Hunter-Gather & Scavenger

 "Let me clear my throat" (Its been a minute so i have to find my voice.)

 I want to first thank all of those that upon seeing me have asked me about the blog. Encouraged me to continue, to post... soon. I barely posted and we have been blogging for such a short time I didn't realize that many people were taking the time to read it so I didn't think it would have been missed. I have thought about many topics that I would have enjoyed blogging about, maybe I will revisit them and uuummmm maybe not. Anyway, the urge hit me to write about a topic that has been streaming through my head repeatedly... the Hunter-Gatherer. By definition hunter-gatherers hunt game and collect plant foods (called foraging) rather than grow or tend crops.Hunter-gatherers are traditionally identified by their tools: bow and arrow, atlatl, harpoon and projectile points.

Tho our tools have changed, I have never felt more like a hunter-gather than these past two months. I am not sure how the thought of a hunter-gather even crept into my mind to make this analogy but yet it has...repeatedly. Maybe it was the clay model I had to make in elementary of the native Americans that made the theme stick in my head. Maybe it is because we are supposed to be above the hunter-gather with our "civilized" society. I have no clue. I digress.  I have been looking at the similarities and differences but it all leads me back to the fact that we  are modern day hunter-gatherers. THis doesn't have to be a bad thing but with the state of the quality of food it is. With the motivation behind food production in this country it is.

Back to point. This is the same thing we do in the grocery stores and farmers' market. We hunt game and collect plant foods (and processed food)...where you buy yo chicken from? How much is? You know its on sale over here. It is cheaper there. But these over here are Halal. But are they organic? How about free-range? Well you know they don't sale waxed foods. Is their produce local? I wonder if it is at least pesticide-free. And the dialogue continues (with self or others). Albeit some of us have more stringent criteria than others we are all (virtually all) doing the same thing, hunting (for best quality (hopefully) & price) and gathering.

Which leads me to the next point. We are scavengers.  I am not casting judgment. Just making observations. Scavenge simply means:

1. To search through for salvageable material

2. To collect and remove refuse from

3. To collect (salvageable material) by searching.

 

As I continue to write I am wondering what the point of this is. I get it. For me, this has added fuel for me to attempt to grow our food. Have more control over what I scavenge through and less I must scavenge from others, especially grocery stores. That's it! Tho our garden is a work in progress at this time, trust me, I am working on it. Inshallah, future posts will deal with that. As for what it means for others, only you can answer that. Do you want to be totally dependent on the grocery stores to feed you? It is sad to me the way we have given up such a basic need to others. But not just others. Others that we claim we do not trust. We were at the farmers' market the other day and we saw a few bumper stickers. One of which (Aminah's fav) said, "I don't buy food from strangers." I wish! Nonetheless, the sticker is sitting on my dash to remind me of where I would like to be, not to represent where I am. It is a lofty goal but one worth striving for.

Coming to terms with where we are now. I attempt to keep good food around so as we are not scavenging from the lowest of the low. Here's a few pix. Since I know a picture is worth a thousand words.

Apples from the tree at Orthodontist. They were delicious!

Pear from our or neighbor's tree

Pear from neighbor's tree. Can you tell it is good?

The Boy cutting a peach from Farmer's Market.

Breakfast I scavenged through the frig and put together. Fruit from Farmers' Market. Bread from Food Mill. I know I should make it myself.

veggies to serve for the meat in veggie tacos.

Preserving Peaches from Farmers' Market

The Boy with grapes from our yard.

By the way. We are great! Just trying to get "settled."
And I read a good book that may help inspire you, Fresh Food From Small Spaces by  R. J. Ruppenthal. FYI, I borrowed from the library so you do not have to spend a dime.

Today's Bounty

Harvested by Erika, Aminah, Nadia, and Nasir. 

Today, upon inspection, we realized we had been blessed with an abundance of squash. Again! Thank you Allah. So what to do with it?
I decided to make squash enchiladas and zucchini bread. And we still have more. We are enjoying the benefits of growing our own food, even on this small scale. When we planted (late) this year we were not sure we would reap the benefits but with the inevitable earthquake coming better to be safe than sorry.
(As i was proofing this an earthquake hit.)

Same recipe. 2 different flours. taste test.

Thanks to Sis. Salamah and Sis. Tonja for probing me about what is to become of the garden. I decided to do an experiment. I pruned 2 squash plants. I have never done this. Not sure you are supposed to. And mistakenly I cut one that had a few small zuccs on it. Oh well. We also uprooted a lot of the green bean plants. We plan to let a few go to seed. Never done this before either. There were a few out there that looked like it is a possibility in the near future. We hope so. I have some reading to do to help me figure this out. Nonetheless, I also discovered that i have a lot of worm tea on hand. So  we watered the plants with it. not the tomatoes tho. I don't think we will get to reap the benefits of those.
Basically we started a few new projects today. Thanks Sisters.
Wondering what we will see within the next week.

1. Will the worm tea improve the appearance of the plants. It has a lot of nitrogen so i am thinking they will look even greener.
2. Will the worm tea improve growth? In a week?
3. Will the seeds we get from the green beans reproduce?
4. What are the effects of pruning a squash plant? I am not sure we will get this question answered. I didn't intend to cut off new growth. I was trying to see if they would grow even faster with all energy going to them instead of a huge plant. But we shall see.
5. We put the pulled up green bean plants into the chicken coop. I wonder if the chickens will find the leaves as appetizing now that they have easy access.

