Gardening along the creek...

Soldier Rows in the Garden, Poly- versus Mono-

2012-02-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

Monticello Garden Photo by Southern Foodways Alliance

Maybe the only place where "mono" should be preferred over "poly" probably is in marriage and committed relationships. "Mono" certainly has no place on my dinner table because it isn't a balanced meal... and it should not have a place in agriculture, because rampant monocultures have done our ecology so much harm.

"The United States has a topsoilproblem. About 75 percent of it is gone, primarily because the large, single-crop farms that dominate Americanagriculture rely on chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to produce theirharvests, depleting natural soil systems in the process." Source)

Even my little experiment last summer of mixing vegetables in among the flowers and shrubs produced better than my previous soldier-rows of each kind of vegetable. But why do we carry that monoculture concept over into our home vegetable gardens, and plant our veggies, all of a kind in neat, tidy little rows??

I find myself guilty of picturing "vegetable gardens" as neat, tidy and weed-free rectangular-shaped gardens, all laid out in nice little rows. It's really hard to ignore our mental pictures of how we have believed things should be... Mental imprints from childhood to adulthood are hard to eradicate because we simply don't think about them anymore... they just pop up, fully-formed. Say "vegetable garden" and our automatic mental picture is usually tidy little soldier rows.

One of the things I like about Edible Food Forest Gardening is that there are no soldier-rows. You may have squash or bean plants interspersed with comfrey, under the umbrella of a fruit or nut tree and all of it surrounded by a circle of garlic or leeks. It works because each plant contributes something to the whole... that is, each plant gives something to the benefit of all the other plants. They depend on each other to not just survive, but to thrive!

The comfrey (dynamic accumulator) brings up deep minerals that the roots of the squash never reach deeply enough to tap into... and the comfrey also provides almost perpetual mulch if you cut and drop the leaves several times over a growing season. The bean plants are nitrogen fixers, and the squash leaves provide some shade for some close-by strawberry plants or salad greens... and the salad greens or strawberry plants act as a ground cover for the tree roots, keeping most weeds out. The encircling ring of garlic, chives, leeks or even jonquils, are protectors and keep voles from tunneling into the food supply, and can help deter rabbits from chomping on the goodies inside the ring. The ring of alliums also tend to keep grass from encroaching.

My first trial "circle" (aka Guild) of planting in this fashion was last year around a young apple tree... although not a circle, just an area around the tree. I had green beans, tomatoes, artichokes, strawberries, comfrey, several flowering herbs and nasturiums (pollinator attractors) interplanted around the 6 foot tall apple seedling, an area much larger than the current apple canopy. By this spring, the strawberries should have multiplied, the comfrey and herbs will come back, and the tree may have grown another foot or so. I didn't have a surrounding ring of alliums because I got started on it so late, but hope to remedy that this year.

I have much to learn about perennial polyculture, and growing my garden in this fashion... things like what each plant brings to the party... but eventually I should have a garden that mostly takes care of itself... weed-free, self-fertilizing, a beneficial wildlife and pollinator haven... and pest-resistant.

Seems a lot more sensible than all the work of planting, fertilizing, and weeding lots of soldier-rows!

Coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you: Monsanto Corn

2012-02-09T20:39:00.002-05:00

Monsanto has released their first direct-to-consumer product, a genetically-modified (GMO) sweet corn containing Bt toxin, designed to protect the plant by rupturing the stomach of any insect that feeds on it. Monsanto claims the toxin will break down before the corn makes it to your dinner table, but rats fed with the GM corn showed organ failure, and the toxin has been detected in the bodies of pregnant women.

Want to avoid this toxic product? Too bad – it will arrive on shelves unlabeled and untested on humans, starting with this years’ corn crop.

Thanks to consumer pressure, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and General Mills have all agreed to not use Monsanto’s GM sweet corn in any of their products. But Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest organic retailer, is holding out.

Express your opinion here.

"Specialty Crops" and the Farm Bill

2012-02-09T00:10:00.001-05:00

In trying to understand how and why our government has allowed so much adulteration of my food supply, I finally had to start following the money. A lot of the money comes from Farm Bill subsidies...and the Farm Bill must be the recipient of the most expensive lobbying in our history, outside of maybe the presidential campaigns!

I bet you have never read any portion of the Farm Bill. It's not an easy task, reading through the Farm Bill. The last one, passed in 2008 (good for 5 years) weighed in at 1,770 pages. I wonder if even those that write it have a clear, full picture of all of it... too many fingers in the pie. I certainly don't understand much of it, yet it affects us all, daily.

There are, however, some glaring facts and omissions, plus at least one or two really good programs.

First, the good:

Programs like SNAP (formerly called food stamps) are fully funded by the Farm Bill, and the National School Lunch Program and other school-based child nutrition programs get some funding from it,as I understand the inter-agency convolutions. Another small Farm Bill program gives farmer's market vouchers to low-income senior citizens like me. Although the vouchers are cumbersome to use (each voucher is for $5 and no vendor is allowed to give change), I made some use of the $40 I got in vouchers in 2011, probably getting around $20 total in produce for my vouchers. But it wasn't really very fair economically, because our tax dollars paid $40 for my $20 of produce. The vendors should be able to give change, even if if it's just another smaller-amount voucher to use later.

Did you know that the fruit and vegetable products that hit our grocery stores are only considered as "specialty crops" by the USDA, and that is how they are handled by the Farm Bill? Handled only as "bit players" on the sidelines in the Farm Bill. Only 1% of the Farm Bill goes towards specialty crops.

I don't know about you, but I'd choose to use some of our tax dollars to support local, ethical family farmers who grow my apples, carrots, beans and broccoli. And more specifically, the organic farmers who do not infuse my fruits and vegetables with pesticides and herbicides.

The not-so-good

The products the Farm Bill mainly subsidizes are the five big commodity crops: corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and cotton. The dollar value of the commodity crops the US exported in 2010 was $108,662,000,000, and we subsidized them to grow it. The payments go out regardless of need. In fact, since 1995, a mere 10 percent of all subsidized farms – only the largest and wealthiest operations – have raked in 74 percent of all subsidy payments. The money kept on coming right through the five highest earnings years ever for farm income. (Source)

Commercial corn farmers made a killing in 2011, mainly because they were subsidized to provide corn for the failing ethanol program, feed corn for CAFO's, and of course, for the high fructose corn syrup used in far too many packaged items on the grocery shelves.

Then there's soy...

Soy is a known obesogen (which leads to weight gain) as well as a known goitrogen (substances that suppress the function of the thyroid gland which also leads to weight gain; think: goiter) and in spite of the rising obesity levels and consequential health care costs in the US, the 2007-2012 Farm Bill allocated $42 billion of our tax money for industrial farmed GMO soy beans. Data from the USDA indicates 94% of all soybean crops in the US are GMO, and the FDA even pushes soy... “Diets that include 25 grams of soy protein a day may reduce the risk of heart disease.”

Did I miss somewhere that being overweight (thanks in part to chemicals in soy) reduces the risk of heart disease?

There are three problematic monocultures in industrial agriculture: corn, soy, and sugar. U.S. Farm Bill subsidies for these (as well as for other commodity crops) encourage cheap and unhealthy foods and food fillers, sick GMO-fed animals whose meat enters our food system, extreme pesticide use, and damage to soil and water sources. The Commodity Cropism project seeks to expose veiled information about these crops, and provide the public with data left out or obscured by loosely monitored food production and labeling systems.

Monsanto’s GMO Beet sugar seed is now used by 95% of beet farmers (usually under multi-year binding seed contracts they can't get out of), who supplied around 50% of the nation’s sugar in 2011... 64 pounds per person per year, up 28%.

I have read that US foreign aid policies are very often include a clause that requires the receiving nation to accept and use Monsanto GMO seed as a requisite for getting our aid. What's with that??

When was the first food and farm bill signed into law and why?

The first one was signed into law as a temporary measure in 1933 as a way to aid farmers suffering in the Great Depression. Since then it has come before Congress roughly every five years. Nutrition programs were added to the farm bill in the late 1970s to win the support of lawmakers from urban districts. The 2008 Farm Bill had a price tag of nearly $300 billion. It expires in 2012.

