Author Archives: Heather
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
Purity, ambiguity, and the investment portfolio
This week I’ll begin with a parable from my favorite set of wise weirdos, the desert fathers, forerunners of Christian monasticism. A brother said to Abba Poimen, “If I give my brother a little bread or something else, the demons … Continue reading
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Tagged desert fathers, farming, organic farming, purity, Slow Money, Stewart Brand, Woody Tasch
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The White Queen on the edge of chaos
To our surprise, Martin and I are going to be part of the Summer Literary Festival put on by Gemini Ink, a San Antonio writers’ center dedicated to building community through literature and related arts. Rosemary Catacalos, the executive director, … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged Albert Einstein, biomimicry, Gemini Ink, Lewis Carroll, Paul Davies, San Antonio
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Sorry, Dad: wilderness and government regulation
Harmonic convergences have ordained that I’m not done pondering wilderness yet. For my recent post on “Mapping the geography of hope: our place in the wilderness,” I once again used a quotation without having read its source. My latest hit-and-run … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged agribusiness, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Permian Basin, regulation, Sherwood Anderson, Stewart Udall, Wallace Stegner, wilderness
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Mapping the geography of hope: our place in the wilderness
Last week, during a visit to San Francisco that also took us to the nearby Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Martin and I spent a day exploring the Point Reyes National Seashore with his childhood friends Brad and Hans. Before setting … Continue reading
Massachusetts, part III: take a walk on the wild side
A Very Long Time Ago, my mother brought home a Peter Max-style poster with this quotation from Henry David Thoreau: “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.” Each time we moved, its reappearance was an indication that I was … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged camels, David Quammen, Henry David Thoreau, Madroño Ranch, Massachusetts, nineteenth century, predators, walking, wildness
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Massachusetts, part I: of books and houses and hospitality
On our very brief trip to Massachusetts last weekend, Martin and I drove straight from Boston’s Logan Airport to Concord in hopes of glimpsing one of the hotbeds of American utopian thinking before the winter sun set. Driving through snowy … Continue reading
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Tagged books, Bronson Alcott, Concord MA, Henry David Thoreau, hospitality, Louisa May Alcott, Massachusetts, Ralph Waldo Emerson, tohu-bohu, Transcendentalism, Walden
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James Cameron, Alexis de Tocqueville, and the nature of nature
In a recent op-ed column in the New York Times, Ross Douthat examines the underlying values of James Cameron’s movie Avatar and links it to a tide of pantheism coursing through Hollywood in particular and America in general. As a … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged Alexis de Tocqueville, Avatar, God, James Cameron, Maximus the Confessor, Natalie Angier, nature, Nicene Creed, pantheism, Ross Douthat, vegetarianism
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Carnivorocity, take two
Meat-eating has been the topic of much discussion recently, at least in what I’ve been reading. Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, Eating Animals, has generated a significant buzz; if you Google “foer eating animals,” you get 961,000 results. Foer spent … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged bison, Christopher Marlowe, economics, Jonathan Safran Foer, limits, Mary Oliver, meat, vegetarianism, Wendell Berry
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Carnivorocity
Since we’re in the early planning stages for our first Madroño Ranch bison harvest, I’ve been reflecting on issues of carnivorocity, which my spell-checker tells me isn’t a word. It suggests “carnivorousness” instead. But I prefer my neologism because it … Continue reading
Posted in Food
Tagged Bible, bison, Dai Due, God, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, meat, predators, vegetarianism
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“Everywhere there’s lots of piggies…”
I sometimes find myself feeling a little defensive about the Texas Hill Country. Martin, a San Francisco native, and I drove across the country via Texas after we graduated from college in Massachusetts. Somewhere around Bastrop, I said, “Well, we’re … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged dogs, feral hogs, Isa Catto Shaw, Madroño Ranch, predators, rototiller, sausage, Texas Hill Country
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