Veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan face a difficult transition to civilian life. They need a place to de-escalate from the impact of combat. They’re service-driven people who need a new mission.
At the same time, half of American farmers have reached retirement age, and the USDA is calling for one million new farmers and ranchers in the next 10 years to fill the gap.
Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farmfields is a documentary film and social action campaign that champions the growing network of combat veterans who are transitioning into careers as sustainable farmers, ranchers, and artisan food producers. The film follows an ensemble of young men and women who tell us why they joined the military; how the war changed them; how they’ve struggled to return home; and ultimately, how they found organic farming and ranching to be the answer to a dream. In a world full of problems, Ground Operations is a story about solutions.
“Teach these guys how to farm, and they can have sustainable lives with sustainable agriculture,” says Adam Burke, who started the Veterans Farm in Jacksonville, Florida, growing organic blueberries.
You can support Ground Operations by sharing the 2-minute video below or by buying the 40-minute film on DVD for $20. You’ll be rooting for returning veterans all the way to your local farmers’ market.
… And find out how we’re doing our part to support returning veterans in my post that’s coming up on Saturday.
Before we knew about the unsavory animal origins of traditional gelatin (a gelling agent made from boiling the skin, tendons, ligaments, bones, and even hooves of cows, pigs, or horses), we might have picked up a box of Safeway’s “Jell-well” gelatin dessert.
Savvy shoppers now choose to use my innovative ChillOver Powder—it’s vegan, but ends up like gelatin, sets up in half the time gelatin does, seals in flavors more quickly, and doesn’t melt at room temperature. (It’s fantastic for making jams, far superior to pectin, etc.)
But being a Utah native, where residents eat twice as much gelatin as anyone else on the planet and a staple of every community potluck was “gelatin salad”—a concoction of lime gelatin with grated carrots and celery trapped inside, topped with Miracle Whip—I’m genetically inclined to wax nostalgic about all things gelatin.
Like my propensity for collecting vintage gelatin molds:
… and decorating with them:
And, if you have any idea of how hard it is to choose and trademark a product name (I was once told I couldn’t use my own name on my magazine because of Mary Jane candies (read more about them here) and Mary Jane and Friends bread, a southern grocery-store brand), you’ll know I was amused to learn this bit of trademark history:
In 1927, when Jell-well tried to stop Jell-X-Cell from using that name as a trademark, they were overruled by provisions of the “Trade-Mark Act,” which forbade registration of words or devices “which are descriptive of the goods with which they are used, or of the character or the quality of such goods.” In the case, the judge ruled that “One of the prime objects and indispensable qualities of the substance is that, when it is changed by manipulation and the addition of water into a form available for use as an edible substance, it must ‘jell.’ To my mind, the words are so plainly descriptive of a natural and necessary quality of the concoction as to relieve the question of any doubt whatsoever.” He went on to say, “With the whole field of possible coinage before them, it is strange that merchants insist upon adopting marks that are so nearly descriptive.”
I was finally able to trademark MaryJanesFarm by removing the apostrophe and smooshing it all together in one word, thereby stylizing it and making it a recognizable logo instead of merely a name. (Important life lesson: If you’re persistent and imaginative, there are usually ways around the “rules.” It helps to be a Taurus—we’re known for our persistence, sometimes called “stubbornness.”)
If you’re gaga for the good old days of gelatin schmaltz too, how about this retro kitsch t-shirt from Zazzle.com?
Or this morsel of Utah lore:
Utah residents like gelatin so much that when Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, one of the official pins was a green gelatin jiggler in the shape of the state.
Or this fun appearance of gelatin in the movies:
In the 1959 movie, Some Like It Hot, Jerry, played by Jack Lemon, says with awe when watching Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, played by Marilyn Monroe, “Will you look at that! Look how she moves! It’s like Jell-O on springs. Must have some sort of built-in motor or something.”
Comment below with your favorite gelatin anecdotes … and tell me how you like my non-gelatin ChillOver Powder!
Next Sunday, September 21, is the International Day of Peace (Peace Day). In 1981, the United Nations General Assembly declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. Twenty years later, in 2001, the General Assembly declared that the day would be an annual day of non-violence and cease-fire. According to the official website, “Anyone, anywhere can celebrate Peace Day. It can be as simple as lighting a candle at noon, sitting in silent meditation, or doing a good deed for someone you don’t know. Or it can involve getting your co-workers, organization, community or government engaged in a large event. You can also share thoughts, messages, and pictures to commemorate Peace Day on social media.”
“Hand of Peace” sculpture by Rose Garrard. Photo by Kudpung via Wikimedia Commons
Search the website’s extensive database of peace-related events to find out what’s happening in your area. You’ll be joining with millions of people around the world to promote peace with activities, events, concerts, and festivals. This year’s theme is “Rights of Peoples to Peace.”
Here are some ideas on how YOU can participate from InternationalDayOfPeace.org:
How sweet is this?
Priscilla Wegers, copy editor for my magazine, recently gave me this sweet little box of Mary Jane taffy. Now made by Necco, the company that gave us Necco Wafers, Clark Bars, and more, this candy has been around since 1914, first manufactured by the Charles N. Miller Company. It was a favorite penny candy sold in general stores in the first half of the 1900s.
I’d seen the individually wrapped little nuggets of peanut-butter taffy chews before, but I hadn’t ever seen the little box. Miller named the candy after his favorite aunt, Mary Jane, and the same illustration of little Mary Jane has appeared on the wrappers since 1914.
According to the Necco website. “Through the years, countless school children learned about the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Those same kids would run out of school to the closest store and buy as many Mary Jane candies as their pocket change would permit. Little did they know, the lesson they just learned and the delicious sweet they were about to unwrap had a common history. Miller got his start by making candies with his father in their Boston home, a home whose previous owner happened to be Paul Revere. And coincidentally, today we make these favorite chews in the Massachusetts city of Revere!”
Thanks for this sweet little piece of Mary Jane history, Priscilla.
I might add that Mary Jane candy is the reason my business name, MaryJanesFarm, doesn’t have an apostrophe or spaces. Mary Jane was already trademarked so I couldn’t be Mary Jane’s Farm or even MaryJane’s Farm. Once I turned all three words into a stylized “logo” of sorts, I was able to use my name, MaryJane, as part of my business name. Also, there’s a Mary Jane Bread, that’s been a mainstay for many years in the South, that I couldn’t infringe upon.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