Since a lot of the money does go to nutrition programs like SNAP, it’s time to start calling it a "food and farm bill" and to increase investments in healthy food programs. A top priority is to protect food assistance programs for the neediest, especially in the lingering aftermath of the 2008 recession. ... work to improve and expand programs that increase access to healthy foods, strengthen local and regional food systems and provide new markets for diversified, local, sustainable and organic growers and ranchers. (Source)

I'd like to see subsidies (IF THEY ARE REALLY NECESARY) used properly, and not just be "gimmies" for BigAg... and I agree with the Environmental Working Group... I, too would like to see a chunk of the farm subsidy dollars shifted to conservation programs. This would help fund programs that protect soil, water and air quality, preserve wildlife habitat, and conserve energy and water. In my opinion, if we don't conserve what's left (pitiful as it may be) there won't be many future crops.

Update: I wrote this about mid-January 2012, and on Feb. 1 read an interesting article on this general subject by Sharon Astyk that you may wish to read. She does a great job of explaining the cost of a gallon of milk, although there's much more to the article. Click here.

Dreams, Demons, and Feeling Adrift

2012-02-07T00:10:00.000-05:00

If you have been following this blog for a while, you may know I have ongoing (lifelong) problems with my younger (by 9 years) half-sister, who co-owns this house, and was recently fired from her job. She has almost zero possibilities for another one between her age, and the local economy which is even worse than the national average. My concern is the effect this will have on the rest of my life.

My half-sister has problems that span most of her adult life and several marriages, but I thought she had finally grown up. We interacted very infrequently over the last 40+ years and we certainly are not friends, so choosing 5-6 years ago to pool our scant resources and share a house may have been a big mistake.

Another thought is that I finally realize I do not like it here very much, even though I share half the responsibility for the choice. Oh, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love these mountains... but I find myself living on the outside of a tight-knit (closed) community (just my local county, the town 30 miles away is quite different) with whom I seem to have very little in common. The other thing I dislike is any adequate shopping is 100+ miles away... including shopping for organic foods (beyond what my farmer's market has available during the season, which is no different than what I grow in my own garden).

Does that mean a move elsewhere? Frankly, m'dears... I haven't a clue, and I certainly have no money to do so! The demons are the "imagined" responsibilities for my sister and this house, my long-range plans / progression for the garden including my efforts over the last 5 years, and how I feel about the unwelcoming area where I live.

I long to be in a community where there are at least a few others who can the see the possibilities of what we can do towards sustainability... and healing our lovely blue planet.

Segue:
Several years ago during a meditation, I had a "vision" of a house for me. Not at all what I would have imagined, either. I have designed many houses for myself over the years, and actually built a few of them. THIS house was extraordinary... lots of curb appeal although funky, very organic, with a small ecological footprint, passive solar and other energy efficiencies, and based on the Fibonacci Spiral found in Nature.

Over years since then, I have relegated this house design to "only a dream" without knowing exactly why I did that. However, I DID buy some balsa modeling components 2 years ago, intending to build a scale model. Those pieces were still behind the seat in my truck last week. I really don't know why I haven't followed through (until now) with this project, but it was more than just an "I can't afford it" attitude. Must have been some lessons I still needed to learn. (Do the Lessons ever stop?)

At any rate, I have now cleared a space on my coffee table to finally start building a scale model... and wondering about what area would be a great location for building it. I'm thinking probably the NC mountains. My plan is an interdisciplinary plan that involves eye-candy, sustainable development, alternative energy (passive solar, green-building, solar cooling, solar chimneys, radiant floor heating), small, affordable houses, yada, yada... and on the outside, food forest farming (polyculture perennials) with the vegetation integral to how the house functions.

When this dream house first came to me, I contacted the Colorado engineer, Steve Kornher, who started Flying Concrete in Mexico, thinking that would be a perfect medium for this house. I was certain I could put together a summer project for engineering and architectural students, and get a grant to build it. Then Steve assured me that not only was he too busy, but his "flying concrete" would never pass US building codes. Sigh.

In my current frame of mind, I don't see myself living where I am now for more than another year or two, because I am excited about the possibilities of this dream house (even though I see no way to accomplish it). Of course, nothing is etched in stone, either. I hate feeling adrift, like a ship without a rudder...

But finally, I am really excited that despite all the obstacles, there WILL be a way to build this house... I just have to believe!

When did Alaska move to China??

2012-02-05T00:10:00.000-05:00

I was food shopping yesterday at a natural foods store (Harvest Moon, Floyd, VA) about a 2 hour drive from here, and saw "Wild Alaskan Salmon" in the freezer section. The packaging touted it was free of all the stuff I avoid, so I picked up a small piece. They were vacuum-packed in individual portions (I forget the weights) and although quite pricey, I thought I might treat myself to one package... I haven't had salmon in ages!

However, being the concerned shopper I have become... I took the package over to a stronger light so I could read the teeny-tiny fine print... only to read that this "Wild Alaskan Salmon" was a product............ of China!!!

Well, I want to know just WHEN Alaska moved to China??

How can they advertise wild Alaskan salmon on the package when it's from China??? No doubt it's also farm-raised. And for God's sake, this was for sale in a health foods store!!!!!!!

Dem bones, dem bones, dem soup bones...

2012-02-03T00:10:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about bones lately... not bones as detritus, but the magical gifts they hold with their exceptional nutritional value, decorative use, and historical use as tools.

Bone House Fence and Gate Bone Details

There's even a Bone House (thanks to the tip from Gaias Daughter) using bones as architectural details! Regardless of their decorative appeal and usage as tools, bones also hold significant nutritional value.

Too many people throw away the bones from whatever meat they ate, whether the chicken carcass, their steak bone, or the pork chop bone. Yet those bones actually hold more nutrition than the meat eaten off those bones!

Nutrient-dense stock ischock full of minerals that every body needs, not the least of whichis calcium, but also magnesium, phosphorus, and trace minerals. Our bodies easily absorb the minerals and amino acids from good stockor broth used in soups, stews and sauces. They also help us to efficiently utilize protein. Nutrient-dense stock has been indicatedin helping to heal rheumatoid arthritis, gastritis, colitis, Crohn's disease,allergies, and other digestive and bone disorders.

The silky-smooth, wobbly gelatinous stock from bones has been an essential ingredient in savory foods, preferred by cooks all over the world for centuries. (You don't really want to know how they hydrolyse the bones to make the commercial broths sold in grocery stores.)

It takes very little except time to release those goodies from the bones: cover with water, add a tablespoon or two of fresh lemon juice or vinegar; cover and let sit for an hour for the acids in the vinegar to start work on the bones, then simmer long and slow. The vinegar or lemon juice taste will cook off, and leave the bone minerals behind in the broth. I use about 6-8 quarts of water to 2 or more pounds of bones, simmered down to about half the volume when finished. Bones from younger animals give up their goodies quicker... like a fryer chicken vs an old stewing hen, although the old hen will have more collagen and flavor.

The other great thing bones give us is the gelatin that cooks out of the joints and connective tissue (collagen) with long, slow cooking. This gelatin contains chondriton and glucosamine, which help lubricate our joints, and build strong bones. Keep in mind, though, that overcooking (like more than 12 hours) will break down all that lovely gelatin. I enhance the gelatin content when I am cooking bones by adding chicken feet if I have them, or pig trotters, and often make Fergus Henderson's Trotter Gear just to have some little jars in the freezer to give body and a nutritional boost to a sauce, soup or stew.

Marrow Bones, photo by Allerina & Glen MacLarty

Roasted Marrow Bones, photo by rvacapinta

I participate in a chatty thread (on a gardening site) that discuss foods and recipes, and recently we talked about the dearth of marrow bones in this country. Some thoughts included ➀ many younger Americans don't know what to do with marrow bones, ➁ there's a big ag market for bone meal, and ➂ we now buy more boneless rather than bone-in cuts than previous generations. We all agreed it is hard to find marrow bones in most markets.

I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of scooping marrow out of a roasted bone; it isn't part of my culture like it is across the pond. Who knew there are marrow spoons??

As far as where the bones from the slaughter houses go, I can attest to both #1 and #2 above. I know the tri-county meat packing house near here sells the bones, as well as the offal, hides, horns, hoofs and other scraps. I'm sure the soft tissue waste goes into pet foods, and I'm inclined to think the other stuff is sold to make commercial gelatin and bone meal. I don't even like to think about it!

On the healthy side, whatever kind of bones you have, you are missing a very nutritious addition to your diet if you don't cook them down for yummy homemade stock!