I believe that is it, for now. Gardening always provides me (us) with the opportunity to learn.

Peace took this photo today. 

More Photos Summer 2011

from the yard

Farmers' Market. delicious

mixture for strawberry ice cream

strawberries to make strawberry ice cream

from the yard

family bowling trip

more goods from yard. harvested and photographed by nasir

goods from a visit to our new yard

Swim Season Summer 2011

Greetings and Peace!

Swim Season is over for the summer. Thanks all those that showed up to the Championships to support the girls. It meant a lot to them. Granny, Uncle Eddie, Dida, Mah Mah, Grandpa Doyle, Jawanzaa, Michael, Tara, Vivian, Victoria, Auntie Stacie, Jasmine.

The Boy didn't compete but he also made strides in the pool. "I can swim across the pool doing breast, butterfly, and freestlye." I would like to include that he is very comfortable in the deep end. He even tries to dive.

Faith:
The Boy says that Faith is fast at freestyle. (If you can't tell he is next to me, helping me write this and distracting me. )
Faith says that she feels she has gotten better at backstroke, swims straighter. Also feels she improved in butterfly. She had fun swimming. (Seems annoyed that i keep bothering her. It is bedtime.)

Peace:
Feels she improved in butterfly, again. She placed higher in meets this season than the last. She had a great season, minus their team taking 4th in Championship. (We will spare you all the drama.)

For those that are interested in their progression over the season I have added their places in the weekly meets leading up to Championships.

July 9
          Faith                                  Peace
25 yd free 1st place                      50 yd fly 1st
25yd back 1st place                     100yd IM 3rd

July 16
25 yd free1st                                200 yd free 3rd
25 yd back  2nd                            50 yd fly 3rd

July 23
25 yd free 1st                             50 yd fly 3rd
25yd fly 2nd                             100 yd IM 3rd

July 30
25 yd free 3rd                         50 yd fly 1st
25 yd back 2nd                      50 yd breast 1st

Championships:
25 yd fly 3rd                        50yd fly 3rd
25 yd back 2nd                  50yd breast 2nd

Barbie Friend or Foe?

By Aminah Muhammad
Barbie the toy young girls have played with for years. Over the years barbie has been made into more races and more careers. Including President Barbie, Beach Barbie, Alvin Alley Barbie, ect. Barbie has made even her own movies. Although, Barbie shows girls that they can take on any role they set their mind too. We have to ask ourselves is Barbie really are friend?
Bye Barbie
The media fl00ds us with the untrue idea that beauty is everything and Barbie only reinforces this idea. Every barbie is thin not even a little chubby & Barbie would have a 39 inch chest as a real woman. Also every Barbie has makeup why cant a girl be pretty without mascara? Over the years barbie has gotten less modest also telling girls that normal girls aren't modest. In the Barbie movies the main character is always a white skinned blond haired barbie. Why cant the main character be a Hispanic barbie. One day one of us may create a more realistic Barbie, but until then lets be our own role models.

Clove Hitch Knot

Greetings! Happy Summer! I hope you are enjoying life.

I took a nature class a few months ago. A segment was on knots. We learned how to tie and use several different types of knots. I must admit that I do not recall the uses for many of them but I do recall how to tie a few of them. One of my favorites was the clove hitch.
"Mommy, I like that clothes line you made in the backyard. It is cool. Do you think we will use that more often?" "Yep, dryer broke!"
Needless to say I excitedly turned to the clove hitch to create a clothesline. I have no idea if this is a good knot for this purpose. I do know that it was good practice and that it has continued to hold up just fine with heavy loads after about 5 days now.
I plan to take it down soon and try another knot for practice. Maybe the tautline hitch.

I encourage you all to learn how to tie a few knots (and their uses) for we never know when this knowledge will come in handy.

Around the Table

Greetings and Peace to you all,
     I pray everyone is doing well. The children and I were discussing their goals for this upcoming Ramadan. Their goals are simple yet superb.

• The Boy's goal is to perform his prayers at least 3 times a day.

• Faith's is to read the entire Holy Quran, memorize 2 prayers and do the rakahs at least twice a day.
• Peace's goal is to read the Holy Quran, pray at least 5 times a day, fast at least one day, cook breakfast and lunch so that my mom, since she is fasting, doesn't have to.

May Allah bless them with success!

Oh, for those that do not know. Ramadan is a very special time for Muslims because it was during this time that Allah chose to call Muhammad to be a Prophet, and sent down the first revelations of the Holy Quran. It is a time of spiritual and physical discipline; a time for making extra effort to spread love, peace, and atone with self and others. Fasting involves purposefully cultivating a peaceful and prayerful attitude of mind, and undergoing the physical discipline of giving up all food and liquid during the daylight for the entire month. It is not just about going without food; that is only one aspect and not the most important. If a person could not give up evil ways, violence, greed, lust, anger, and malicious thoughts, he had no need of giving up food and drink. It would be meaningless.
"There are many who fast all day and pray all night, but they gain nothing but hunger and sleeplessness." (Hadith Abu Dawud)

Ramadan 2011 will begin Aug 1