chowandfaith

Stopped & Shop

I created this blog to share the relationship between food and our spiritual journey.  Today I need to vear from that path the recount an incident from yesterday.  After leaving a hair appointment in Pembroke, MA.  Yes, a sister will go to the ends of the earth for a good hairdresser.  I used some extra time I had to stop by the local Stop and Shop.  Without my list in hand, I tried to recreate my shopping list.  I like using the hand held device that allows me to keep a tap on the amount of money I am spending.  Besides occasionally some wonderful deals just pop up on the screen.

Then I get to the check out line scan the checkout bar and scan my Stop and Shop card.  Before I could blink a women ran up to me stated she had to do a random audit then jumped in front of my cart life i was stealing and she was blocking my way.  I inquired why as the only person of any color in the store was i chosen for a random audit.  She hesitated, then mumbled.  

With recent emphasis placed on the profiling of people of color I could not help but wonder.  If the POTUS can make a statement about being profilled, and post Treyvon we rush into statements of a post-racial society and yet another conversation on race.  Just as a reminder the last opportunity post Skip Gates did not provide any forums of consequence.  We do not live in a post-racial society, every person of color at anytime in their life is a candidate for racial profilling.  Something as necessary as food shopping has turned into place where regardless if we are dressed in Dior or denim, we will continue to be profiled.  As if we have no right to be in a place and must be able to provide an explanation an excuse, a reason for our pressence in a particular place.

I am priviledged to be able to choose where I shop and a vehicle by which to be able to get there.  I can make a decision as to where I shop and choose not to visit the Stop and Shop in Pembroke again.  The company will not miss my shopping there, but my dignity has a higher value than the buy one, get one free strawberries I purchased.

The Bread of Life

The thing to remember about communion is that breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace. This simple act says that we form a community together.

Chow and Faith Summer Reflections

It comes as no surprise to anyone that I love to eat.  Every year during the summer I ask myself the question “Why did God create a world where every living creature must eat?”   My understanding is that food is a gift of love.  The God that gave us tomatoes, corn on the cob, strawberries and blueberries is a God of love.

Fall Preparations

By becoming a member of a CSA (community supported agriculture) for the past four years I have learned to eat seasonally.  It took a while to get used to and as we enter the Fall season I have to switch my fruits and vegetables as well as my clothes.  There is always a tinge of sadness as peaches, tomatoes, corn, and plums take a back seat to apples, squash

Veggies, veggies, everywhere!

The past few days has been a bevy of cooking.  The cookbook “Vegan Planet” has been  a lifesaver, pesto, vegan spinokapeda, kolarabi, more tomatoes.  This past Sunday’s gospel reading was on the feeding of five thousand.  I  believe that eating and the preparation of food is a communal activity.  Flavors shared, friends and family shared, food shared with the least, last and lost.  This week we witnessed the devastation of the drought in Somalia, those who do not have enough.  There was a story shared of a young infant who was found abandoned along the side of the road.  Probably the result of the death of her mother.  The girl was found, and taken in as a part of a family of seven.  Enough to share, enough to care.

Corn, tomatoes and basil

Three of my favorite items of summer.  As an urban gardener who has all of her tomatoes and herbs in pots on the deck.  I enjoy rubbing my fingers through the leaves of a tomato plant.  The smell is only one you can get during the season ans is so easily forgotten in the hothouse tomatoes of winter.   In my haste to have enough basil I planted more than enough plants and am now on a fresh pasta and pesto roll.  To end my summer favorites is corn.  The CSA I belong to announced today that their first corn will be in the box.  In all these wonderful and simple summer blessings I give thanks, and a continual search for recipes.