A Full-time Life

Category: Florida

  • SLICED TOMATOES — A (not-so) SIMPLE THING

    THAT'S MY WORLD .  Today my link to this meme is different.  It is about part of my world that I  don't love.

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    (This picture was taken late last Summer.  Back in Oregon and after one of our amost daily raids of Cyndi and Jeff's garden.) 

    Next season — when we're finished with some of our projects around the cottage here at Upriver – I just might have to stick a tomato plant in a pot out on our deck.   (Even though we haven't gardened at all for years and didn't really plan to start again.)

    Buying tomatoes when we're in Florida should be the easiest thing in the world — they grow really well here.  The town of Immokolee, a few miles from where we live, is the US center for tomato farming.  Many, if not most, of the fast food chains and many grocery chains  buy tomatoes from commercial growers based there.  However, the owners have, for years, gotten away with paying less-than-living wages to the farm workers.  There is a community-based worker organization called The Coalition of Immokalee Workers that is actively trying to remedy these conditions.  

    A few landowners have even kept their workers in slavery. (In Immokalee there is a Museum of Modern Slavery — really). This story from GOURMET MAGAZINE tells about just such an Immokalee landowner.  The trial, where several members of one  family were convicted of keeping workers in slave conditions, happened when we were here last year. 

    After years of work on the part of the Coalition, some large purchasers have agreed to pay more for the tomatoes, with the added cost going to the Coalition for better wages.  These purchasers include Taco Bell, Burger King, Mickey D's and Whole Foods.  Kudos to Taco Bell and Burger King, but that's not, as a rule, where we want to get our fresh tomatoes.  And the only Whole Foods in our area is over at Naples — close enough for a day trip to the beach, but not close enough for a weekly grocery buying trip.  (We wish it were closer — for this and many other grocery-related reasons!)

    Sadly, Publix, which is the major supermarket chain in this area (and the one closest to us)  has refused to sign on.   (The Coalition is asking Publix to pay one cent –  ONE PENNY – more per pound for the tomatoes they buy.  That money would go to raising wages and improving living conditions for the workers.).   

    Now, in the past we probably bought tomatoes from sources that didn't pay their workers fairly, without even thinking about where they came from. But you can't read these stories – and drive past the exit to Immokalee fairly often — without having to do something — small as it may be. 

     CLICK HERE to read one article that also gives the Publix side of the controversy.  (I wanted to be fair.)

    It's obvious which side we're on, so tomatoes have been off our shopping list except when we can go to local Farmer's Markets.  But just now in yesterday's local paper, we read an article saying that six tomato vendors at a private farmer's market in Immokalee have been served with misdemeanor violations for failing to comply with food-safety rules.  It seems that Florida requires tomatoes be sanitized to reduce microbial contamination and requires that they be harvested into plastic boxes.  HUH? 

    I can't wait to visit one of the Farmer's Markets that are NOT in Immokalee to see if they comply with these regulations.   I can't help but wonder.

    Meanwhile — I wish I had that tomato plant out on our deck. 

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    Blti Bacon's bad for us, can't buy tomatoes.  Anybody for a bread and lettuce sandwich?

  • EARLY MORNING ON THE CANAL

    For  WATERY WEDNESDAY  (go get your eyes wet)  and  SKYWATCH FRIDAY .

    On the Canal this week —  before the sun is up — still almost dark, still almost cool.  These  pictures are on the end of our Canal, looking at the Caloosahatchie River.

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    Here comes the sun.  Time for breakfast.

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    I don't get out and around this early very often.  It was worth it. 

  • SHOOTING FROM THE PIER

    THAT'S MY WORLD .  Click on the entrants — there are pictures here from some fascinating places. 

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    There's nothing much in the world more colorful than a day at the Beach.  Lots going on.   We just went walking – and pointing and shooting, mostly from the Naples Pier.

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    These were taken last week.  Nobody seemed very concerned about the possibility of the oil spill reaching here.  I hope they are not unpleasantly surprised and that it will be contained.