Giving up Sodas

2012-02-01T00:10:00.000-05:00

Photo by fimoculous

The New York Times posted a couple of articles recently about doctors and under-the-table payments. One article is Who Else is Paying Your Doctor? and the other is Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors. I think that's a good start (at least for reporting), maybe actually enabling us to know who pays our doctors, assuming we can ever find the reports... but I think there's much more to health care than "the doctor".

It seems to me that prevention is the least expensive way to be healthy, and going to doctors for treatments once you become ill is the most expensive. Plus, when something goes wrong (as it eventually will with a poor diet) the doctors may not "cure" you. They may merely prescribe drugs, treatments, or maybe operations that permit you to live with your afflictions.

It has been five years since I had surgery to remove my gallbladder, but in retrospect I think it could have been prevented if I had known as much about eating right, and real food, as I do now. If so, I wouldn't have had the surgical expense and aftercare, the trauma to my body being cut open, and I sure wouldn't have the resulting adhesions that now double me over occasionally.

Drugs and/or operations are for the most part just crutches after the injury. Eating right is far cheaper in the long run, and the resulting quality of life is far greater... and that's the advantage of prevention over treatment.

The problem is that we are complacent, even with less than optimal health, and no one wants to give up their sodas, diet sodas, artificially sweetened fake coffee creamers, donuts, chips, McD's and other junk food. We even fool ourselves into believing that sweetened fruity, non-fat yogurt is actually healthy! No one wants to increase their food budget with organic salad greens, fruits, vegetables and free-range eggs/meats in place of sodas, chips, donuts, burgers, fries and pizza, even though they would probably come out cheaper without the junk in the grocery line, not even even considering the additional cost of medical care later on.

Squash Bug deterrent

2012-01-30T00:10:00.000-05:00

Brown Squash Bug, photo by lofaesofa

Did you know that squash bugs (not the equally noxious squash vine borers) apparently hate morning glories and their kin, moonflowers?

I have read that planting a morning gory, or a moonflower, between every 2-3 squash or pumpkin plants acts as a great deterrent. I haven't tried it yet, but I have plenty of time to get morning glories started so they are well advanced before I set out squash plants!

Of course, the best deterrent is a healthy, high-brix plant growing in properly nourished soil, but that's for a later post, as is management of squash vine borers and squash bugs *if the morning glories don't do the trick.

Farmers against Monsanto

2012-01-26T17:03:00.001-05:00

"On January 31, family farmers will take part in the first phase of a court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s GMO seed, which contaminates organic and non-GMO farmer’s crops and opens them up to abusive lawsuits. In the past two decades, Monsanto’s seed monopoly has grown so powerful that they control the genetics of nearly 90% of five major commodity crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.

In many cases farmers are forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto admits to filing 144 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. Due to these aggressive lawsuits, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy. Please join us in standing up for family farmers everywhere against Monsanto's abusive seed monopoly." Source

If this is an issue you can support, and have not yet added your name (they only have 55,000 so far), please go here:

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/farmersvs_monsanto/?akid=462.52716.b40Hen&rd=1&t=14

Parsnip Snips and Chips

2012-01-26T00:10:00.001-05:00

I had a few parsnips in the pantry... and most went into a pot roast with some dried porcini mushrooms, potatoes, carrots, shallots and onions. Then I had a brainstorm with the 2 that were left... parsnip chips! I have to say I was amazed at how good they are!!!

For the first trial batch, I peeled the parsnips, and then sliced slivers off with the potato peeler, down as close to the core as I could get. For the second trial batch, I peeled, then quartered, the parsnips... and removed the pithy core. Then I sliced them as thin as I could with my chef's knife, around 1/8 inch thick.

I heated home-rendered tallow in a cast iron skillet, and dropped in a few strips. Cooked until lightly browned, removed, drained... and lightly salted. The potato-peeler slices cooked before I could get my camera ready and focused, but the thicker slices took a couple of minutes, so I at least have one photo!

The thicker sliced chips are absolutely wonderful (and easier to prepare), with just a hint of the natural sweetness of parsnips. The fried slivers taste just like most chips... okay (mainly bland and salty) but not outstanding! Next time, I'll fry up a whole bagful of parsnips. YUM!!

Note: The thicker chips are best eaten (just like french fries) while they are still warm!

The Nutritional Data site I use doesn't have a listing for fried parsnips, but here's the skinny on 100 grams of raw parsnips:

glycemic load 5; inflamation, mildly inflammatory -12

high in Vitamin C, VitaminK, Folate (B9, used in our DNA), Vitamin E, magnesium, potassium and manganese

However, the Omega 3:6 ratio isn't so good... but not as bad as many products:

Total Omega-3 fatty acids 3mg

Total Omega-6 fatty acids 41

Same amount of raw potato, for comparison:

glycemic load 8; inflamation, mildly inflammatory -46

High in Vitamin C, moderate B6 and potassium

However, the Omega 3:6 ratio is better than parsnips:

Total Omega-3 fatty acids 10mg

Total Omega-6 fatty acids 32

For myself, I'll take the trade-off of more vitamins, less glycemic load and less inflamation over the Omega 3:6 ratio since my diet is higher than most in Omega 3 due to all the grass-fed meats, butter and eggs I eat.

Cooking a Frog

2012-01-24T00:10:00.000-05:00

You’ve probably heard the old saying before: "If you want to cook a frog, you can’t toss it into a pot of boiling water because it will just jump out. Instead, you put it in the water first and then slowly turn the temperature up. The frog will slowly adjust to the change until it’s too late."

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't what's happening to the control over the foods we eat. Rather than implementing strict controls all at once, "incrementalism" makes small changes over time in an atmosphere where people are usually resistant to change. This is especially easy if you add the fear about food "safety" to the mix.

The fear about food safety is now so wide-spread that it ranks right up there with terrorism. The American Public, thanks to government and media hype, has come to believe that even our food and water is subject to a terrorist attack; therefore, we have become hypervigilant and have allowed laws to be passed that curtail our basic food freedoms. In fact, the FBI now can prosecute anyone as a terrorist if they expose animal welfare abuses taking place on factory farms like feedlots, slaughter houses or poultry houses.

Now I am not saying an attack on our food and water could not happen... surely some home-grown malcontent, or even a foreign terrorist, could find a way to poison any water supply, or any fresh produce shipment, but is it prudent to control the entire food supply (and diminish the nutrients) to the extent the government now does, or proposes to do? Where is MY choice for the chemical-free food I prefer to eat?

The Devil is in the Details. "It’s the Farm Bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and — though much of it finances good programs [like food stamps and WIC ~editor] — ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment." (Source)

I eat fresh local fruit and vegetables from family farmers I have come to know personally. (I'm pretty sure there are no terrorists among them, nor do I believe they are out to poison me.). So why should that fresh food be subject to the same, and very expensive food packaging mechanization, chemical washing, and handling requirements for the massive produce shippers from several thousand miles away, who must contend with multiple handling of the foods and multiple storage sites of their "fresh" foods for weeks until it finally hits the shelves?

Will the next regulation require Federal testing of the produce I grow in my own garden before I am allowed to eat it?

"If you control the food supply, you control the people." ~Henry Kissinger

ps... I'm almost through ranting about adulterated food... for a while, at least. Soon it will be time to start the 2012 garden and have my own real foods to eat again!

Turmoil, and Garden Prospects

2012-01-22T00:10:00.001-05:00

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker

I apologize for being "out on a limb" lately, with recent posts that are not positive upliftings... that is, no posts like a new garden, or growing technique, or a new recipe. Truth is, everyone's life has ups and downs, and I am lately inundated with less than a positive attitude (in general, but especially towards Monsanto!).

I'd really hate having a Life where everything was just the same, day in and day out, with even the weather being the same. So, I'll roll with the punches... and hope you will too.

Soon it will be gardening time again, and I am anxious to continue working towards a more sustainable garden that this year will include growing a greater variety of foods. There are many perennial vegetables I want to try in the quasi-guild system I am developing. My gardening zone is high 5 or low 6, and marginal for many of them, but having recently used the SunCalc to actually know precisely where the sun moves over my garden during various times of the year, I may have a better handle on protecting marginal perennial foods for survival over winters here.

Malabar Spinach, photo by La.Catholique

I have been growing some of the more common perennial vegetables for several years: asparagus, rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes, and French sorrel, but there are many more to try. On my list so far (assuming I can find seed) are Skirret (Sium sisarum), 9 Star broccoli, Chou Daubenton (perennialKale), Chinese artichoke (Stachys affinis), and even things that are not perennials but re-seed annually without being deliberately planted, like Malabar spinach. I've already ordered seeds for the perennial Welsh Onion, both red-stemmed, and white.

