Good food, good eats at Grailville

In today's fast-paced society, many people pick up dinner at the drive-thru more often than they pick it from their gardens. Grailville's Good Earth/Good Eats Program is here to remind us where our food comes from and how we can change our eating habits to build a better world.

Nestled in the hills of Loveland, just 35 miles from Cincinnati, Grailville is dedicated to empowering women through creative expression, spiritual development and ecological awareness.

"Grailville has a long history of women who made major decisions about what they put into their bodies and how they wanted to treat this earth," says Pauletta Hansel, a poet and creative writing teacher who has served as co-director of Grailville since 2007.

In addition to conducting writing workshops for both girls and adult women, Hansel recently became a student herself when she attended the Good Earth/Good Eats Program. Each workshop features local growers and artisans who share their diverse skills, from growing herbs and harvesting wild edible plants, to making bread and cheese, to raising bees and backyard chickens (legal in Cincinnati as long as they don't become a nuisance). Hansel recommends the program for "anyone interested in how they might live and eat more sustainably."

Unlike books or websites, Grailville's organic gardens offer hands-on experience. "You have the opportunity to get your hands dirty and do the work in order to learn the work," Hansel says. "You [also] meet women who are living modern lives and still reaping the benefits of living more simply."

Hansel, a Paddock Hills resident, applies the principles she learned from Grailville in her urban garden. "One thing that is covered is permaculture, which involves thinking about the whole environment, what fits into one's lifestyle, and what vegetables one would actually use." Like many poets, she draws inspiration from the natural world. "The garden becomes part of my metaphoric registry, the process of going down deep and reaping what you sow. It's also a way to balance head work with the work of the body."
    
For those who wish to cultivate this balance in their lives, more workshops are forthcoming. Learn how to brew fermented tea with Introduction to Kombucha, preserve the fall harvest with Introduction to Canning, improve soil quality with Gardening from the Ground Up, and make sweet breads with Stollen for the Holidays.

Do good:

• Make a donation. Donate online, select Grailville as your charity of choice on DealsThatGiveBack.com, or organize a workplace campaign through Community Shares.

• Become a garden volunteer. Contact Mary Lu Lageman, 513-683-2340, for more information.

• Buy fresh organic vegetables from Grailville's produce stand or purchase fair trade items at its online store.

By Laura Thompson