ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

goddamn, i love the OJAI POST!!!

they serve a mean enchilada caserole and it's the only place you can get some salmon and a salad for under 10 bucks!

Right On Dvorah !!!!! We appreciate you too!

I have to say, I've been into rainbow hundreds of time, and I've NEVER had an experience like that. Despite my easy and regular orders, the deli kids barely look at me, and I always feel like my pleases and thank yous just make their days more miserable.

Farmer and the Cook, on the other hand, despite its being an "inconvenience store", has always treated me with a smile and appreciation for the fact that I dont want a bag. Not to mention that they dont carry kraft products, are ALL organic, compost all preconsumer waste, buy local, have a great community supported agriculture program, and 124 (or 142, cant remember) solar panels on their roof. Now there's the real deal.

You must have had a regular bad day! The fish isn't always the best - but the kids (from my experience) are playful and great and so is the environment! There is no denying that Farmer & the Cook is Divine. I love eating there too and it is absolutely the Real Deal.

Plus Farmer and the Cook does not sell dead chickens!

it does in the freezer department! and Turkey too - however they're organic.

I just ate at Farmer & they also have frozen organic beef and buffalo - a man's got to make a living!

It's my experience not to be too righteous abut this "vegetarian thing". For me - I feel like I'm eating my own arm if I eat meat or chicken - It's crazy to me that you have kill a whole cow just to have a burger - HOWEVER - some of the greatest known Enlightened Masters/teachers from Indian and Europe & America have eaten beef. Nisargadatta, a direct Enlightened disciple of Ramana Maharishi ate meat and smoked. When asked why he ate meat, he said, "I only eat a little bit. (So for a little bit - you still have to kill a whole cow).

My point is - in some circles you're evolved/high/sensitive if you don't eat meat - and in other circles, you're not evolved enough cause everything is energy & space, so what difference does it make. It really is different strokes for different folks. So I say bless it, and eat it! But if you asked me, I'd say go Veggie.

(the issues concerning the environment and the mis- treatment of animals is another conversation).

dvorah, the issues concerning the environment and the mistreatment of animals is not another conversation.... it is THE conversation.....

i don't eat meat but if i were undecided about it the last person in the world i would listen to for advice is Nisargadatta or any other phony gurus you have up your sleeve....

Phony Gurus, like everything else, is up for perspective, and personal experience...

I have never, nor would I ever condone the torture or killing of animals - but there are other perspectives from all parts of the world, and not all of them are "wrong" or phony...

No, not everything is "up for perspective".

That's just another piece of pseudo-spirituality.

Good morning Dvorah,

You wrote,

"Nisargadatta...ate meat and smoked. When asked why he ate meat, he said, "I only eat a little bit. (So for a little bit - you still have to kill a whole cow)."

"Eating a little bit," means that the animal will feed more people. Or you can save the remains for the future. (Just stating the obvious here.)

You also wrote: "the issues concerning the environment and the mis- treatment of animals is another conversation."

I agree with anonymous that those who eat animals have a responsibility to face those issues, even if they only "eat a little bit."

(Note also that the Guru's response did not explain "why" he ate meat).

Several Post authors, myself included, have written about factory farming and assembly-line slaughterhouses here on the Post.

Below is a link to an article by Kenley Neufeld, that includes a letter from Thich Nhat Hanh:

http://www.ojaipost.com/2007/10/vegetarianism_and_the_environm.shtml

PS Here is a direct link to the letter from Thich Nhat Hanh. I had forgotten how good it was!

http://www.orderofinterbeing.org/docs/TNH_Letter_October_2007.pdf

You see, this is why the world is in such a mess...because communication is highly over-rated! I say something and you hear something else. I know how you feel about animals AND I FEEL THE SAME WAY, remember, I'm a veggie person and not for my health! I'm a veggie person because "I can't bear the thought of eating something that was killed to wet my appetite. I don't need more information on the consequences of killing or torturing animals.

ALL I SAID WAS THAT THERE ARE OTHER PERSPECTIVES IN THE WORLD. We ALL have to live together in this world and people have different ideas about life and how they want to live it. That's why "an organic down-home VEGETARIAN place like "Farmer and the Cook" sells beef and buffalo. They serve "their customers" even tho they don't have their belief system.

