Anybody else in New Hampshire's Monadnock region?

[KCWELLS]

Is there any macro people who are located in New Hampshire? My husband and I live in Peterborough.

Help, we feel isolated.

[Cool Dude]

Hi,

There are 10 people for New Hampshire (including the owner of this website) listed in The International Macrobiotic Directory
by Bob Mattson (2005 pp 4x P.O.Box 111 Washington, MA 01223 (413) 281 5584 fax 413 623 8827 intermac@earthlink.net, $12.00 [$10.00 plus $2.00 p&h http://www.kushistore.com/acatalog/R...rectories.html Useful names, addresses, and telephone numbers of macrobiotic and natural foods related people, businesses and organizations from around the world).

You can also get a copy at Masao's Kitchen http://www.masaoskitchen.com/pages/799528/index.htm which is less than a 2 hour drive from Peterborough, and possibly meet others from the Granite State, there, having lunch or dinner!

Something you might consider is starting an area specific, macrobiotic potluck and support group like the Boston Macrobiotic Dinner Club http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...crodinnerclub/ or The Orange County Macros Potluck Club http://macrobiotic.meetup.com/26/ (Monadnock Macrobiotic Dinner Club?).

You might also be able to put up ads at Maggie's Market Place or the Latacarta Restaurant at 6 School Street.

You start it and people will come to it.

Be Well.

Cool Dude

[KCWELLS]

Thanks.

I've been hesitant to contact anyone in the guide as Mattson is not entirely up to date. Latacarta has not existed in Peterborough, NH for the past 6 or 7 years. I've written him but it never gets updated. Note: Letamaya in Brattleboro VT has also been out of business for a while.

[Cool Dude]

Hi,

You and your husband are feeling isolated and you've found out that there are 10 people to try to reach out of 32 New Hampshire listings (and only one business defunct out of 22?).

You find someone to join you for a potluck and you'll feel less isolated.

Find another, and you'll have the beginnings of a group.

Announce the group to the world and even more people could contact you.

Take heart.

Be encouraged!

Form a new community.

Be Well.

Cool Dude

[KCWELLS]

You're right about reaching out. I will do this.

Meanwhile we have not had great experiences with that book. We have travelled to different places in the US and maybe we just hit it wrong, but the places we went (suggested in that book) oftentimes did not exist anymore. Once we called someone listed in that book and she got really grumpy and said that she wished people would stop calling and that she wanted her name off the list.

Get my drift? We took steps to notify him of the corrections and they were ignored and no updates happened. Either Mattson needs to get his act together and update or someone else needs to take this over and get it right so that this book becomes really useful.

We were at the Kushi Institute 2 weeks ago and took a peek at the latest issue and when I saw the same tired old outdated listings I declined to buy a copy.

I appreciate the information about the macro restaurant in Waltham, MA and have plans to go there soon. It is nice to be able to eat out with confidence.

[Cool Dude]

Hi,

Bruce spoke to Bob Mattson at the Kushi House in Brookline and he says that he is no longer doing any active research on the directory but, instead, responds to what people tell him, contrary to what you've just written.

When Bruce came up with the idea of the Online Macrobiotic Directory http://www.cybermacro.com/links/pages/index.html , he imagined that lot's of people in the macrobiotic community from around the world would get involved and put websites in many of the empty locations put there.

He tells me that he finds it difficult to criticize Bob because it must be quite costly to contact all the listers every year (just think of all those stamps and/or phone calls) and spend a lot of time and energy without proper compensation.

Another thing, we long time macros have found that many people in the community move around a lot and are not always considerate of notifying others of those moves, we that are affected by them just learn to take each with a grain of (sea) salt.

Bruce also says that he contacted one of the people in the directory, (some time ago, and just spoke to her, again, recently) a Wendy Bree Giliker in New London, who besides having been a shiatsu practicioner, cooking teacher, and counselor, cares for her disabled adult daughter and can be contacted at breeland@adelphia.net .

Be Well.

Cool Dude

[KCWELLS]

I would like to think that you mean well but you exasperate me when you suggest that I am lying.

Your quote: "...but, instead, responds to what people tell him, contrary to what you've just written."

What I am trying to tell you is that I DID CONTACT THIS GUY with updates/corrections several times and he did NOT respond and make any changes to the listings.

I am also saying that I have heard others say that he has NOT responded to their requests for inclusion/exclusion.