Chickweed photo by Jason Stumer 72

There are many "weeds" that are edible, used as salad greens and/or potherbs. Once I determine what I really have growing here already, then I may look for more. Mother Nature has seen fit to expand chickweed all over my grassy lawn areas and all my flower and vegetable beds, so there will be a surplus of it. Fortunately it's both edible and medicinal.

Hardy Kiwi Vine, photo by Joe+Jeanette Archie

I know many of the less common fruits are actually perennial in cold zones like mine, and I hope to start a greater variety this year, like the hardy kiwi vine, the Siberian sea buckthorn, and a couple of fruiting quince if I can find some that are affordable. I want to add a couple more hazelnuts and try the hazelberts too. I had hoped to start a few cuttings from a nearly elderberry clump that has the plumpest berries around here, but with the weather having been so warm, I wonder about their dormancy and my chance of successful propagation.

My intent with adding perennial vegetables and uncommon fruits is twofold, although I do not plan to neglect annual vegetables. One goal is hopefully less work replanting in the garden as I age. The other consideration is that should a frightful scenario actually happen, any invading hungry horde would have no idea what is truly edible. I doubt they'd even dig up the dandelions, although that is possible!

Our Disposable Elderly

2012-01-20T00:10:00.000-05:00

Dinner Time Parking at Adult Care by ol slambert

Whatever happened to multi-generational living in homes? Why did we give up the responsibility of personal care of the now-elderly folks in our families... those same folks who hand-fed us and changed our diapers, wiped our tears and put band-aids on scraped knees when we were mere helpless infants and children?

I guess my real question is, why did I? Were the subtle messages broadcast over the years about the elderly being disposable so strong in my psyche? The message that we never needed to plan ahead for elder care because someone else would care for them... (usually with money provided by our tax system, and the gained profits for BigPharma meds and "medi-care")?

That we needn't ever get our hands dirty changing their adult diapers if they became incontinent? That message rode right along on the message about throwing things "away"... "away" being simply some "other place" where we didn't have to look at the mountains of our unwanted things, or dirty, smelly garbage, or the unpleasant drooling mouth of a stroke victim who still needs to be fed.

Until about a hundred years ago, it was accepted that families would care for the elderly in their own homes, however unpleasant it might get to be, or however cantankerous they might be. It was also accepted that as the younger generations married, they might still live at home too, and raise their families in the same home with their parents, and maybe even grandparents. I am coming to believe the interactions and responsibilities of multi-generations living together were healthy for everyone, on many levels we don't see or even acknowledge today.

By the time I was in my 30's, nursing homes were accepted as the norm, and my father's mother was put in one. I never saw much of her after my parents divorced when I was 5, so I wasn't close to her. I wasn't even living in the same part of the country later on, and I don't know why she was put in a nursing home. I flew down and visited once; she was ambulatory (with a walker) and had all her mental and physical faculties. My retrospectoscope tells me now that she was angry about being thrown away, though.

For 40 years since then, I have thought that nursing homes need to have a nursery or day school school attached, and an animal care facility... so that our elderly are not deprived of those daily interactions. I also believe they need a wheelchair-accessible garden so they can continue to grow flowers... or tomatoes. Now I am questioning if that's enough, and I'm thinking not.

I lamented (although I admit, not too loudly at the time) that I was unable to care for my Mother after her stroke and my sister sent her to me. My excuses were that ➀ I had no physical space unless she slept with me in my double bed (not happening!) and ➁ I didn't have the physical strength to lift her, whether for a bath or just to use the toilet (or get her up from the floor when she fell, which was often). The alternative was Assisted Living, so there she went... kicking and screaming the whole time... and indifferent to me when I visited. I believe she died of loneliness and a broken heart, not disease.

Now I wonder... had always known and believed that sooner or later I would have the responsibility to care for an aging parent, would I have planned accordingly, enough so that I could have done things differently?

At this moment I am going through my step-mother's rapidly failing physical and mental health, and her desire (when lucid) to forsake all medication and end it all. Would I do differently? No, I'd do whatever it took to never be thrown adrift into a nursing home, if I was able to take such action. Most of us are never able, by the time we are candidates for nursing homes.

My step-mother probably had a huge say in my father's mother being put in a nursing home, rather than have Grandmother live with them. Is that action now a retribution? I doubt it, but who understands The Fates? My step-mother's home (for 30+ years) houses her oldest son and wife, 1st grandson, and now a great-grandson (whose mother abandoned him at birth).

My step-mother has lived in this multi-family household for many years, yet now she's mentally confused and in failing health after imagining herself as being discarded in recent years where meals, household responsibilities etc, are concerned. So I have to consider that just living with multi-generational family is not enough... it might also require good communications and interactions, as well as real food for good physical health. To be sure, that whole family has eaten the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) for many years, and no one in the household is in optimum or even acceptable health, not even the 12 year old chubby great-grandson.

But my point is: What have we lost, that thing deep and essential within ourselves, the pure need to connect to another... by treating our elderly as unloved, and unwanted trash to be thrown away?

Change in the Wind, Dangerous Opportunity?

2012-01-18T00:10:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit here

It is said (and also mis-said) that the Chinese word for Crisis = Danger + Opportunity. Not being a Linguist, I cannot attest either way, but I do hate it when The Universe changes the wind direction right out of my sails, thus creating a crisis, whether it is a dangerous opportunity or not.

Although I wasn't too happy to discover all the work on a new gardening spot I did in the Fall was for nothing, it was acceptable, even though it meant a time-delay of a gardening year, but I didn't consider it a true "crisis", just a major inconvenience.

Now all of a sudden, I do have a true butt-clenching crisis. My plans for the new food garden, along with many planned shade/fruit tree and fruiting shrub orders, and some much needed home repairs (esp. a new roof), are going change drastically quite soon unless some miracle happens. My younger half-sister and I share this house (and thus all the house expenses; although I have separate quarters, I pay half), and she was fired from her job last week. Since she was fired for "poor performance" after working there about 3½ years, it is unlikely she will be able to get unemployment benefits... and at her age of 63 and in a lousy job market, it is also unlikely she can find another job. That will put quite a strain on my already stretched finances. (Plus she has been supporting her 24 year old unemployed daughter who also lives here.)

I don't have a clue what will happen now. I only know that at this moment I am better off than many people in this country... I have a place to sleep out of the cold and rain, I have enough food, and I'm reasonably healthy.

Over the span of my 71 years, radical change has come along more than once, and almost always something good has eventually come from it... even though I could not see it coming at the time. In retrospect, I still believe each of the crisis ultimately presented an opportunity of some sort (despite any confusion on the interpretation of the Chinese word for Crisis).

This time I'm not so sure...

However, I do believe we all have Lessons to learn (or not), and that they are not always obvious to us. One thought in my mind that has been fairly constant over the past 2-3 years is a growing awareness of the importance of "community", whether that community is our actual local community, or the community of Family, or the community of Friends.

For most of my life I have been primarily alone and self-reliant, even amidst a large family and many friends. My generation, the siblings and cousins of our extended family, is now spread out across the country, and we grow farther apart with Time, as their own families have grown to include not just children but now grandchildren, plus all their various accumulated in-laws. I'm certainly not close to this half-sister who lives here, although that was one of my hopes when we decided to pool our meager resources after our mother died.

My connection to life-long friends becomes harder to maintain too, as we age and seldom see each other anymore. That leaves only the possibility of a "local community" to fill the void, and the locals here are a fairly closed, tight-knit group (plus all of them are mostly related). I know only a handful of people after living here 5+ years, and none well enough to call "friend".

So now I'm wondering if this change in the wind might entail having to move once again and start over for the umpteenth time... only in a place where community is possible... or if the change is something else entirely. I have NO clue... sigh.

Wikipedia will go dark at midnight

2012-01-17T13:35:00.001-05:00

In case you missed the news, Wikipedia will go dark at midnight Eastern time on Tuesday January 17, 2012, and remain unavailable until midnight Eastern time on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 in protest against the two Congressional bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act, often called SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, which is often called PIPA. The bills have attracted fierce opposition from many corners of the technology industry. Opponents say several of the provisions in the legislation, including those that may force search engines and Internet service providers to block access to Web sites that offer or link to copyrighted material, would stifle innovation, enable censorship and tamper with the livelihood of businesses on the Internet.

