Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Urban Trends


In Europe, more people live on every square mile of land than here in America.  In Jamaica, there are vast unoccupied areas of beautiful lush jungle habitat, and yet people there also surround themselves with an intentional urban landscape.  It is a beautiful and functional landscape. 

Not too long ago, I stayed at a little cluster of cottages in Jamaica.  The owner’s dad was sitting on the step one morning as I went for a walk to find a vendor selling nice local Blue Mountain coffee.  “124 mangoes ripe,” this elder gentleman (in his late 80s) informed me.  He gestured toward the big fruit tree which shadowed overhead like an umbrella, and to the ripe fruit all around on the ground.   He was inviting me to breakfast, in a Jamaican casual way.  There was something verdant and abundant about a tree lavishing big ripe mangoes for as many as 124 passers by.  Fruit trees are like that.  


(My daughter, sitting outside Mikey's at Green Leaf Cabins in Negril, Jamaica.  Local men sit around and play dominoes there, faster than I can do the math.  If you visit Seven Mile Beach at Sun Beach, stop by and see my tiedye fashions for sale in Jennifer's Gift Shop there at Green Leaf Cabins, on Norman Manley Boulevard.  And don't miss one of the best roadside jerk chicken grills called "Best of the West." ) 


By urban landscape, I’m not talking about skyscrapers and utility lines, and parking lots.  Outside of America, most of the people living in fertile regions with a moderate climate, surround their homes with an edible, or otherwise useful, landscape.

Driving down Mexico’s Emerald Coast on a road trip, you can still see people living in modest little homes who use horses or mules to press sorghum in their front yard.  The animals, strapped to something like the horse exercise carousels in Oklahoma, go round and round.  This cinches and presses the canes, which are like bamboo, to crush out the juice.  A family member or neighbor with a big paddle stirs and cooks the sap over an open fire in the yard, making the sweet and iron-rich molasses which will be used for cooking or as a table condiment.

Further South, visit the Mexican village (now a city) of Papantla and you will find a culture of vanilla there.  It is grown by many.  Seller after seller features their vanilla beans in the local farmers market.  Some grow extra, and trade it for other needed things such as tools and labor.

Other places yet, one may find an informal guild of  weavers or potters, silversmiths or luthiers.  In families and among neighbors they hand down the technology of their craft. 

In America, we have some analogies.  SPIN farming is small-plot intensive gardening.  It is a new trend in Oklahoma.  People share learning so they can grow food on small patios or in a small but rich deep garden plot.  Even smaller, one can  buy a little kitchen nanogarden taking up less than 2 square feet of space and capable of yielding fresh herbs year round.  And in rural places dotting the Oklahoma roadsides and backroads, the landscape still has vestiges of subsistence farming from the past— some farmhouse amidst fruit trees often with the signs of a past garden plot.  These are landmarks, whispering a bit of the history of the past or future. 

Revitalizing urban homesteads, I predict, will grow more popular as more and more people  reach a point of change and authenticate their consumer consciousness.  We seem to be ‘regionalizing and localizing’ in our preferences.  Local food.  Regional music.  Shopping as an adventure to find unique and individual things instead of things mass-produced machine-made disposables.
 
Maker Fairs are springing up as a weekend happening in large urban areas.  People go to see Indie artisans and gadgety inventor geeks at work and play.  Visitors can sometimes pay to make their own stuff there onsite at some of the booths.  What girlie girl would not love to make herself a purse which illuminates inside with LED lights when opened?  At a Maker Fair, Guys can punch leather, rig a little robot for the coffee table, or make a bookshelf that appears to have no visible means of support.  There, you might find  a floating MP3 speaker inside of a mylar balloon.    

Sooner or later, we have a hankering to live in a world with our imprints.  Learning to do cool stuff is a dividend in customizing an intentional lifestyle.  

Resources:  Read about the pole diving religion of Cempoala Totonacs at http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totonac ;   Yardify your food at okspinfarmcoop, a yahoo group.  Make stuff:  www.instructables.com .  Get bits here:  http://store.makezine.com/  See that speaker:  http://makerfaire.com/pub/e/554

No comments:

Post a Comment