Thompson: "My unschooling experience has taught me to follow my passion without restraint."
Anna J. Cook: "The experience of unschooling helped me to remain confident in myself." 
Cheyenne La Vallee: "Everyone has it in themselves to be passionate and motivated." 
Jaclyn Dolamore: "Art and stories are woven through the fabric of every subject." 
Jasmine Carlson: "You don't feel pressured to 'be' something, you are allowed the space and time to create."
Vanessa Wilson: "As an unschooled kid, the world is full of so much that a school cannot give."
Tara Wagner: "Amazing things happen inside of freedom." 
Chloe Anne Spinnanger: "The best thing about unschooling is freedom!"
C. Kennedy: "I was unschooled from the day I was born."

On other sites:

Growing Up Unschooled, Melissa's Experience on Woman, Uncensored
A Lifelong "Unschooler": Interview With Quinn Eaker on Woman, Uncensored
Julian Baptista; Grown unschooler, musician from Enjoy Life Unschooling
Unschooling: An Interview with Everett Bogue from On Top The Cage
Carsie Blanton, Grown Unschooler & Musician (video) from Kelly Halldorson - Unscensored
Interview With Anna Hoffstrom, Part 1 and Part 2, from Mr. Haines
Jason Hunt: Grown Without Schooling from The Natural Child Project (originally published in Unerzogen)
Notes from an unschooled world wanderer from Skipping School

From Life Learning Magazine:

Ilana Ofgang, jazz musician, age 24 
Patrick Meehan, video game entrepreneur, age 29
Laura Brion, musician, urban agriculturalist, age 24
Brian Walton, librarian, age 27
Selina Hunt, industrial designer, age 26
Sarabeth Matilsky, mother, age 26

From Radio Free School:

Cameron Lovejoy: "Is this what I want to be doing the day I die?"
Eli Gerzon: "I love my life."
Unschooler Jessica Barker: "Redefining success."
Brenna McBroom: More time is more freedom
Looking back on unschooling: Kate Cayley (video)
Grown Unschooler Kate Fridkis: Embracing the Weird
Sean Ritchey: Grown Unschooler

From The Unschooler Experiment:

Sean Ritchey: So Many Projects, So Little Time
Idzie Desmarais: Not Alone in the Woods
Courtney Clay: Building a Sustainable Community
Beth Kander: The Due Diligence of Writing for Fun and Profit 
Carsie Blanton: Ain't So Green
Brenna McBroom: Skipping College
Peter Kowalke on the Sociable Unschooler
Brian Walton: How to Be a Librarian
Lynda Young: Second Generation Unschooling and New Zealand Yarn

If you know of other interviews with grown (17 or older) unschoolers not listed here, please pass the link along to me!  Thank you.

Going to Gaspé

The last time I was in Gaspé, I was 11 years old.  It was winter, and everything was covered in a thick layer of snow.

I wrote a while ago about my memories of Gaspé.

And now, with the death of my Great Grandmother at age 99 this past winter, we're going to Gaspé for her funeral.

From this tourist site, Le rocher Percé, by Jean-Pierre Huard.

 

We wanted to stay in her old house, which is now passing on to my great uncle, but sadly, he is, to be frank, an ass, and came up with an excuse for us not being allowed to stay in the old house.  I feel a bit of sadness at that, since there are many childhood memories from that old farmhouse (my sister and I loved the layout of that house, so different from modern ones, and we loved playing in it!).  But my mother, who has so, so many more memories attached to it feels the loss of it more accutely. 

What I want to do is hike on the land there, even if we can't go into the house.  It's on a lot with acres upon acres of forest, stretching right up to the top of a mountain!  There are deer and moose, and bear and wolves on that land.

We've been searching for hotels, trying to find ones that open early enough (it seems many of them open for the season a few days after we're due to arrive...), and just trying to figure all of the logistics out... 

There's been a rather melancholy and stressed feeling in our house the last couple of days.  We leave in a week from today.  And I have this horrible feeling that this is the last time for a very long time that I'm going to be in Gaspé.  I hope this feeling isn't accurate.  Even though it's been so many years, I love that place, that land, deeply.  I want to stay longer than just a few days when we head up there, even though we could only really extend things a couple more days anyway, since we have commitments back home.

I just keep thinking of the place, though.  The sights, smells, sounds...

 

  

These photos were taken by my mother when she went to Gaspé with my grandmother in 2007.  I wish I had any photos I've taken there, but at age 11, I wasn't into photography at all!  The only images I have are the blurry ones in my head...

Despite the reason we're heading up there, I'm really looking foward to this trip.  I hope we can stay as long as possible.  I'll have my camera with me, and I'm greatly looking forward to having tons of photos of this beautiful place.  