Visitors around the globe who try to reach the English-version of Wikipedia will be greeted with information about the bills and details about how to reach their local representatives. Mr. Wales said 460 million people around the world visited the site each month, and he estimated that the blackout could reach as many as 100 million people. In addition, some international Wikipedia communities, including the one in Germany, have decided to post notices on their home pages leading to information about the protests, although they will remain functioning as usual.

Wikipedia’s protest will join several other Web sites, including Reddit, the social news site, and BoingBoing, a technology and culture blog, that also plan to black out their sites on Wednesday. Some sites that are not planning to go offline are still finding ways to participate in the protest. For example, WordPress, a blogging platform, is supplying its users with a widget that will add a banner to their Web sites and blogs showing support for the protest. (Read the whole story from the Source.)

I haven't read enough of the pros and cons to have an informed opinion on the pending bills although I am certainly against anything that limits Free Speech... but I do know that the 460 million people (which includes me) around the world visit Wikipedia each month will be affected by the darkened website.

Kids... you better finish your homework research quickly!

My Sausges, and more

2012-01-16T00:30:00.000-05:00

Recently I spent the better part of a several hours daily making several kinds of sausage patties to freeze. It's nice to know exactly what is (and what isn't) in my sausage: free range meat, no hormones, no GMO's (even in their feed), and only organic herbs and spices. I posted pics earlier of the chicken-feta-spinach sausages, but here's a photo above (Yes, I know I am not a good photographer!) of the whole kaboodle. There are around 80-90 patties in the mix shown above, and that should keep me in sausage for several months. Plus I have enough venison to make another 60-75 patties. I'm short of home cured bacon, but hope to remedy that in February or March.

Next (after I eat up lots of frozen left-overs) is learning to make some terrines and pâtés out of all the odd bits in my freezer. I have several beef and pork hearts, plus beef, pork and chicken livers, some sweetbreads and a few trotters. Hey, how hard can it be to make a "meat" loaf??

Making rillettes is also on my list. I can't imagine that will be too hard... after all pulled pork is simply a slightly altered offspring of rillettes.

2012... and Beyond

2012-01-14T00:10:00.000-05:00

NASA Goddard Photo

The year 2012 should be interesting.

Many folks have an underlying (or at least partial) belief running through their subconscious mind that Nostradamus' and the Mayan "end of the World" scenarios might happen. However, most of our overt behavior indicates total disbelief not only in Doomsday predictions, but also in accepting the critical food/water/health situation worldwide. (Isn't the media wonderful?) Our changing weather patterns continue to impose hardships on many of our lives and gardens, giving credence to possible violent environmental changes that could be coming to this lovely blue planet we occupy.

Personally, I do not believe the "end of the world" will happen in December 2012. However, the environmental, economical and political changes are not only continuing, but increasing... and it could get right nasty down the road.

There is another prediction out there, proclaimed by many, that the "changes" will usher in a "thousand-year era of Peace". IMO, there is much that needs to be significantly altered before real Peace can happen.

On our food and health aspects for change, it is time for us to increase our awareness and ethical/moral responsibility beyond what the for-profit television and advertising media tell us... because ultimately our health/future Is NOT Up to Someone Else.

GMO's have proliferated simply because we didn't raise any flags in the beginning. It is our own fault. For too many years we have allowed ourselves to believe that others ("medical professionals and government officials?") know best, or at least know what they are doing. We are bombarded hundreds of times a day by subtle advertising messages indicating "they" are more educated and/or informed than we are, so the vast majority have given up individual responsibility for our own health and well-fare. Our self-inflicted ignorance has let the government (and us) buy into corporate hype of all kinds (which interestingly also put money in many, many pockets).

Thus the many corporate tribes and alphabet government agencies motivated by... (power? greed? or something else??) have given us obesity and disease by catering to and building on a human weakness for convenience, sugar and other junk foods. We have become a nation of addicts... and we are addicted to all kinds of substances. For far too many people [including children], it is sugary beverages and junk foods, while for others it might be an escape into alcohol or drugs. But as with any addiction, we never think with 100% clarity under the influence... and will do almost anything to keep getting our "fix" in spite of what our minds know.

As a nation, we eat more so called "food" and gain less energy (nutrition) from it all the time. The working mother eating the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) has NO energy left to prepare real food meals when she comes home from work, even if she could buy real food anymore in most places. (She says she doesn't have "time" but in reality, she also doesn't have the "energy".) So instead of having enough energy to prepare a real food meal, she barely has the energy to pick up junk fast food on the way home, or frozen boxed junk food to nuke for dinner for the family. Eating this way, she never gains a storehouse of energy for the next day, and simply repeats the process over and over, becoming more frazzled every day from lack of good nutrition.

Adele Davis always said a food without nutrients would not support life, and her example was a loaf of factory bread left on the counter (unwrapped) for weeks. It might dry out, but it would not support any bacterial life to decompose it. If it won't even support bacterial life, how could it support life for us?? Recently someone left a McD's cheeseburger on the counter for a whole year, and nothing grew there either. It sustained no bacterial life. (Source)

Change is never easy, but for the most part it can be started in small steps. Two years ago when I changed my food intake drastically to eliminate adulterated foods all at once (including foods with added sweeteners), I thought I would starve to death during the first 2-3 weeks. It took a long time for me to learn to think outside the box and change from what I had been accustomed to eating for years, to finding real foods to eat. Then as I started feeling the increased energy every day from eating real food (and probably eliminating some built-up toxins during that time), I began to understand what sugar and chemical-laden foods do to my body.

Unfortunately over the last year, I have slowly added some adulterated foods back to my diet, and I really see the poor consequences, both in my energy levels... and my weight. The good news is that I never deviated from my commitment to eating only grass-fed meats. I'm doing much better now in avoiding chemical-laden packaged foods (thus no GMO's) but where I am still struggling is to get sugars out of my diet again. The traditional and accepted flush of sweet goodies over the holidays put me right back into sugar addiction, and I really cannot totally blame the food industry... They only make the stuff; it's my hand that lifts the cookie to my mouth.

Then there are the sweets in other foods... "research and development teams have done studies and conducted taste panels that have found sweet sells. The more we sell sweet stuff the more people come to expect it. Sweet is found in loads of savory items. Sweet tomato sauces, crackers, salad dressings, mustards, coated chicken products, sausages, and more. Many of our fresh products are enhanced with sugar also. Butterball turkey, pumped brined pork loins, stewing hens. Our palates are being distorted by sweet." (Source)

Some small but positive steps:

Make a commitment to one family meal every week or two that contains only real foods. Nothing from a chemical-laden package (cookie/cake mix, packaged salad dressings, sweetened yogurt, BBQ sauce, yada, yada), no GMO's. You probably cannot escape the GMO's in the meats from factory meat animals, including chickens and their eggs, unless you can afford pastured meats... but start somewhere. No fake butters, no canola or soy oils (both GMO's), no sugar substitutes, nothing fake. I know many of the regular readers of this blog eat real foods almost exclusively... but perhaps just as many readers do not.

Make the time for a friendly email or telephone call to your local congressional representative saying you'd like to see food labels that state GMO or not, and hopefully even whether routine animal antibiotics in healthy animals were used. Tell them politely that you'd like to know what's actually in your food.

It may take years of persistence, but remember the soil in our yards is the result of eons of weathering effects on rocks that turned them into soil.

My House & Garden, Elephants and Blind Men

2012-01-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you all have heard the story of the blind men and the elephant, but just in case... In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side, tail, leg or the tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement.

The point is that we reach different conclusions depending on our exposure to partial facts.

I have been struggling with designing a drainage system to address the runoff from the hillside behind my house all the way down across my garden areas and on to the creek. I have this personal experience to add to the design considerations:

Three years ago I did extensive work on my garden area, building fluffy raised wide rows between narrow compacted walkways, all perpendicular to the creek. I was careful to only walk on the pathways, but I could plant and manage the vegetables from a path on either side of each bed. By the second year the rows were barely above what had been the paths, and by the third year, non-existent. I don't know how much of the soil went into the creek as run-off, but probably a lot between runoff and flooding. I'm sure some soil was trapped in the 20 foot wide grass swath between the garden beds and the creek, but not much.

Secondly, I also know from my own experience with drainage on the place my mother owned that drainage ditches fill up, and so does buried perforated plastic drain pipe in a gravel-filled ditch. They can fill up in as little as 2-3 years.

