The color of our eggs mesmerizes me and the milk from our Jersey cow is so yellow from the fresh green pasture it almost looks artificial. What fairy climbed into the refrigerator at night and replaced the top cream with store-bought, prepackaged, French vanilla pudding? Of course, the only reason this looks odd to me is because I grew up as a supermarket child whose only experience with milk was white. Scientifically this can be reduced to beta carotenes which the Jersey cow does not break down the same way a Holstein does, but as a visual artist (yes, I do art as well as write) there is more to the color than meets the eye. The longer I live on my farm the more I have come to realize that it's less about understanding the individual reductionist chemicals at play, and more about understanding my steps and place in this larger dance of life. In other words, I will leave the beta carotene studies to someone else. I need only look at the richness and depth of the color to know there is value in these foods. There is value that speaks to my soul and it reflects the lifestyle that my cow Trinity is living, and the true free range complex balance of the chickens and roosters on this farm.
This richness beyond white washed foods only comes when you live a life in harmony with natural processes. As you become a part of the whole system, the depth of color explodes in a masterful symphony that has each player working in concert to create something greater than the single hue. The eggs have what sustainable farmer Joel Salatin calls "muscle." And the milk boasts a cadmium yellow that calls to the deepest parts of ourselves.
As a painter, I can remember how I felt the first time I squeezed this color out of a tube. I wanted to eat it. It was a visceral reaction. Of course, my rational self took hold as I knew the paint contained substances that were best left on the canvas and not in my mouth, but the feeling that the color would nourish took hold of me. I placed this yellow in the most prestigious locations of my most favored paintings. Something inside of me intuitively knew that this was a color of healing and transformation. Little did I know that our fresh farm eggs and milk were calling to me, I had been craving the true colors of life. I think we all hold deep inside of us a magical memory of what foods are supposed to look like, even in this disassociated modern society where food comes prepackaged in a supermarket, we know these true colors and they call to all of us to live a more sustainable and enriching life. The gold of kings and queens might have more to do with this human desire than the soft metal that goes for a pretty price. This gold is free for the living. The chickens who scratch forth and lay eggs, the cows who wander and munch the lush greenness of summer sunlight, the person who is lucky enough to remember what food used to look and taste like. True colors; belie the true value of life itself. I count myself among the lucky and blessed ones to know this treasure.
Very cool sentiments and piece of writing Karen!
Well done!
And yes, of course, me too, regarding the tube of paint!!! Sista!
Posted by: jackie | July 21, 2009 at 09:40 AM