Cooking and Covid-19: At home, thinking about our food

By Mary MacVean

Husband and I live in an urban neighborhood, which in our part of L.A. means we have a very small backyard. We have no grass, but we have a big dining table and two raised bed boxes Husband built for me. Growing some of your own food is peaceful, empowering and economical. It’s also a radical act. And it can break your heart or send it soaring once you’re attached to your plants.

The days around Labor Day were outrageously hot, and the skies full of the residue from horrific fires. Our air was among the top 10 worst on Earth — no contest to win. I lost a couple of beautiful Suyo long cucumber plants — obviously nothing compared with those who lost everything.

The heat ate my cukes

Not unrelatedly, I’ve been reading and listening to talks about soil and about climate change, which gets me thinking about what most of us can do, every day, to help save the planet. Caveat: I believe in science. I watched Kiss the Ground, a hopeful if narrow new film based on the notion that our way out of the climate crisis could come from the soil’s ability to sequester carbon, if we change to regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming and grazing that focuses on soil health and thereby the ecosystem.