I had decided that some terracing in the slope in back of this house, using a hugelkulture bed idea on the lower edge of each terrace might work better than drainage ditches. And it still might be the easiest thing to do.

Then last week I came across this series of videos, which made me realize I was the blind man observing only part of the elephant (the area just behind the house). Our steep woods run behind/above the house, and then run parallel with the ridge behind the next several houses along the road. It's steep, but there are 4WD cart paths running through some of it; access to the paths is limited and I don't have one of those fancy carts, so I've never been up there. I need to get the local forestry person here anyway to talk to me about woodland management.

The first video segment in the series (linked above) is just an over-view and I didn't learn anything much from it except reminding me of how the rivers in the US carry topsoil down to the Mississippi Delta. However, starting with the 2nd video and building on it in subsequent segments, I began to see and understand "my part of the elephant" in a whole new light as a whole elephant, and some things that can actually be done to help the drainage/runoff.

There is at least one more spring on our property, behind the next house 1000' up the road. I've never seen it, and don't know what feeds it, but it's on the lower part of the hillside about 200' from the road. For all I know, there may be more springs. It's a lousy steward who doesn't know the land entrusted to her care!

I am hoping there might be state or federal money available for woodland management, which might include planting trees to replace what was timbered out before we bought this place, as well as management of water runoff. If nothing else, at least there should be forestry advice available.

Struggling with Food Choices

2012-01-10T00:10:00.003-05:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that my intention is to get back on the recommended food protocol from my endocrinologist (I'm hypothyroid), and I began that journey on the first day of this year. So far it is a very real struggle between what my mind knows and what my appetite cravings seek. As when I did this the first time (even though I eventually failed to stay faithful) my goal is better health, and weight loss is just a happy by-product.

I was surprised to see a tiny weight loss over the first week, which I didn't expect. It seems that when I announced I was going to eliminate some specific things from my diet (like sugars), my body just increased the desire for those very things!

The biggest challenge so far really is sugar, but it's followed closely by obesogens and goitrogens (both are endocrine disruptors, which cause weight gain regardless of calorie intake). Sugar is a problem because I got re-addicted to it with all the holiday foods from my birthday cake in early November, then Thanksgiving, Christmas and on through New Years' Day. I discovered in just 1 week that cutting back on sugar doesn't work for me... any more than reducing alcohol intake works for an alcoholic who wants to be free of the addiction.

So, eliminating sugar is going to have to be the cold turkey approach. However, one problem with sugar is those foods that don't necessarily appear laden with sugar, but convert to sugars during the digestion process. Those include some grains and legumes, some tubers and even packaged orange juice (although I don't buy OJ).

Whole wheat bread or cereals are high on that list, but not if they are made from whole wheat grains that are first sprouted, then dried before grinding into flour. (Do you think Kellogg's does that for their packaged cereals?) You can buy bags of several kinds of sprouted flours in addition to a few sprouted, dried whole grains and legumes to make your own here. (There may be many other sources, I just happen to know of that one.) Of course, my local stores do not carry any sprouted grains, nor sprouted grain breads like Ezekiel Bread. I can buy frozen Ezekiel Bread in most natural food stores, but the closest stores are a hundred miles away.

My options then are to eliminate bread altogether, or order some sprouted flours and make my own. Although I am not a very good baker, I did make my own bread for a couple of years, mostly sourdough which I love. I suppose I will start making bread again, like I need one more thing to do! sigh

Obesogens are also a problem because so many are not just in foods. Many of them come from faux fragrance chemicals added to things like laundry soaps, dish detergents, and shampoos. Some come from plasticizers used in plastic meat packaging, clear plastic wrap, food cans (BPA) and even in tap water which is increasingly tainted with drugs that mimic hormones. We absorb them through our skin (like water in the shower) even if we don't ingest them.

I solved the laundry detergent problem when I diverted the laundry water out to the garden recently... and switched to biodegradable, low-sodiumdetergents without phosphates, brighteners, boron, borax, enzymes or bleach. I switched to good handmade bath and facial soaps last year, but now I need to address shampoos and dish detergents.

I am particularly sensitive to obesegens now. I wasn't always so sensitive, but the body collects them in fat cells in the liver and elsewhere rather than eliminating them, and they build up over time.

The obesogens in pesticides and herbicides used on growing commercial foods (except organic), along with chemical food washes and plastic packaging "for safety" are harder for me to avoid during winter when I have few (if any) fresh greens or vegetables growing.

I don't knowingly eat soy products because soy contains both obesogens and goitrogens (besides the fact that most soy is GMO) but a double-whammy comes from the hidden soy products. "Mysterious ingredients that frequently (if not always) include soy are: hydrolyzed plant protein, isolated vegetable protein, vegetable gum, vegetable broth, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, isolates, methylcellulose, mono- and diglycerides, vegetable broth, vegetable oil, vegetable protein, vegetable starch, and vegetable fat.

“Natural Flavors” indicates soy. Because soy can be grown organically [although rarely, ~editor], and it is a naturally occurring plant, it is not seen as dishonest labeling practice to include “natural flavors”, or “flavoring” when manufacturers really mean soy.Unless the ingredient is specified, such as “natural vanilla flavors”, or “natural cocoa flavors”, do not trust this catch-all of ingredient euphemisms." (Source)

I don't have any problems with the natural goitrogens found in sweet potatoes, spinach and the brassica family (cruciferous vegetables) because I cook them, and cooking inactivates those goitrogens in vegetables. (I do eat raw spinach from my garden on salads in season, but it isn't much.)

As for the rest of my food protocol, I'm not having any problems with animal proteins, dairy (like cheese, real cream for my coffee, and butter) and other good fats because I never deviated from buying grass-fed / pastured animal products, or good fats like coconut oil and olive oils (in spite of the food miles). Nor am I having any problems with getting enough daily vegetables. I don't do as well with fruits, being against the food miles that are coupled with outrageous pesticide usage on imported fruits. I do have some local organic apples still in the larder, but I didn't store enough and they go fast!

Remembering to take my vitamins (D and B12) every morning remains a hurdle. Even if I put them right in front of my computer screen so I can't miss them with my morning ritual of coffee and checking email, I tend to push them aside thinking I'll take them in a few minutes when the coffee is ready.

There is a lot of fine-tuning to do with my food protocol, like pH balance... but I'll address those in future posts. Right now I'm busy battling the Dragon named Sugar.

Chicken, Feta and Spinach Sausage

2012-01-08T00:10:00.002-05:00

I've had in mind for a while now to make some chicken, feta and spinach sausage and finally made the time. They could have been stuffed into casings, but I opted for patties since I don't like the casings I ordered.

I boned the thighs and legs from 4 free-range birds and ran the meat, fat (there wasn't much) and some of the skin through the grinder. I ended up with just over 2.5 pounds.

To the ground chicken I added a half pound of fresh spinach very lightly steamed, then squeezed almost dry, and chopped. Frozen chopped spinach would have worked also, as long as it was squeezed of most of the liquid.

Then a couple of garlic cloves finely minced, some tarragon, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and about a quarter-cup of homemade goat feta, crumbled.

Mix it all together, put some parchment paper squares on the scale, and weigh out patties. I chose quarter-pound patties because I don't eat a lot of food at any one meal.

They look pretty well mixed. My feta was a tad salty from the refrigerated brine so I hope the added salt (reduced amount) and pepper distributed evenly. I should have fried a test patty for seasonings but I'd just had lunch.

Patties on a baking sheet, ready for a quick freeze. I did end up with one small patty but I'll use that one along with a full patty sometime when I'm especially hungry.

Once frozen, I'll vac-pak them in serving size bags. It will be a nice addition to variety of my main meals. I hope I don't regret not adding more feta, or that I ground up some of the skin with the meat!!

I also hope they hold together when cooking. In retrospect, I should have made and added a panade, or added a couple of egg whites as I do with one of my venison sausage recipes.

Growing Healthier Greens

2012-01-06T00:10:00.000-05:00

One of the best things you can add to your garden for growing superb greens is rock dust. Volcanic rock dust, if you can find it, otherwise any rock dust is better than none. (Rock dust is good for all plants in the garden, but especially the greens because it helps give structure to the leaves.)

