I have been an activist for sustainable living and organic growing all my life. Recently started a grass roots organization with Anita and Brian Poeppel of Broad Branch Farm called Spray Drift Education Network (spraydriftillinois.com)dedicated to helping Illinois citizens report and prevent pesticide drift. Am also a member of the Governing Board of Illinois Organic Growers Association.
Through the years I have written "The Directory of Working Women, What To Do When the Stock Market Falls, and Car Living Your Way: Stories and Practical Tips From Those Who Have Been Down the Road." Recently wrote "A Little Green Amongst the Browns" which appeared in ACRES, U.S.A.
From 2000 to 2010, I lived in a primitive cottage on 19 acres in Lee County, Illinois without well or septic. (Just my trusty shovel and solar shower). In 2010 I upgraded to a "normal" lifestyle complete with well, septic and more outbuildings. It's still just the cat's meow...a pastoral paradise only 80 miles from Chicago but a world away.
Nature fuels my creativity. And injustice to the earth in the way of chemical poisons sprayed on the soil, in the air and into our water. As Yvonne Frost, my venerable executive director when working at Oregon Tilth, put it: "The farmers say they are feeding the world. I say they have been systemically poisoning the earth for decades." Amen.
I read Somerset Maugham in 6th grade (and need to re-read him now that I'm ancient); any nonfiction author that writes well of the environment. Oh, and Shel Silverstein who was introduced to me by my son, JJ, many years ago.
No one has written on Alberta Jane Heim's wall.
No one has written on Alberta Jane Heim's wall.