It was just like a fairy tale, only not.

The princess, in her academic tower, meets a super-smart prince (the astrophysicist), and they fall in love and go about seeking the perfect palace of ivory to do their very important work.

The princess writes about dark things - our long history of demographic and ecological crisis, and how they may play out again, but this is just a job.

Except that she gets kissed by one big ugly frog - the realization that our way of life can't go on.

So she drags the prince (who keeps rolling his eyes and asking whether someone else can't do some of this) off to try and establish a way of life with a future, using a fair share of the world's resources.

So now she's up to her knees in chickens and laundry, milking goats, making jam and splitting wood, while also writing books and this blog about food, energy, climate change and whatever else strikes her fancy.

And except for the fact that the planet is still getting warmer and the oil is still peaking, she's actually living happily ever after.

Originally published at:  http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2010/04/food_preservation_101_putting.php