From the Dunwoody
Patch by Tom Oder 9-1-2011
Food
for My Daughters: what one mom decided to do when the towers fell (and what you
can do, too).
It
was a Pattie Baker kind of morning.
The
rising sun was peeking through the trees, sending streaks of early morning light
into gaps between trunks and branches and shimmering across the dew that was
still on the grass as we arrived at the Community Garden in Brook Run
Park.
Dunwoody’s
goodwill food ambassador was in one her favorite places, the garden, at her
favorite time of the day. She didn’t lose a minute in tending to her plot,
yanking up sweet potato vines and harvesting orange tubers of all sizes as we
talked about her new self-published book, Food for My Daughters: what one mom
decided to do when the towers fell (and what you can do, too).
The
book is an easy-reading account of Pattie’s journey to becoming a disciple for
sustainable organic gardening and sustainable lifestyles. That
journey began 10 years ago with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on
New York and Washington, D.C.
Her
response to those attacks was to take up vegetable gardening in case terrorists
struck the U.S. food supply. That response changed Pattie’s life and led her to
write the book, which is a compilation of inspirational teaching-moment
vignettes from blogs and other works she has written along the way.
The
book, as the title says, is for her daughters and is meant to teach them about
organic and sustainable life skills they simply weren't learning anywhere else.
Pattie says she hopes that others will find the actionable advice and recipes in
the book useful in growing food, community and knowledge that will help
themselves and their own children prepare for a changing world.
It’s
an inspirational, page-turning treasure hunt for teaching moments that are
presented as stories and tips (recipes, too!) as the 12 months of the year
rather than as “chapters.” “I very much wanted my girls to remember the essence
of each month in this connected cycle and to feel as if they were actually in
the garden again,” Pattie said. “The best way to present that was how the garden
actually grows, as a seasonal continuum.”
“I
wanted to put down this kind of information for my kids so that they will have
it when they need it later in life,” Pattie said. It contains basic knowledge
that has skipped not one, but two generations, and is intended to help bridge
this gap, she wrote in a promotion for the book.
Pattie
proudly points out that one of her daughters is treating the book like a time
capsule, saving it to share with her children when she’s a mom.
Pattie
makes the point about the garden being a continuum in “July.” Her thoughts are
not so much that her older daughter would be away during a whole month in the
middle of the summer for several years in a row. Rather they were about “how she
would leave right after blackberries and be home in time for figs but would miss
lemon cucumbers completely.”
Pattie
wants the book to make a difference not only in the lives of her children but in
the lives of those who read the book.
One
of the ways Pattie makes a difference is speaking up about things that bother
her. She believes that by speaking up she can make a difference to her children,
even if she doesn’t make a difference in the lives of those around
her.
She
is effective at making a difference to both.
One
of her children’s doctors found that out in “March” when Pattie was shocked to
see that an examining room where she and one of her daughters were taken had
wallpaper featuring a well-known soft-drink company. Pattie requested they be
moved to a new room (hoping it was a commercial-free environment!). When the
doctor came in, Pattie pointed out that she had requested a new room because of
the wallpaper in the previous room. She was concerned, she writes, that it had
the potential to encourage choices that could lead to childhood obesity. The
doctor agreed with Pattie and promised to speak to the office
manager!
There
are stories such as this throughout each month of the book, which Pattie
characterizes as being much like the 16 vegetable plots in her garden. All, she
says, have different soil composition. The book, she says, is “kind of random,
not linear ... like my journey.“
It
also reflects 21st century journalism and publishing. It is based on
her blogs and various writings through the years and, to prevent excess
production, is available online from amazon.com.
You’ll
quickly pick up on the unmistakable message: Food is a conduit to actions Pattie
believes all of us can take to obtain a sustainable lifestyle as individuals and
as a city.
She
is living her life by example to do her part, serving as the inspirational heart
and soul of the Community Garden in Brook Run Park, inspiring other community
and school gardens, helping to launch Dunwoody’s Sustainability Commission and
influencing the city's Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
She
says may update the book to make editing changes and corrections. And, well,
then again, she says she may not.
Don’t
be surprised, or disappointed if she doesn’t. Pattie says she’s an entrepreneur
who likes to start things, get them running and hand them over to someone else
to continue to nurture.
What
makes her happy, she emphasizes, is a blank page, fresh beginnings, new
challenges, the January garden … which is, after all, where Food for My
Daughters begins.
Food
for My Daughters
Dunwoody
mom Pattie Baker’s new book, Food for My Daughters: what one mom decided to
do when the towers fell (and what you can do, too) is available online from
amazon. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=food+for+my+daughters
A
limited number of books will be available at the Emerging Authors booth at the
annual Labor Day weekend Decatur Book Festival on the square in Decatur. Pattie
will speak at the Emerging Author's Stage at 3:40 Sunday afternoon and will sign
books at 3:50 p.m. The book is $15.
Festival
hours 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Sunday. For more information about the festival, visit
http://www.decaturbookfestival.com/2011/index.php.
A
portion of the proceeds from the sale of every copy of the book will be donated
to help grow food for those in need.
Pattie
has given more to this Community than most of you will ever know.
Go on Down to Decatur and check out the Festival and say hello to Pattie
while you are there
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