The Separate Soul: Liberty Hyde Bailey’s Reflections On John Muir

The new Ken Burn’s documentary, The National Park: America’s Best Ideas will take to the airwaves on September 27th. One of the featured personalities will be that of John Muir, no less reintroducing the legacy of this profound man to many Americans. Muir’s activism ripples through our culture with concentric waves touching the founding of Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, the Sierra Club, and bringing awareness to Americans of the landscape they inhabit. Liberty Hyde Bailey too was effected by Muir’s legacy. Not too long after Muir’s death in 1914, Bailey wrote of him in The Holy Earth in the chapter entitled, “The separate soul.”

Click on the title link to dowload this chapter from Bailey's, The Holy Earth.

Local Beef Brown Bag Caps Summer Program

Where does your beef come from? As author Michael Pollan points out in his book, In Defense of Food we have resigned one of the most intimate acts in our daily life, eating food, to an industrialized system. Mike Rainey, of Rainey Farms in South Haven, Michigan presented an alternative at the museum's last Brown Bag this summer; know your farmer and know where your food comes from. Mike raises cattle without the use of synthetic hormones or steroids and are fed only all natural ingredients. As a local farmer who also sells at the South Haven Farmer's Market, Mike is an advocate for buying food locally citing its benefits of spurring local economic growth, knowing what's in your food and where it comes from and basically better tasting food. Put away that marinade! This beef has flavor.

To order from Rainey Farms call: 1-866-655-8855. On the web at: http://www.raineyfarms.com/, E-Mail: mike@raineyfarm.com

Other resources for eating & buying local: http://www.localharvest.org/; http://www.fairfoodmatters.org/; http://www.farmersmarkets.msu.edu/

Recommended Reads

Two leaders in environmental thought influenced by the writings of Liberty Hyde Bailey continue to inspire. Parts of Bailey's classic The Holy Earth can be found in Wendell Berry's What Are People For?: Essays. Aldo Leopold's classic A Sand County Almanac furthered Bailey's idea of how one is to live with their environment. Great reads and food for thought. What would you recommend?

Farm Fresh Foods Feature on NPR Website

This Morning Edition series takes you to America's farmers markets and roadside stands for a sample of what's growing on its farms, in its gardens and across the countryside.

Check it out at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111309533