Based on my personal experience, I will no longer purchase or recommend Mattson's book.

Perhaps he has made some changes sometimes when some have requested them - but that does not invalidate my very negative experience.

[Cool Dude]

No one here wishes to suggest that you were lying but just indicating what apparently Bob also said to Bruce.

Also, it appears that Mr. Mattson does not participate in this online world, so even though he sometimes benefits from online recommendations, perhaps he misses out on all the criticisms.

Since no one else is producing such a publication, maybe Bob should get even more feedback, so that he can be encouraged to update it or pass it on to someone who is really interested in producing such a potentially useful directory.

I'm sorry that you've had so many negative experiences with Bob.

Please, find some new friends, locally, and forget about him!

Be Well.

Cool Dude

[Leenie]

Hi, I'm not in the directory, but live in Bedford NH (slightly sw from Manchester) about 25 miles east of Peterborough on 101.

Unfortunately, I am the only one in my family of 4 that does macro consistently, but not perfectly (an occasional tomato, not as much hiziki/arame as I know I could be eating etc.). I've only been doing macro since April/May of this year, so I am not a seasoned veteran. My teenager goes on and off, and my husband would rather be chased and trampled by King King than touch a piece of broccoli or most any other veggie for that matter (meat and potato man). My toddler eats the most like me, although he still gets dairy on the insistence of my husband.

If you would still like to try to meet, we could try after the holidays. I too find it challenging finding suitable places to eat (japanese/chinese are fairly do-able) and most vegans use sugar/chocolate/spices.

Have a wonderful day. Thanks,
Leenie

[KCWELLS]

Dear Leenie,

I'd love to meet with you! It must be tough to be the only one in your family who cooks/eats macro. How on earth do we get in touch? I'm afraid to leave my email address as I'll pick up more automated spam. Maybe I'll make this a 2-step process to foil the spammers so we can communicate directly.

Please go to my website at: www.KCWells.com and you can connect with my email address there.

Be sure to put "Macrobiotic" in the subject line so you won't get tangled up in my filters. (Because of my website, I get 200+ spam emails daily and I am sure that I do sometimes miss the legitimate emails - so if you don't get a reply, please resend).

Thanks. I am delighted there is another macro person near us.

All Best,
Karin

Hi Folks,
I am macrobiotic 30 years (studied with Michio, Shizuko and Hiroshi in the 70's) living in Nashua, looking for Macro folks to share meals, talk, community. Can't really understand these "threads" things. Seems the postings/data here are usually "dated". Are there any real, live macro folks out there in New Hampshire this year, 2006?

Recently returned to live and work in New England after ten years doing consulting in the Caribbean and am really surprised at the relative isolation and lack of "Center" of the MB community. The "adds" in the Boston MB Dinner Network are hopefull but still seem like isolated, too much self promoting.

So what gives? North Carolina, Washington, DC, California, and other cities have large active, thriving, creative MB communities, centers and "leaders". So what's up with New England, "home" of the Kushyite MB?. Is Becket the only action? I went out there a few weeks ago and it was ok buy very low key, mostly addressing new folks, looking for healing. What about the continuing, now "lifelong" MB folks? Where do we congregate and progress here in the land of fog, cold beauty? Les envio a todos,

Luz, Amor y Poder.

Carlos Aponte
C_Aponte@post.harvard.edu

[garymill]

Hi Carlos,

I myself live in Hooksett, and have parents in Manchester that are macro. I know, macros in NH tend to feel isolated as they really don't readily know of others living in the state. We don't have a macro restaurant, cooking classes etc to make any sort of group connection.

Well, we can start within this thread here to begin making some connections and see where we can go from here.

I was talking to a lovely woman last week that I encountered via our natural foods business, www.simply-natural.biz of course linked right here at CyberMacro, and discovered that she and her husband had just become macrobiotic in the past month. Though NH is a relatively small state, she is distant enough away that the resources that I take for granted here, are pretty far away from her. As she is in Northern NH, she and her family have just a small health food store, and the people there are not that receptive to macrobiotics, so sort of cringe when they mention it. Overall it is amazing how much more progressive NH has become in the last few yrs or so, so there could be many more macros than we even know of.

The woman I spoke with has a husband that is a trained chef, so out of that is the hope that one day they will offer cooking classes and more down the line a restaurant, none of that to speak of exists here now, so who knows what the future holds for our little granite state.

Gary