I just got home from an inspiring life changing weekend at the O.U.R EcoVillage in Shawnigan Lake where the ‘Get Fresh’ team had our booth full of beautiful items from our guide. I have heard about this auspicious place for years but never really knew where it was, it sounded so magical to me. ‘A sustainable learning community and demonstration site’ that is working on, and succeeding, in being a totally self-sustaining community. Everyone gets a say, helps out and are all working toward a bigger goal. “We base our work on Permaculture principles and offer learning opportunities for Natural Building, Sustainable Food Production and Leadership.”
BRILLIANT! Exactly what the world needs right now!
With so much inspiration this weekend I really got a ‘Fresh Perspective’ on my inter-relationship with the Earth. INTER-RELATIONSHIP-’reciprocal relationship’ how cool is that! Our relationship with the earth definitely is RECIPROCAL-’given or felt by each toward the other’) So the first thing I decided to look at was our relationship with food. I have never really heard things like ‘food security’ before. Overwhelmed by the quantity of the food at our grocery store, in my naivete, I think “it LOOKS secure to me!” Well, it turns out “food security requires not only addressing access to healthy food by people of diverse income levels, but also ensuring that food production and distribution occur in an environmentally sustainable and economically viable manner” An excerpt from a FoodShare research in action report. I didn’t realize that even choosing organic food at the grocery store had such an environmental impact.
At O.U.R. Ecovillage they are using inspiring principles like the Zero Mile Diet inspired by Victoria’s very own local organic gardening guru, Carolyn Herriot. This concept got me thinking…. how ‘fresh’ is our food? FRESH- “Retaining the original properties unimpaired; not stale or spoiled.” I am seeing that the fresh produce in the commercial grocery stores isn’t as fresh as I thought. With my new awareness I have decided to shop as local as possible, as much as possible. I can’t deny the fact that I love a ripe juicy mango in my salsa or a that I am addicted to Mat’s guacamole, and obviously the ingredients have come pretty far to get here. But I do know that I can take steps toward lessening my impact on the Earth. All Mothers deserve a break, especially the only one we all share!
Article and Photos by Sherry (Mat is on a kayaking adventure and will be back next week!)
