Every fall in Big Rapids Michigan the Waldron family comes together to make apple cider from the apples between their fields and orchards in and around town. I have been privileged enough to be invited to this wonderful event for the past three years. This is a memoir of making apple cider with the Waldrons.
Edwin, a co-worker, and I were chatting about food and nutrition the other day and we ran into this article. Since we have had a few discussions about how low-carb diets and vegetarian diets can be good for your health we suggested this article that advocates for a fusion of the two.
Adding a Big Dash of ‘Health’ to Low-Carbohydrate Diets
Michael Pollan also does a wonderful monologe on the subject in his book The Omnivoure’s Dilemma. He addresses the issue of our disconnect from food and how our culture has lost something that is driving us to resort to these types of diets.
Nor would such a culture be shocked to discover that there are other countries, such as Italy and France, thea ecide their dinner questions on the basis of such quaint and unscientific criteria as pleasure and tradition, eat all manner of “unhealthy” foods, and lo and behold, wind up actually healthier and happier in their eating than we are.
If we are talking about purely health and weight loss I would advocate for a well balanced diet that includes protein and carbohydrates in proper amounts. My warning would be to not overdose on carbohydrates or protien. Balancing your meals with plenty of fruit and vegetables and reducing your meat consumption to two times a week can have great effects on your health.
TheCommon.org – in book form. Created by Paradox Media Group.
TheCommon.org helps people in communities help each other by connecting people with abilities to people with matching needs inside their community.
I found this tool after looking into some concept web start-up companies. It is a great idea and a wonderful resource if used correctly. I have been using it for a while and have found that most people are having a hard time integrating it into their normal volunteer work flow. As the video suggests it lines up needs and abilites. I am not sure it is as simple as this presentation suggests. It could be that the ‘communities’ that I have joined are not using this tool yet but i have not seen any activity.
Let me know if you have had any experience with this tool.
Last month our neighborhood lost a valuable resource. Grand Rapids Police Officer Jeremy Huffman served our neighborhood for the past eleven years forming relationships with the people that lived in and did business in the eastown neighborhood. He took a preventative approach to curbing crime. Instead of responding to problems when they happened, he looked for ways to prevent crime.
Community policing or neighborhood policing is a policing strategy and philosophy based on the notion that community interaction and support can help control crime and reduce fear, with community members helping to identify suspects, detain vandals and bring problems to the attention of police.[1]
I have only lived in the neighborhood for a few years now but an elderly lady that came to show support for Jeremy in a peaceful protest last month told the story for us. She has lived in the neighborhood almost all her life and witnessed the transformation that this approach to policing had on the community. This was a valuable learning experience for me and I will never think of a police department of only being capable of reactions again.
Members of the Eastown community gathered in the cold outside of the Kava House Coffee Shop. They were standing to celebrate the service of Grand Rapids Police Officer Jeremy Huffman who has been the community officer in Eastown for eleven years. Budget cuts are forcing Huffman back out onto general patrol duties.[1]
Here are a few new stations that showed up at the gathering…