Strawberry Fields Forever in Marna’s
‘Little DMZ’

Today I first met my friend Marna at a prayer vigil for a young high school girl who met a violent death. As usual Marna had some consoling words for the group of persons that had come to pray and remember. Marna’s youngest son was a homicide victim some years ago. However, out of that tragedy Marna became the co-founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence, which has been working for passage of the Responsible Gun Ownership Bill in Wisconsin. From this terrible tragedy of losing a son to senseless gun violence, Marna has made something good come from it — increasing awareness of ways to decrease gun violence. The second time I met Marna today was at her house where I went to help her in her own garden, the ‘little DMZ’ and with the DMZ community garden. Marna, with Dawn of Foundation Dwellings, are the real powers behind the DMZ community garden. When I was working with Marna at her home Garden and the DMZ community garden I noticed she was always on the look-out for discarded material she could use and recycle into something useful. I helped her get some discarded pallets from the school across the street and some waste material that a neighbor of the DMZ was throwing away. She has plans to turn this waste into useful products. Marna makes the best of any situation that life gives her. She suffers from many illnesses but keeps right on going. My cooking is like Marna’s life, making the best of what we have on hand. So tonight’s dinner is called Marna’s Best.

Actually our dinner tonight was inspired directly by Marna. While we were picking green beans in the DMZ garden today, she mentioned how she cooks the green beans with some meat, like ground beef or turkey, and then freezes it for another day. When I got home I took some ground turkey we had on hand, and some pole beans we have from our garden, and cooked them in a wok with an onion and pieces of red potato I had cut up. With some seasoning and some freshly-made pita bread from Attarri Middle East Store we had a delicious and healthy meal. My food creations are one of a kind, since I seldom used recipes. This one, as my adult son can testify, was very good, so I called it “Marna’s Best.”

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