By Gina Munsey •
November 21, 2009
Life flies past us so quickly, and sometimes I’m certain the sound of the wind is actually the sound of life flying by. That’s the way it’s felt lately; a whirling blur, a constant hum, non-stop motion. Since my last post in August, I’ve gone on a 14-state road trip, moved from the East Coast back to my beautiful California, and re-entered the corporate world after a year-long hiatus. My husband quit his job to launch a graphic design business, we found a goat living on our new property, summer faded away into the brilliance of autumn, and I discovered almond flour.
Yes, that’s it. I discovered almond flour. Extraordinary, delicious, versatile almond flour.
It’s not cheap — I paid about $35 for 5 pounds from my local co-op — but I’ve never enjoyed gluten-free baked goods more. A single cup of almond flour provides the following nutrients:
- 140% of the RDA for vitamin E
- 80% of the RDA for magnesium
- 60% of the RDA for phosphorus
- 48% of the RDA for protein
- 32% of the RDA of calcium
- 16% of the RDA for folic acid
There’s more. Almond flour also makes the best banana-nut bread/muffins ever.
By John Ivanko •
March 11, 2009
After more than seven hundred hours of filming and editing, largely underwritten both by himself and those organizations supporting his visionary film-making endeavor, Chris Bedford has offered an inspiring documentary, Coming Home: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy, where people are, once again, people, not reduced to “consumers” or “tax payers” (recently on the hook for billions of dollars of bailout money).
As an award-winning film maker for such films as What will we eat? and The Organic Opportunity, Bedford has honed his craft to capture both the pivotal work of the late E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful and subsequent endeavors of the E.F. Schumacher Society and the creation of a local economy in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
While viewing the film Coming Home, officially released at the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin, I realized that this was no ordinary 37 minute documentary. It could very well be the start of a revolutionary way to view the local economy, starting with sustainable agricultural systems and the organic foods these farms provided to community residents and ending with BerkShares, a local currency. According to Coming Home, about 2 million BerkShares are now in circulation throughout Berkshire County. As of February 11, 2009, 100 BerkShares equal 95 U.S. dollars.
From provocative interviews, timely quotes and excerpts from E.F. Schumacher or from those in the community, Coming Home weaves a story of hope, empowerment and some practical ingenuity at just the right time when We the People are searching for solutions, turning not to Congress, but to our communities, and to Main Street, not Wall Street. Carefully selected footage and fine editing work makes for an engaging review, even for the most skeptical of viewers who may not see the power in communities that have their own farmers, radio station, interdependent retail district and currency.
