Spring Break
Imprints: Student leads 'bare' life style
Eric Dinsfriend sparks interest with unusual choice of footwear - lack of footwear; criticized as druggie or hippie for lack of shoes
Rachel Crews
Issue date: 5/24/07 Section: News
His other love is agriculture, which influenced his choice to come OSU. It made more sense to him to be a musician studying agriculture than a farmer studying music.
James Cassidy, an OSU professor in crop and soil sciences, taught Dinsfriend last term and is now working with him in an organic growing seminar.
"I was very curious about him because he walked into my office and was a barefoot dude," Cassidy said. "I got to know him pretty good. It's not a fashion statement for him. It's not just something he's trying on. He is who he is."
Dinfriend's parents own about five acres of land in Sweet Home that they allow him to live on now and where he hopes to practice his farming.
Right now he is growing: garlic, onions, dill, okra and peas. He hopes to also farm sunflower, corn and fruit trees and eventually buy a goat and one duck.
"I like primitive living skills like making fire by rubbing wood, being able to live in the wilderness," Dinsfriend said. "I like sleeping outside and not using a stove. I'm sort of a raw-foodist. I don't really cook food. It's been called the primal diet or the raw animal foods diet."
For meals, Dinsfriend prefers everything he eats to be uncooked, to preserve its nutritional value. This means he will eat raw meat, eggs, cheese, butter and milk. The dairy products, he clarified, are un-pasteurized.
"It's something people have done for thousands of years. It's just recently that people are afraid of bacteria and getting sick and thinking fat is unhealthy and stuff like that, and afraid of cholesterol," Dinsfriend said. "I think it's all false, unless it's cooked, then food becomes unhealthy."
Dinsfriend practices farming without the use of chemicals and intends to continue his environmentally friendly practices.
Along with farming he also does handicrafts in his free time. He embroidered the flowers on his olive green sweater, but more often he crotchets or carves wood. He carved a garden gnome, which now sits in the garden where his organic farming class practices what they learn in class.
"When I first met Eric, I sat down on a bench and started talking to him," said Kathryn Anderson, a freshman in liberal studies. "It struck me, 'this guy is really genuine'. He has really thought through opinions about things."
His love for nature, natural farming, primitive eating and living, handicrafts and music make him a very unique and fascinating person to talk to. Many people see his bare feet, label him and never know the depth and variety of Dinsfriend's interests. Still he doesn't seem to mind and continues enjoying life in his bare feet.
"People always call me a druggy or a hippie." Dinsfriend said. "Sometimes people think it's cool and exciting to see some hippie walking street, and sometime they're using it as a derogatory term, but it doesn't really matter to me."
James Cassidy, an OSU professor in crop and soil sciences, taught Dinsfriend last term and is now working with him in an organic growing seminar.
"I was very curious about him because he walked into my office and was a barefoot dude," Cassidy said. "I got to know him pretty good. It's not a fashion statement for him. It's not just something he's trying on. He is who he is."
Dinfriend's parents own about five acres of land in Sweet Home that they allow him to live on now and where he hopes to practice his farming.
Right now he is growing: garlic, onions, dill, okra and peas. He hopes to also farm sunflower, corn and fruit trees and eventually buy a goat and one duck.
"I like primitive living skills like making fire by rubbing wood, being able to live in the wilderness," Dinsfriend said. "I like sleeping outside and not using a stove. I'm sort of a raw-foodist. I don't really cook food. It's been called the primal diet or the raw animal foods diet."
For meals, Dinsfriend prefers everything he eats to be uncooked, to preserve its nutritional value. This means he will eat raw meat, eggs, cheese, butter and milk. The dairy products, he clarified, are un-pasteurized.
"It's something people have done for thousands of years. It's just recently that people are afraid of bacteria and getting sick and thinking fat is unhealthy and stuff like that, and afraid of cholesterol," Dinsfriend said. "I think it's all false, unless it's cooked, then food becomes unhealthy."
Dinsfriend practices farming without the use of chemicals and intends to continue his environmentally friendly practices.
Along with farming he also does handicrafts in his free time. He embroidered the flowers on his olive green sweater, but more often he crotchets or carves wood. He carved a garden gnome, which now sits in the garden where his organic farming class practices what they learn in class.
"When I first met Eric, I sat down on a bench and started talking to him," said Kathryn Anderson, a freshman in liberal studies. "It struck me, 'this guy is really genuine'. He has really thought through opinions about things."
His love for nature, natural farming, primitive eating and living, handicrafts and music make him a very unique and fascinating person to talk to. Many people see his bare feet, label him and never know the depth and variety of Dinsfriend's interests. Still he doesn't seem to mind and continues enjoying life in his bare feet.
"People always call me a druggy or a hippie." Dinsfriend said. "Sometimes people think it's cool and exciting to see some hippie walking street, and sometime they're using it as a derogatory term, but it doesn't really matter to me."
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Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Anonymous
posted 5/24/07 @ 11:58 PM PST
Eric is perhaps one of the most genuine, sweet, real people I know. He is very humble, too. It was really cool because I ran into him on campus the day before this came out and had no idea that he was appearing in an article. (Continued…)
uk online shoes
posted 8/28/08 @ 5:42 AM PST
If someone doesn't like to wear shoes it really doesn't matter to me. I think being barefoot is not a problem as far as style/fashion of someone is concerned. (Continued…)
uk_online_shoes
uk online shoes
posted 8/28/08 @ 5:48 AM PST
If someone doesn't like to wear shoes it really doesn't matter to me. I think being barefoot is not a problem as far as style/fashion of someone is concerned. (Continued…)
Weblog
posted 9/23/08 @ 4:26 AM PST
I had read about a college that is famous for having many students walking around without any shoes on. The article told how they like how it makes their feet feel on the sole. (Continued…)
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