"Adding volcanic dustmimicsglacialcycles which naturally fertilized the land. Since the last ice age threemillion years ago the earth has gone through 25 similar glaciations,eachlasting about 90,000 years. We are currently 10,000 years into aninterglacial-- a hiatus between ice ages -- meaning modern soils are relativelybarrenand artificial fertilizers are needed." (Quote Source)

The addition of rock dust is usually called RE-mineralization, because our soils have become very depleted in minerals over time. (Plants take up minerals as they grow, some more than others, and normal fertilizing doesn't add all the minerals back in.) There are 17 essential plant nutrients; of those, hydrogen, carbon and oxygen are absorbed from the air, while the other essential nutrients (mostly minerals) and water must be obtained from the soil.

However, what really makes a garden work is all the bio-organisms that will convert any and all the nutrients to a form the plants can utilize (take-up via roots). All the nutrients in the world are useless unless they are in a form plants can use.

When we fertilize, we usually add the inorganic nutrients consisting of NPK or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are called primary nutrients because the plants use a LOT of them. (Bagged NPK doesn't include anything else but NPK and a filler.)

The secondary (mineral) nutrients are calcium, magnesium and sulfur. Those do not always need re-application every year, but they might, so get a soil sample! The third classification is micronutrients (it's what rock dust contains and needed only in small quantities)... more than 50-60 micro-minerals like boron, manganese, zinc, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt and more are available from some rock dust sources.

The colloidal carbonaceous residue known as humus serves as a nutrient reservoir. Besides lack of water and sunshine, nutrient deficiency is a major growth limiting factor.

There is some thought that the calcium and magnesium in the rock dustconvertsatmospheric carbon into carbonates... which would be essentially sequestering some carbon in the soil, if I understand it correctly.

Currently, I add 2 kinds of rock dust to my garden: Azomite, and Greensand which is mined in New Jersey. I also add biochar sifted from my woodstove ashes, which I inoculate with mild urea or compost tea. All of these components give the bio-organisms something to convert to nutrients for the plants. I know I probably don't build enough humus yet... that is: I don't add enough active organic matter... but this year I plan to use EM-1 (Effective Microorganisms) on my compost and also make Boshaki to continue growing effective microorganisms for my soil life.

But remember, it all starts with rock dust to feed the existing bio-organisms in my soil, which will feed the plants that will feed me.

Pissing in Drinking Water

2012-01-04T00:10:00.000-05:00

Disgusting thought, isn't it? Yet we do it every single day!

Municipalities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide safe drinking water to our homes, and what do we do? We urinate and defecate in it, via the porcelain throne. Then, of course, that once-safe drinking water is now "contaminated" and hundreds of thousands more dollars are spent to get rid of it, either by municipal sewage systems or a gazillion home septic systems.

Consider this: the urine and solid matters we eliminate are made up of nutrients including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus that either our bodies haven't used, or that are by-products of our digestive systems. Those liquids and solids contain lots of nutrients, just like the animal manure we put in compost piles. Our urine, in fact, is actually sterile. "Urine can contain up to 90 percent of the N (nitrogen), up to 50 percent of the P (phosphorus) and up to 70 percent of the K (potassium) present in human excreta." (Source)

While we throw away all the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium we have added to our drinking water, we also go out and buy manufactured nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, aka fertilizer, in bags to put on our gardens to grow green plants. HUH??

"This waste is particularly worrisome now because the cheaper sources of commercial fertilizer for farming are declining. Competing uses for natural gas, our biggest source of nitrogen fertilizer, is driving up prices. Potash deposits in Canada, our handiest source, are declining, and talk of opening up new mines in the rainforest does not sit well with the environmental community. Some specialized phosphorus fertilizers are very expensive. The day is coming when we must start thinking about scrupulously saving our wastes for fertilizer as humans have done, especially in Asia, for centuries." ~Gene Logsdon

So why do we use our very expensive drinking water as a vehicle to throw away those nutrients?

Simple answer: fear and ignorance... plus a healthy dose of "comfort zone" boundaries coupled with inertia.

When the liquid and/or dry ingredients are collected from home in a safe manner, it can be odorless, cheap and sustainable, both for us and the planet we inhabit. (Please do not confuse the toxic material from public waste treatment plants as acceptable or the same thing. Those waste systems contain many materials dumped in the system like drugs, paints, solvents, cleaning agents, oils, and who knows what else, in addition to human excrement.)

Human waste material can be collected in a fancy composting toilet like the one pictured above made by environlet™ (where the works are hidden), or even in a simple but adequate bucket with a lid. The liquid components can be collected separately or together in the bucket.

"Bucket and Lid" dry matter system (radiator optional!) photo from Sustainable Sanitation

In the bucket method, if waste is covered immediately with a carbon material like sawdust, coconut coir or peat moss, it will have no odor even if it remains in the bathroom until the container is full enough to empty. When enough is collected, it can be put in a dark-colored plastic 55 gallon barrel and allowed to compost in the sun for 9 months to a year, or it can be put in a well-managed garden compost pile... and either way, when it is fully composted is just like the stuff from our regular garden compost piles... FREE, and sustainable!

Liquid waste material, aka urine, can be collected separately and used immediately as fertilizer in the garden, BUT it needs to be diluted about 1:10 with WATER so it doesn't burn plants. It doesn't have to be diluted with the expensive drinking water we buy either (whether from the city, our own electric-powered well pumps, or in bottles from a store). It can be collected rain water, or water from a creek or even a puddle. You just don't want to burn the plants.

Applying Diluted Urine, Phillipines; photo by Sustainable Sanitation

Large-scale Urine Application in Sweden. photo by Sustainable Sanitation

I have read a little about humanure for many years, and always dismissed the concept, but thinking it would fit in a rustic, off-grid situation. I never really looked at the realities of the nutrients we throw away, only to buy the same soil nutrients from a garden store. Nor did I consider the implications of trashing those nutrients in perfectly good drinking water!

However, now that I AM aware, it will boil down to a matter of how far I'm willing exceed my comfort zone to be a better steward and increase my efforts at sustainability.

Realistically, I can't add a composting toilet to my bathroom (space-wise) unless I removed the existing toilet, but that could be a project for next summer when the temps are warmer and I can put up a temporary outdoor "bucket" facility. Another restraining factor is that I co-own this house with my half-sister and she'll balk at the thought, even though she has her own private bathroom.

I just might install a composting toilet to my private bathroom in spring or summer anyway if I can afford it (in spite of any objections my sis may have) because a new porcelain throne could be re-installed later for any potential resale of the property, and the nutrient benefits I would gain are worth it!

I could, however, begin now to collect my urine, and add it diluted for nutrients my garden soil every day... even now during winter since our ground seldom freezes solid for more than a few days. As a matter of fact, I did collect urine for most of 1 day, and added it diluted to a cold compost pile the day after Christmas. Not sure I want to do that every day until I can get a good system.

(I should mention I have not read the books listed below, so I'm not sure of safety measures or procedures of collecting urine inside and keeping it for more than a day.)

Given the increasing shortage and cost of fertilizers, and the expense of clean, potable water almost everywhere, does it make sense to keep pissing in our drinking water?

Notes:
There are some problems in making these nutrients safe when they are just mixed together and dumped in a pit, as was typical in the smelly and probably toxic outhouses of generations past. The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins recommends collecting dry and liquid matter together in a carbon matrix, and adding them to a garden compost bin weekly using some safe guidelines. He also has a website for more information and photos.

Gene Logsdon, a contrary farmer whom I admire, has just written Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, and it's on my WishList.

Mr. Logsdon has this to say just about the impact of just pet waste products:

What are we throwing away in money? In Holy Shit I use my own way to come up with a figure. Experts say that ten tons of animal manure and bedding per year can adequately fertilize an acre of farmland. Therefore we have enough pet manure in this country to fertilize something like 20 million acres every year. If a farmer is paying out $100 an acre for commercial fertilizer (right now it’s lower than that, last year higher) we’re talking about a value for pet manure of something like two billion bucks.

And the cost of throwing it away in the landfill or sewage treatment system is a whole lot more.

ps...
The conceptual image of "pissing in drinking water" is not an original thought of mine; it came from Nick Ritar in a TEDx talk.

Gourmet Butchering

2012-01-02T00:10:00.001-05:00

Well my, my... I actually won something! I won the DVD, The Gourmet Butcher™ from master butcher Cole Ward. Many Thanks, Cole; it's a prize I will enjoy using for a long time!!

For over 30 years, Cole has taught chefs and butchers, caterers and students, farmers and food-lovers how to cut and prepare their own meat. The DVD takes you through every step of the butchering process from breaking down a carcass into primal cuts, then into gourmet or retail cuts. The lessons cover lamb, pork, and both beef fore-quarters and beef hind quarters, plus tools and safety.