Now if we can only find a place to stay, and get through the funeral and memorial service, as well as whatever family drama often comes along with such things... *Sighs*

Peace,

Idzie

Derrick Jensen Quotes

I offer these quotes not to convince anyone of anything, or to start arguments.  I offer them simply as a collection of words from an anti-civilization authour whom I found at an important time in my life, and whose writing has had a profound impact on the way I think and live and look at the world around me. 

"So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us." -Derrick Jensen

"I have heard people suggest that because humans are natural that everything humans do or create is natural. Chainsaws are natural. Nuclear bombs are natural. Our economics is natural. Sex slavery is natural. Asphalt is natural. Cars are natural. Polluted water is natural. A devastated world is natural. A devasted phyche is natural. Unbridled exploitation is natural. Pure objectification is natural. This is, of course, nonsense. We are embedded in the natural world. We evolved as social creatures in this natural world. We require clean water to drink, or we die. We require clean air to breathe, or we die. We require food, or we die. We require love, affection, social contact in order to become our full selves. It is part of our evolutionary legacy as social creatures. Anything that helps us to understand all of this is natural: Any ritual, artifact, process, action is natural, to the degree that it reinforces our understanding of our embeddedness in the natural world, and any ritual, artifact, process, action is unnatural, to the degree that it does not"-Derrick Jensen

"To reverse the effects of civilization would destroy the dreams of a lot of people. There's no way around it. We can talk all we want about sustainability, but there's a sense in which it doesn't matter that these people's dreams are based on, embedded in, intertwined with, and formed by an inherently destructive economic and social system. Their dreams are still their dreams. What right do I -- or does anyone else -- have to destroy them.

At the same time, what right do they have to destroy the world?"-Derrick Jensen

"Grades are a problem. On the most general level, they're an explicit acknowledgment that what you're doing is insufficiently interesting or rewarding for you to do it on your own. Nobody ever gave you a grade for learning how to play, how to ride a bicycle, or how to kiss. One of the best ways to destroy love for any of these activities would be through the use of grades, and the coercion and judgment they represent. Grades are a cudgel to bludgeon the unwilling into doing what they don't want to do, an important instrument in inculcating children into a lifelong subservience to whatever authority happens to be thrust over them."-Derrick Jensen

"That’s one of the great things about everything being so fucked up, that no matter where you look there’s great work to be done." -Derrick Jensen

Peace,
Idzie

Notes on Unschooling: From Our Talk at the AQED Symposium

A couple weeks ago, as I've previously mentioned, my family spoke at the AQED symposium.  I think a lot of this has been covered on my blog already, but I figured I'd share the notes for our introductory speech on unschooling!  Most of our time slot was devoted to answering questions, but this is what we started with.  Regular font is by me, italics are by my mother, Debbie.
----
So, what is unschooling?

To use Life Learning Magazines definition, unschooling (also known as Life Learning) is personalized, non-coercive, active, interest-led learning from life. (back to my own words) Unschoolers don’t have a set curriculum, are not “taught” by their parents, and instead learn from the world by living in the world, learning on their own terms with parents acting as facilitators instead of teachers.

How We Came to Homeschooling, or The Very Early Years
I’m told that before my birth, my parents had never even heard of homeschooling, let alone unschooling. It was only when I was a toddler that my mother found out about homeschooling, and started getting interested in it as an option for our family. However, my father wasn’t as impressed with the idea, so when I reached the right age, I was shipped off to half day kindergarten. However, there were some problems: problems big enough to convince my father to try homeschooling, so just halfway through my very first year of school, my parents pulled me out, and that remains my only experience with formal, institutionalized education. My sister, Emilie, who’s a couple years younger than me, has never been to school.

From Homeschooling to Unschooling

We started out as eclectic homeschoolers. My mother bought a few different programs & books from different companies, and encouraged both my sister and I to use them. But even in those early days, she was pretty relaxed, and when we didn’t want to do something, when it wasn’t working for us, it was generally fine with her if we stopped doing it. The only thing that was ever really an issue was math, because for a while, my mother still felt that math had to be “taught”. I think we became true unschoolers when we realized that there really were no “exceptions” to the concept: through simply living, following your passions and interests and curiosity, you really can (and do) learn all that you need to know, including math.

Like homeschooling, unschooling is not one single method, it is a continuum.

Academic Unschooling:

At the end of the spectrum nearest to eclectic homeschooling, is academic unschooling. Academic unschooling is allowing/encouraging your children to be responsible for their own education. It means that you don’t give them a curriculum to follow, but trust that they will learn what they need to by their regular daily activities and choices.

Radical Unschooling:

Radical unschooling is at the other end of the unschooling continuum. Radical unschoolers trust their children to make their own choices in everything that they do. They let their children decide when to go to bed, what to eat, and what to do with their time, or in other words, how they will live and learn. Radical unschooling is really a lifestyle. You trust that your children are capable of making choices for themselves.

