ginger root painting
The day I first made my Beet the Flu soup I rushed out of my apt to get a nice, new, fresh, young, piece of ginger root which is called for in the recipe I came across that inspired me to take up my knife and turn up the heat.
So it was off to my neighborhood Key Food in search of a shiny piece of ginger root only to find a bin full of grey/black styrofoam ‘trays’ of ginger roots that look like a baby’s arm wrapped in enough plastic wrap that the package would be watertight. Disgusted by this I stormed out of the supermarket raging about plastic wrap and why the overkill with an ingredient so simple and organic. So little is needed for such beneficial effects. While on the opposite side of the same coin, a blood orange, touted royally for its antioxidant and nutritional benefits is priced as a luxury food item.
I tried. I try my best to use the neighborhood supermarket but for some things it just won’t fly w/me. Within a few blocks and under a 5 minute walk from where I live is my neighborhood health food store where I happily bought a small piece of young, thin, shiny skinned ginger root, I could touch and pick and choose from a bin filled with them and NO plastic wrap.
I also got myself two beautiful blood oranges and not so much more costly than a standard orange when purchased when they’re in season.
I find this same scenario playing out when I try to buy milk. I can’t tell you what it takes to find a pint of good quality milk, quart sure, pint not. but I’ll take the time because the idea of waste and the overkill mentality keeps me sharp. Buy milk & juices and whatever you can in a paper product vs the plastic.
I’ll sign off so we can all get on w/our busy lives and hope that the root of the matter for me is to try my best to share resourceful, mindful exercises and ways of looking at the world so we’re not taken by the overkill mentality of mass consumerism. Keep things tangible, think about waste. Let’s live mindfully.