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  • STALKING THE WILD HARE

    015-1SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY  at Hey Harriet for more shadowy images.

    On her morning walk, the twelve-foot tall woman stalks her quarry, which tries to escape by hiding in plain sight. 

    But the tall woman is successful in her hunt and captures the rabbit for eternity.

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     This tall woman is quite easy to please; it doesn't take much to make her morning walk a great one.  

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  • SWAMP DREAMS — OR NIGHTMARES?

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    Reflections in a Swamp.  There's a whole other world down there!  Come and join us. 

    And for other people's reflective pictures click here:  WEEKEND REFLECTIONS

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  • SEA OF WATER, SEA OF GRASS

    Click the links on SKYWATCH FRIDAY  for this week's  collection of beautiful skies from everywhere.   

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    Naples Pier, the Gulf of Mexico.  And then, below, about 20 miles Southeast, the edge of the Everglades.
     
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    Just a recent day trip from Upriver — a loop drive.  We had fun walking on the beach, looking at the shops and homes in Naples and Marco island and then driving past the edge of the Everglades before circling back home.  
     
     

  • LIBRARY CHALLENGE (non)Update

    FOR WATERY WEDNESDAY this foggy waterfront from an April boat trip. 

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     Last month  — on an overcast Saturday morning — we went to a boat club lunch at Doc Ford's on Fort Myers Beach.  It is one of a couple of restaurants owned by Randy Wayne White, a local author whose best-selling adventure novels feature Doc Ford, for whom he has named his bar and grills.  Doc Ford (the character) is a marine biologist and adventurer who works out of a lab that White has set on Sanibel Island.  Randy Wayne White (the author) really lives on Sannibel and his first restaurant is there. 

    007 Bill really enjoys these books and when he's reading one, he usually shares some of the passages that have great descriptions of this area. 

    I love place-oriented novels, especially when they're about somewhere we've stayed, so I really wanted to like this series — and I really tried, but I just couldn't get into the adventure. 

    And it would have made such a great lead-in to an update post on my Library Challenge.  What can I say?  I'm just a book wimp.   

    Body I like my mysteries and adventures on the cozy side like this one  — where nobody anyone cares about ever gets killed.  And look!  This reprint even has a pink cover.  Yup, a real girly murder mystery. THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY

     (There is an Agatha Christie challenge going on at some of the Book Blogs I read.  I'm not taking part, but I was happy to be reminded of Dame Agatha and  it is fun to read some of these books that I either missed or have forgotten.)

    But for those with more adventurous tastes in reading, the Doc Ford series would be a good one — and you'd get all those great descriptions and history of this part of Florida.  Below are a couple of framed blow-up posters of the series book covers.  They were hanging on the wall behind the bar. 

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    Rww Here's the Amazon link to all of the Doc Ford Books:DOC FORD NOVELS CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  • WEEKEND BIRDING

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    We weren't seriously birding last weekend — but here are a few of the birds we saw without really trying.

    Drive-by (or boat-by) birding!

    I need to take a Florida birding  class, but to the best of my knowledge these are:  little blue heron, cattle egret, sandhill crane, snowy egret, and osceola turkeys.  (These wild turkeys are more colorful than the kind we've seen in Oregon and elsewhere.  Their feathers are a burnished bronze color.). 

  • WEEKEND ON THE WATER

    For THAT'S MY WORLD and  WATERY WEDNESDAY here's our watery weekend. 

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    Geoff boat We were lucky to have a visit from our son Geoff this weekend.  The three of us spent practically the whole three days on the water — that's what you do in Florida in the Summer.   (And it seems like Summer here now, never mind what the calendar has to say!)

    We took the boat up the river, through Franklin Lock and back.  These pictures are at a little county park in the town of Alva. 

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    Geoff and his Dad look like they're trying to figure out where we are — or maybe where we're going!  I guess it worked, because we got home safe and sound to rest up for another day of water-filled adventure.