If you asked me, we'd all become Vegetarian-but the world is not comprised of just me, and there are many thoughts on what people should eat in all fields of expertise. I mentioned only one Guru or Teacher - there are many and most of them (including my own) would advise anyone to be a vegetarian for health, environmental and spiritual reasons.

And Suza, I am one of your greatest Fan! - I think yoga rocks and apparently so do more and more people every day, all over the world.

I'm glad we got that all straightened out! Thank you!!

"ALL I SAID WAS THAT THERE ARE OTHER PERSPECTIVES IN THE WORLD."

No, dvorah, that's not all you said. You said everything "is up for perspective." That's very different.... New Age phony-spiritual hocus-pocus.

This may fall on deaf ears, but it's a risk I take.

As writers, we owe it to readers to communicate as best as we can. We may fall short, but if we deliberately use language that is easilly misunderstood, we muddy the waters even more.

Just as an example, why would you write "shut up!" when what you really mean is "be quiet?"

Dovorah kindly explained what she meant by that when she first began writing on the Post, and then I understood. But, most readers new on the scene are going to have a gut reaction upon being told to SHUT UP!!!

Forgive me for not keeping quiet. Maybe I've been reading too many writings by Deborah Tannen, the famous professor of linguistics and author of the bestseller on interpersonal communication:
"You Just Don't Understand."

Dearest Suza: We all have different personalities and we all express ourselves differently that's why there are different body types Pitta, Vatta, Kapha, different energies, different everything - there are many voices that serve different people. Writers are no different - they express through a different medium/instrument/life experiences - their job is to express "their way" and people of like mind, enjoy it and others take offense. That's why there are so many different writer. You wouldn't want them all to be the same would you? How boring would that be? You see I don't agree with everything Debra Tannen has to say...But obviously she hit a like/cord with you. I prefer Osho - a crazy guy with the heart of love/warrior who says it his way!

osho (nee bhagwan shree rajneesh) took my money, he took my car, he took my cup and plate

he gave me diarrhea, he gave me crummy jokes, and a girlfriend who gave me da clap

i luv that ole fart

People who come here to just to pick fights either need to get laid or have a good cry. Maybe both.

Dvorah,

I see El Anonimo says that your guy Osho is the same as that infamous notorious fraud Rajneesh.... is that true?

Are you a disciple of Rajneesh?? the one with the fleet of Rolls Royces's?? until he got run out of Oregon??

Hi David - No Osho is not my Guru, but I like him, he was always a rebel and I liked his spirit. My Guru is the founder of the Art of Living foundation www.artofliving.org - one of the world's largest volunteer-based NGO. Our gig is service all over the world, and I mean food, shelter, medicine, clothing, trauma relief (New Orleans, Tsunami, disaster, earthquake in India, Pakistan, New York etc.) Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was up for the Nobel Peace prize last year. We been around for 25 years, served over 20 million people 152 countries. My Guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, personally travels all over the world providing these services with the help of volunteers from the International Association of Human Values.

We teach yoga, breathing and have special programs in colleges, prisons and hospitals. My son and daughter both went to New Orleans to teach yoga and breathing for Trauma relief and worked in the day care centers there.

I used to teach Yoga and meditation in women's prisons.

Back to The Rainbow Bridge: I suggest you check your bills and change carefully there.
My experiences at this establishment have not been very pleasant. Once, when my bill was off by appoximately $40, the checker treated me as though I was the village idiot for questioning him. He had somehow missed all of those estimation chapters in his math classes, because he insisted that my $15 purchases were by virtue of a cash register's infallibility going to cost me $55. Finally, a manager(?) looked over the situation and saw that the checker had neglected to void the transaction before mine thereby adding a " little extra" to my tab. Since then, I have tried to avoid the place and have warned my friends to be very careful when shopping there.
Perhaps, some of those difficult customers that Dvorah mentions, had good reason to be difficult.
I agree with comment #4.......The Farmer and and Cook is great!

I eat at Farmer and the Cook and Rainbow. Thanks be to both of them, otherwise I'd probably be eating genetically engineered slop instead of organic! I say, great they're both here!

hate to say it, but everywhere except farmer and the cook's covered in genetically engineered food- rainbow carries MANY non-organic (and therefore probably GMO-ridden) products.

