Miss Me? Confessions of a Lapsed and Lazy Blogger

I haven't been around for a while ... been mulling over the pros and cons of blogging and trying to figure out the aim of my site. After all, the Food Revolution is a pretty big topic and a pretty big deal -- how to do it justice? In truth, I have spent a lot of time the last few months debating the merits of social media in general. One day I feel compelled to join Facebook so that I can be part of the mass ego-sharing, the next day I imagine online conspiracies aimed at secretly documenting my every move and comment. In any case, I have spent some serious thought time on the subject of blogging, mostly in lieu of actually writing about it.

Patio Farm at this moment both thrives and languishes. The tomatoes are busy and gangly and strangely heavy for their feathery appearance. The bean leaves bravely diminish into papery sheets, the cucumbers yellow at the edges and, the peppers betray that clearly someone has been taking precise half-moon bites from them on the sly. There have been seasons worth of concerns and thrills as the first year of Patio Farm evolved. Triumphs of the carrot harvest. Giggles at the two tiny turnips I grew, crooked and narrow and looking nothing like a turnip. Wonder watching the process of blooming my immigrant poppies, so delicate and ephemeral but vital in the far corner of my garden. Each event has seemed so normal each day, unremarkable and at the same time the most exciting thing in my sphere of experience. What seemed so mundane a few months ago now I remember as being the crux of a season or lifespan of some plant friend or another. And yet I have actively avoided writing about any of it for fear that it may not be worth recording. Or that I may not be worthy of recording it.

Part of my reluctance has been in view of the anniversary of My Food Revolution. About a year ago I made a drastic break from my normal life and decided to explore the possibilities of pursuing my heart-felt passion for food and letting some of my previous expectations about career and achievement fall to the wayside for a while. A year later I revisit my priorities and reevaluate both my mission and also my desire to write about it. Why revolt? Why write? Why share? Why not?

I don’t know. But I am still compelled to document my adventures in Patio Farming somehow, if only as a personal record of my seasonal activities and their failures and successes. To that end I am trying something new at http://www.patiofarmer.tumblr.com/, for any who care to chart the course of my experiment in urban farming. I plan to continue My Food Revolution as well, but not sure yet the form or direction that it will take. Of course this will continue to be the repository of my list of food books and food movies. After all, my research and learning still runs strong and I am daily amassing evidence about the power of vegetables.

My heart still lies firmly in the heart of the Food Revolution. Viva comida! Viva la revolucion!