Earth Day 2009
Carpets of Wildflowers, Canopy of Oaks Restoring native plants across the city
At Home with Native Plants Garden tour on Mother’s Day
Just Say No to the Butterfly Bush
The Camas Among Us A common spring flower invokes Kalapuya heritage
Students, Volunteers and the Land Seven years of restoration efforts with Walama
Livin’ Green, Even in Winter
Nature, raw and processed
by Suzi Steffen
SIESTA LANE: One Cabin, No Running Water, and a Year Living Green, memoir by Amy Minato.. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. Hardcover, $22.95.
THE WINTER HARVEST HANDBOOK: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses, nonfiction by Eliot Coleman. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009. Paper, $29.95.
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Eugene’s a weird, possibly self-satisfied but still greenly striving place.
At least that’s how it seems in Amy Minato’s memoir, Siesta Lane. If I didn’t live here, I’d think Eugene had a thriving community, both in and out of town, of people trying to go green by carpooling and biking, growing their own vegetables and joining CSAs, living in different forms of cooperative housing and making a bare sort of living at a variety of different nonprofit or social justice jobs while striving to make the Earth happier. (And being somewhat self-congratulatory at it, too.)
The Oregon of Minato’s memoir, which covers a time period when she lived about 20 minutes out of town in a semi-intentional community with separate cabins and a main house, seems like an almost dreamy place, perhaps because Minato’s time was spent in deep self-reflection and what she calls a slowing down of the pace of life. Aside from dreamy, it also sounds very, very chilly, since the small cabin she shared openly with many insects and arachnids was heated only by the wood she chopped herself. A poet with an MFA from the UO, Minato found many moments of beauty along with the challenges, and the book provides a multitude of quiet revelations as the year progresses. Though densely populated cities like Chicago (from which Minato moved to Eugene) have efficiencies rural living can’t match, her short, journal-like entries (“Niche” and “Wind” are two titles) provide abundant examples of the ways that living in close proximity to a wilder world can open city-dazed eyes to pain and beauty.
Speaking of cold, Eliot Coleman and his crew grow vegetables year-round in Maine, without heat or with minimal heat, in greenhouses. In The Winter Harvest Handbook, there’s a one super photo of Coleman holding a bowl of beautiful young salad greens in the midst of an amount of snow that would knock Eugene out for weeks. (All of the photos, by Barbara Damrosch, made people in this office drool.)
Maine, Coleman points out, is to the north of 85 percent of the rest of the U.S. (I’m assuming Alaska makes up most of the remaining 15), and therefore, if his farm can make commercial organic vegetable farmingwork year-round, the rest of us could definitely consider upping our winter lettuce production. From directions on crop rotation to very clear instructions on building movable greenhouses, this book will inspire planning right now, as the days lengthen and generally grow warmer, for this winter. He also gives tips for fall planting and winter storage for crops like carrots, turnips and radishes, all tastes that make the winter seem a bit brighter, even if there are no secrets about fresh winter tomatoes (canned or frozen whole tomatoes, however, can go a long way). After reading Coleman’s book, you’ll no doubt be creating garden maps and writing lists for materials at BRING Recycling. Where Minato’s book is calm and contemplative, Coleman’s book brims with practical plans and ideas for making the winter a happy, healthy, productive time of the year.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519