ONLY the UDSA certified organic food can be counted on to have less than 1% of TGVs (transgenic varieties- the technical term for genetically modified). Almost everything in rainbow's deli, if it has corn, soybeans, or canola oil, is very likely to be transgenic. Remember, there is no labeling requirement for TGVs-- even USDA certified organic food can have a very small amount of transgenic material (because of transgene drift into organic farmers' crops without their consent or even knowledge). The US has the largest amount of GMO planted farmland in the world, folks.
Farmer and the Cook is the only all-organic restaurant and market I've ever seen- pretty remarkable.

The only guarantee for GMO-free is the F&C, my friends.

Anon 10:41-

I have a question

You seem to be a big fan of GMO-free food

Are you healthy?

El Anonima,

My take on #26 anon. 1041 is quite different than yours. #26 appears to be aware that many are under the false belief that rainbow is an organic only store when in fact they are not all organic.

Alas, I am not surprised that you have made this error. It seems as though your reading comprehension level has proven to be quite faulty based on your various comments here on the Post. I could go back and list them all but why beat a dead horse?

ah Spaz- you just couldn't resist taking the dirty dig at me.
don't know what i have ever done to "upset" and it would take too long down here in Yelapa, Jalisco, Mexico- A WORLD APART, on a 28.8 dial-up modem to review ALL the correspondence you and I have had and ALL my possible faulty reading comprehension.

I would simply say that an apology from you would be received quite graciously and then we could just let that dead horse decompose elegantly and give it a proper burial.

As far as organic, GMO, etc, I have been on that path probably longer than you have been on this planet, if I read your incredible immaturity and jealously properly.

I have simply noticed how sickly many of the shoppers at "Health" stores appear and I was curious if Anon #25 felt that his/her deep concern with GMO-free foods has contributed to higher states of well-being.

That's a fair question, no??

(spaz been zapped??)

El Anonimo-

A very fair question. To be fair, I am unhealthy in many ways, but working on it. I am so concerned because I am myself an organic farmer, and have been trying to learn more about TGVs, transgenic drift, biodiversity and the best way to preserve the heirloom breeds that i so love.

I myself eat transgenic food much too often-- i agree with you about "health" food shoppers- I see it in myself-- concentrating too hard on anything you put into your body, whether it be organic sprouts or burger king, can be tricky to balance.

I am just very wary of consuming genes that didn't end up there by the selection of my plants or myself on their own, with out biolistics or strange bacterium. After a lot of time in the field, thinking about a variety of things, this has come to be something I find particularly frightening in a world with many things to be afraid of.

While you're down in mexico, check out all their beautiful farmer variety maize, in so many colors, bred by so many knowledgeable families for so long. There have been a few (albeit very well-debated by monsanto, etc.) studies that have found transgenes of Bt TGV maize, engineered in labs in the US, in mexican fields of heirloom corn- although it is not yet legal to plant and grow transgenic maize in mexico, it IS legal to import it to eat- unfortunately corn germinates very easily, bumping off that truck on its way across the border. Lets just hope its not invasive as many scientists speculate it could be- or as toxic as it has been confirmed to be.

Thank you for your participation. Enjoy your travels.

#28 El Anonimo- are you kidding??? You want an apology for SPAZ ZAPPER taking a "dig at you"? Your comments are usually the rudest, most obnoxious, ignorant comments on the post! (some have been deleted for content) YOU are the one who owes everyone an apology!

Most of the time your comments show a Bored Fanatic Righteous Bully; sitting with pen and pencil, at an anonymous computer throwing spit balls at everyone. If you want your voice to be heard and if you want to give the world your Brilliant, Wise, Experienced, Witty, humorless Opinions, Great! Write...and PUT A NAME ON IT! - OR PUT A LID ON IT!

Although occasionally (on a good day) you do add a little fun & spice to the mix...and what can I say? We're all part of the mix!

I like El-A. And you too Dvorah. :)

Tyler, you are one of those Angels God sent us to bring Peace to an overburdened world.

You are WAY too kind, thanks Dvorah.

That's the beauty of "Angels in disguise" - they don't recognize themselves, they're just natural!