Not "Unparenting"

Radical unschooling does not mean unparenting.

You are still there for your children.

When your children are young, you are the main source of new information and experiences.
You are the one to introduce new topics and information.
You are the one to bring them to new places.
You’re there to marvel over the wonderful things they discover.
You’re there to share the wonderful things you discover.
You’re there to share your interests and hobbies, and to be fascinated by theirs.
You set an example by your behaviour, of how people should behave.
Your manners teach your children about good manners.
Your love shows them what it is like to be loved.
They learn how to treat their friends and family by seeing how you treat yours.
You’re there to take them home when they are in situations that they can’t handle.
You’re there to cheer them on when they handle difficult situations well.
You’re there when they need a shoulder to cry on, or someone to talk to about why something happened the way it did (whether it is you or them doing the figuring)
You’re there to listen when they need someone to talk to. Someone who can just listen if that is what they need, or give advice or sympathy if that is what they want.

As your children get older, you are still there to tell them of the fascinating things you discover, and to hear what they are fascinated by. 
You’re there to marvel over the new things that they discover.
You’re there to drive them places until they get their own license.
You’re there for talks about boys and girls and romance.
You’re there to give opinions on drinking and driving, and drugs and teen suicide, and other things that are important to teens.
You’re there to support them when they make decisions they regret, without saying “I told you so”
You’re still there to help them find info that they can’t find themselves.
To encourage their dreams.
To sympathize with their disappointments.

You are still a parent, you are just not a controlling parent. You trust that they will be able to control themselves.

Trust:

For all of this you must have trust in your children, and they must have trust in you. For unschooling of any kind to work, you need to have trust.

- You have to trust that your children are capable people.
- You have to trust that they will want and be able to learn.
- You have to trust that your children are capable of making good choices.
- You have to be willing to listen without judging.
- Your children have to trust that you will not ridicule their choices.
- Trust that you will listen and advise when advice is wanted, but that you won’t insist that the child follow that advice.
- Your child has to feel that you trust her to choose well

There are also many unschoolers who do not believe that academic unschooling is possible. They say that if you trust your children to learn “academic” things, you should trust them in all things. Also, since everyone learns by all their activities, control of food, bedtime, etc is also life learning, and by limiting control of this you limit what your children will learn.

This trust does not include their other life choices. In other words, if you are academically unschooling, you still make the choices, or at least must approve the choices, for bedtime, food, clothes, etc. Anything that does not involve school recognized learning. Sometimes, but not always, academic unschooling leads to radical unschooling as parents see how well their children choose.

Post Secondary…Or Not.

One of the most common questions I get as an unschooler is “can you get into college or university?”. Another big one is “so what are you doing now?” since I’m one of these mythical grown unschoolers, and people are always really interested in hearing my answer to that.

Firstly, unschoolers can definitely get into university. Unschooling is considered by universities to be under the wider banner of homeschooling, and as I think everyone here probably already knows, most universities have a special protocol set up for homeschoolers at this point, and some universities are even specifically seeking out homeschoolers, including unschoolers. Last time I heard, homeschoolers still aren’t able to easily get into CEGEP, if at all, though I’m sure the workshop on legalities of homeschooling in Quebec would have more to say on that subject.

However, I kind of object to this idea that’s so prevalent in our culture that you MUST go on to “higher education” to be “successful”. There are so many different paths out there, and only a few of them require a university degree above all else. The things I’m most interested in, and the things I think I might like to do as jobs in the future, include writing and editing, being a vegetarian cook or caterer, teaching primitive skills, and being an herbalist, or natural medicine consultant. None of these things require your typical university degree. In that vein, I’d like to share the words of of an unschooling mother, Ren Allen:

"I hope my children are not prepared for college at all. I hope they're
not prepared to hand over years and years of their lives for a thin
sliver of hope at a job they'll despise. I hope they're not prepared to
go into debt for that which does not feed their spirit, bring them joy
and ignite their passion for learning. I hope they can't do mindless
recitation of facts that mean nothing to them. I hope they're not
prepared for anything less than exactly what they love.”

As for what I’m doing now, I often have trouble answering this question, because I feel like what people really mean when they ask this is are you in school, or are you working fulltime, because those are usually the two options people think you should be doing if you’re 18 or older. And I’m 19, by the way. But what I’m doing is organizing local unschooling meetings, organizing, along with my mother, the first ever Summer Montreal Unschoolers Gathering, an event going on this summer that’s really exciting. I’m putting together the second issue of a zine I publish, called DIY Life Zine. I’m writing lots, blogging lots. I’ve been asked to speak at an unschooling conference in the fall. I’m really putting effort into finding/building local community, because in recent years I’ve found a lovely North America wide community, but I still kind of feel a lack of community here. I’m still learning and growing as much as I ever was when I was younger, and still trying to figure a lot of stuff out. But, I feel like I’m on the right path, and that things are going to work out well. I hope I’m right!
----
Thank you for reading!

