BELFAST, Maine — Amanda Carnes loves kale so much she is willing to do a lot to get other people to appreciate the leafy green vegetable.
That includes posing in a misty green field wearing nothing but a strategically placed head of kale on the cover of her new 2015 “Kalendar.”
Carnes, a 25-year-old Michigan native and yoga teacher who moved to Waldo County nearly two years ago, started the calendar project as a light-hearted way to be part of the surge in popularity of both the local food movement and kale. She got the idea from a friend who works for a local seed company and who was talking one day about how fun it would be to make a calendar showcasing 12 months of kale. Carnes took the idea and ran with it. When she met photographer Forest Aragon this summer, he liked the idea too, and they got to work.
“My vision for the kale calendar was to promote awareness of the food we consume,” she said. “I wanted every photo to have awesome energy.”
And they do. The April photograph shows Orwin Swaso of Orwin’s chicken farm standing under an umbrella that protects him from a shower of curly kale leaves. The May photograph shows kale seedlings and soil cradled in the strong, workman’s hands of Paul Bernacki of Wayback Farm in Belmont. The July photograph shows a woman wearing a crown of kale leaves, while the September offering features a man snoozing in a bathtub piled high with kale.
“I was hoping every photo would be artsy, creative, wow,” Carnes said. “They’re supposed to be funny and quirky.”
She also included recipes for each month, such as steamed kale with lots of nutritional yeast, kale garlic hummus, kale and wild rice salad, and garlicky kale.
Carnes said that the Kalendar has caught the eye of people in Maine and beyond, adding that she just mailed a dozen orders for out-of-state people who found the project through social media. It’s also helped her refine her own dreams. What started as a funny business proposition has led Carnes, who came to Maine to learn how to live sustainably, to figure out that she wants to help other people do that, too. Toward that end, she created Gypsy Seeds, an organization with the underlying mission to promote sustainable farming and urban permaculture.
“My dream is to become an educator,” Carnes said. “I’d like to teach people who really want to learn to work with the land.”
She plans to do another calendar next year, too, featuring a different trendy vegetable. People can vote which vegetable they would like to see at her website, www.gypsyseeds.org, where they also can order the $10 “Kalendar.” The calendars are available locally at the Belfast Co-op and The Green Store in Belfast.