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    Beach014 We spent a short time on the beach at Sanibel Island.  None of us are lounge-around-in-the-sun types, but it was fun to dip our feet in the Gulf.  (And as the horrible oil spill comes closer, it may have been our last chance to see the beach in this pristine condition.)

    We also visited the Ding Darling Wildlife preserve on Sanibel. 

    Geoff and I kayaked through a marked channel (that's the picture on top of this post).  (Bill chose to stay behind.)   

    It was a great experience  – I had never kayaked before, but it was fun learning — and really good exercise for Geoff, who (literally) shouldered most of the burden.  The path was beautiful — we saw lots of birds and an alligator.  I have a few bird pictures for another post.

    Back at the Visitor Center, we watched a pair of Manatees — it's mating season, so they were in an out of the water more than usual. 

    So it was another great Florida day on the water!

    The next day,we toured the Babcock Wilderness.  It's a huge privately-owned ranch here in North Ft. Myers which encompasses several of the watery ecosystems of this area of Florida. 

    The picture below is part of the Cypress Swamp area of the ranch.

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    A large part of the property was purchased by the State last year and will remain as a preserve while still allowing farming to take place.

    We had a great weekend.  Happy of course that Geoff came and happy because the watery weekend didn't include RAIN.  His visit broke the record we've had recently — no matter whetherin Oregon or Florida, it has rained whenever we have out-of-town company. But not this time! 

    In fact, Geoff went home to Colorado with a slight sunburn as a Florida souvenir.

  • ECO FARM

    006 This week we toured ECHO Farm.  ECHO stands  for Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization.  It is a non-profit Interdenominatinal Christian organization that exists to help those working with the poor to be more effective in the areas of agriculture, especially small farms in tropical areas. 

    ECHO has a 50-acre test farm located  just across the street from where we live. They chose Ft. Myers for the farm because our tropical conditions are pretty close to the climates where the need is greatest. 

    We took the very informative guided tour.  The whole farm here is for the purposes of teaching interns and visitors how to pass on farming knowedge to those working with the poor in various conditions.  The more people who can practice small farm tropical agriculture the more poverty can be alleviated. 

    This picture is a Moringa Tree.  The leaves of this tree are highly nutritional and medicinal. It grows well in poor soil conditions. 

    001 The duck pond does double duty.  Algae "fed" by duck-waste supports Tillapia.  So from the one pond, people can get fish, eggs, and eventually, I guess, protein from surplus ducks.

     

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    016 Vegetable gardens on the farm are planted in different spaces to replicate various conditions.  For example:  dry desert conditions, areas that flood periodically, and even heavily urban areas.  Here are a couple of them. 

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    018 This knobbly thing is a purple yam that our guide cut open.  He said that the vegetable that we buy in supermarkets that is called a yam is really a type of sweet potato.  The real yam grows in sandy soil.  It looked like a rock.

     

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    020 Yup, this is a dandelion.  As our guide pointed out it does NOT grow naturally in Florida.  We don't garden any more, so we hadn't really thought about it, but now we realize we haven't seen a one.  Of course, the leaves are nutritious and that's why they are growing it.    Anyone who does still garden would love ECHO's bookstore which was full of gardening books and tools.  And the money would go to this good cause.

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    010 Our guide is showing a manually-operated water pump, made from easily obtained materials.  Without a pump, farmers would be transporting water by buckets.

    We learned that ECHO offers a separate tour to show more of the  farm machinery innovations they have created.  Bill wants to take that tour one of these times.

    Click on the link below to go to ECHO website to read more about the farm and their other activities, such as their seedbank, animal husbandry, and educational and volunteer opportunities.

    It was an excellent tour.

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    There were a lot of flowers on the grounds.  Most of them were doing double duty, such as marigolds and nasturtiums for insect control, and sunflowers for food value. 

    This one and a few others were just, as our guide said, "to feed the soul."