Peace,
Idzie

Beltane Wanderings

At around dusk, Emi asked if I wanted to go for a walk in the woods, and of course I said yes.  We picked up a friend of hers on the way.  It rained this afternoon, and everything had that fresh, sweet smell that you always get after rain in the spring time.  The Peepers were deafening as we picked our way through the slick mud, over wet rocks, and through damp grasses, fending off mosquitoes as we went.  Emi tried to catch a frog (it was brown, though we're not sure what type it was.) as we wound our way through the flooded areas, looking for peepers and other frogs.  We saw the colour of the sky through the trees as the sun set.

When we started walking home, the sun was gone, and it was getting steadily darker.  There was enough light to follow the paths through the woods, though.  At parts, you could easily see the path, because stretching off on either side of the narrow trail were hundreds upon hundreds of Trilliums, ghostly white in the dark, almost glowing in their paleness.

Whenever we leave the woods, though it's only a straggly bit of what it once was, much smaller even then when I was a young child, it's always a shock.  From the soft-cool beauty of the woods, to a harsh suburbia of straight streets, manicured, poisoned lawns, and ostentatious houses.  To step directly into that from the forest always rattles me.

The other day, we stood in the cleared patch between strips of trees, the one that's flooded right now because of spring, and is home to a host of amphibians and other wildlife.  We looked at the power lines, stretching away as far as the eye could see.  That's why there are no trees there, only scrub and marshes.  We were watching the sun set, watching the sky turn orange and pink and sunset perfect.  "Can you imagine what the view would be like without the power lines?" I said wistfully.  "We'll never get to see that." My companion replied with sadness.  I told him I wasn't so sure about that.  I often wonder if things will start coming down within my lifetime.  If things will start shifting and changing in major ways.  Sometimes, the idea terrifies me.

...But other times, seeing how much has been destroyed in even my short lifetime, seeing the constant development and destruction, I think the day can't come soon enough! There's a part of me, a big part of me, that just longs for something I've never even experienced: true, old growth forest.  Marshes that aren't criss-crossed with paths and tire-tracks and bridges.  Streams so clean and fresh and alive that I can stoop down and drink from them when I get thirsty.  People think we have a wonderful quality of life, but without that, we really don't.  Without a world like that, I'll always feel there's something wrong.  Off.  It's something constantly niggling at me in some far reach of my mind, something that's only partially soothed by spending time in nearby woods.  The patches of woods available to me relax me and delight me.  But I'm also always saddened.  It's just so little.  So polluted, and so fragile.  They're still planning on building more.  Destroying more of what little we have left...

Still, it smelled wonderful walking home, even once we'd left the softly dripping earthiness that is our tiny forest.  And when we stopped outside our house, Emi caught something passing overhead out of the corner of her eye: bats!  We figure they're probably nesting in the neighbors tree again.  We stood and watched them for a while as they swooped back and forth over our heads, catching bugs, jagged wings outlined against what little light was left in the sky.  And I couldn't help but smile, and dance into the house in happiness to tell my mother, whom I knew would be interested.

A good way to celebrate Beltane. 

Peace,
Idzie

Fried Dandelion Blossoms

Continuing my experiments in cooking with dandelions, I decided to try this recipe, shared by Gen, author of the guest post on suburban gardening, for fried dandelion blossoms.

First, you collect the blossoms!  Dandelion stems are very bitter, so you cut off all the stem, leaving only the flower (plus green flower bit/thingy underneath it, so that the flower holds together!).

Then, rinse the blossoms in lightly salted water. 

Pat them dry on paper towels.

For the batter, mix 1 cup flower, 1 cup milk, 1 egg (beaten), and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Then dip the flowers:

And fry them in hot oil!  We didn't *quite* put enough oil to make them deep-fried, but you do need a fair bit of oil.

Blotting off any extra grease is always important when frying things, I find.

Annnnd here is the finished product!!

They were great!  A lovely, fluffy texture and simple but good flavour.  We didn't feel a need to put anything on them, and just ate them plain!

I really want to get more into foraging this year.  I'm starting out with one of the most easy to find plants, dandelions, but we've had our wild edibles plant books out a lot lately, and have taken more out from the library.  On walks we've been identifying edible plants, and I think we're going to start taking a book or two with us on walks, to figure out what the plants we can't easily recognize are...

Far beside the fact that I think finding and growing your own food is a MUCH better way to do things than buying stuff from a supermarket, I just find it immensely fun.  I'll gleefully dance around outside, gathering yummy food, and have been more involved so far this year in gardening than I've ever been before.  I love cooking, and I find I also really, really love being part of the growing and/or finding process in the food that I cook.  I'm looking forward to many gardening and foraging adventures this summer...

Peace,
Idzie