Although I have no immediate plans to do any home butchering (I raise no meat animals so far), I do plan next year to start buying my meat in sides or quarters... depending on the overall animal size and how much freezer space I have available. It will be great to be able to carve up my own, and save some money in the process.

Although I buy only local grass-fed meats, I'm not happy with the quality of the ground meats from the nearby processing facility even though they follow USDA guidelines and all meat is USDA inspected. For example, USDA guidelines allow a certain percentage of bone (and who knows what else like gristle and skin?) in ground meat, which I'd sooner not have.

Bones from packing houses are sold to companies that cook them down for soups and broths, or to pet food companies, or others that process them into bone meal. It's expensive and difficult to get marrow bones anymore, but by butchering my own I can have them available once again!

I can see a lot of good foods coming from Cole's DVD tutorials!

Celebrating New Year and The Nearings

2011-12-31T00:10:00.001-05:00

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the coming New Year than with gratitude to those who helped set my Path.

If I had to pick any one thing that pointed me in the direction I try to walk, it would have to be my exposure to the work of Helen and Scott Nearing, back in the early 1970's via their books published by Rodale Press. There was no internet back then and information was difficult to find, but once I heard of them, I read everything I could by (and about) these 2 remarkable people who promoted self-sufficiency and sustainability.

Who were Helen and Scott Nearing?

The Nearing were two of America's most inspirational practitioners of simple, frugal and purposeful living. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Helen and Scott Nearing moved from their small apartment in New York City to a dilapidated farmhouse on 65 acres in Vermont. For over 20 years, they created fertile, organic gardens, hand-crafted stone buildings, and a practice of living simply and sustainably on the land. In 1952, they moved to the Maine coast, where they later built their last stone home.

Through their 60 years of living on the land in rural New England, their commitment to social and economic justice, their numerous books and articles, and the time they shared with thousands of visitors to their homestead, the Nearings embodied a philosophy that has come to be recognized as a centerpiece of America's "Back to the Land" and "Simple Living" movements. (Source)

Their best known books (those they wrote together) are Living the Good Life (1954) and Continuing the Good Life (1979). The first of these is often credited with being a major spur to the U.S. back-to-the-land movement that began in the late 1960s.

Before they moved back to the land in Vermont in 1932, Scott Nearing had been a Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, and Helen Nearing had been trained as a classical violinist.

I was (and remain) fascinated, first by their technique for building walls with movable forms, concrete, and rocks from their property, and later by their walled garden with the sunken passive solar greenhouse that provided food all year even in the coldest winters of the NE USA. Precursors to Eliot Coleman, in my mind.

I now realize I must have absorbed some of their views on corporatism, as I continue to rail against Monsanto et al.

Here's a short clip on the Nearings. The last scene was apparently filmed after they were much older and no longer living on their farm. (Just mentioning that so you do not mistake their suburban-looking home as being the one at the farm.)

Still growing some winter veggies...

2011-12-30T00:10:00.001-05:00

In an unexpected warm spell, the day after Christmas was 50ºF! I opened up the hoop bed so I could cut back the lower leaves on the Brussels sprouts, enabling the plants to put their energy into sprout production rather than leaf production. They are struggling, but still continue to grow slowly. Same for the purple cauliflower in the hoop bed. Plus, a few beets are actually growing some leaves since the fabric cover has kept Br'er Rabbit from munching. (I did leave the cut Brussels sprout leaves accessible for the rabbits outside the hoop bed.)

Being out in the yard on such a nice day, I decided to "tour" my other garden areas. I found some red swiss chard still producing leaves large enough to eat, a few remaining leeks I failed to harvest, and some flat leaf parsley and rosemary.

The biennial artichoke I planted in June hasn't died back completely yet either, although the other one I planted didn't make it through the summer.

The shallots and garlic I planted in late October are showing 2-3" of growth, which means they are putting down roots; the tops will die back when winter finally gets here, but the roots will keep them alive until they can resume growth in spring.

Health Care vs Illness Care

2011-12-28T00:10:00.000-05:00

We should start naming things as they really are, not what someone would like us to believe. What we really have is Illness Care, NOT Health Care. Very little money is ever spent to promote "Health Care" because Health is NOT profitable.

The human body is extremely complex, and we have hundreds of thousands of internal interactions going on at any given moment from our 400 hundred trillion cells. Those interactions are also interdependent, and although our bodies have the ability to fabricate some of the components, we still need some raw materials for manufacturing them.

Jump rope, Photo from tedkerwin

For a different picture for understanding, think about the group children's game we call jump rope; when typically done by 3 or more children it's called long rope jumping. If you have 3 children and a rope, you can play. Remove any one component, and there's no game. 2 children and a rope but no jumper... no game. 3 children and no rope, no game.

Micronutrients (meaning we don't need much of them) like the fat-soluble vitamins have a 'game' (interaction) going on in our bodies too, and if any one of them is MIA, the 'game' suffers. Please note that these essential fat-soluble vitamins can only be dissolved in saturated fats in the body (hence their name). A healthy liver will store any excess, unlike the water-soluble vitamins which we rapidly excrete in urine.

Photo by Public Domain Photos

Photo by julesjulesjules m

Vitamin A (egg yolks, liver, whole milk, cheese) is needed for eyesight, in other words "essential for the neural transmission of light into vision". All the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) need a bit of all the others to function (play the game) properly.

I find it interesting that the amount of Vitamin A in egg yolks in the Netherlands is more than twice the amount in the US. I wonder why? What they are fed (non-GMO?) and how they are raised? Curious. source

Photo by Peber the Swede

Photo by andrewmalone

Vitamin D (from sunlight, or oily fish like herring, salmon and sardines) helps the body absorb and use calcium, but you also need to ingest enough of the right kind of calcium for it to work... and then it takes Vitamin A to make the interaction work, too. (Vitamin A binds the Vitamin D receptors). Likewise if you take calcium supplements but don't get enough A or D, the calcium is useless.


Gluten-free (coconut flour) Fried Oysters, by NourishingCook

Oysters Rockefeller, photo by Argyleist

For Vitamin D to work, it also needs the minerals magnesium (green vegetables, nuts, whole grains), zinc (oysters, wheat germ, liver) and boron (green vegetables, fruit, nuts). The other catch is you also need enough Vitamin K (green leafy vegetables) to regulate the entire fat-soluble system.

The fat-soluble vitamins (except E) come from the very animal foods the "health care" industry tells us to reduce or avoid altogether: eggs, butter, and organ meats like liver. (BTW, coconut oil is considered a good saturated fat but contains almost zero vitamins and minerals. The main benefit in coconut oil is the Lauric Acid content, which promotes the "good" cholesterol, HDL.)

There are many, many other nutrients which are equally essential for good health, and our bodies can utilize them all much better in the form of real food rather than supplements. However, just like the fat-soluble vitamins, most are interdependent on a host of others for maximum nutritional function. Who tells or teaches us that??

It seems the best way to have real health care is in our own hands. If we don't take responsibility for ourselves and our health, who will??

Try this: On your own, research some foods for their nutritional amounts. Research your own nutritional needs for the foods that supply them. If the information comes from research, find out who paid for the research; it is too often biased. Look for the sin of omission, where they tell us the part they want us to know rather than the whole picture.

The spin on many industrialized foods now being promoted as "healthy" is just that: spin. I have to be vigilant about reading labels on foods. A package of crackers I picked up in the natural foods market last weekend had huge advertising all over the front of the box exclaiming "Now made with whole grains!". When I read the label, sure enough there were whole grains... but last on the list just before the chemicals (labels are required by law to list ingredients in descending order of the quantity). The first ingredient was "enriched white flour"... I put it back on the shelf. Deceptive advertising, in my opinion.

Getting and staying healthier is much harder when the truth is so hard to find amongst all the hype. In my opinion, food labels should also list ALL the vitamin amounts, as well as all the herbicides, pesticides, irradiation and chemical washes the food has endured.

I repeat: It seems the best way to have real health care is in our own hands. If we don't take responsibility for ourselves and our health, who will??

Real Currants or Zante Currants?

2011-12-26T00:10:00.000-05:00

Black Currant Photo by mwri

The first fruit bushes I ordered when I moved here 5 years ago included 3 black currant bushes and 2 gooseberries. Soon thereafter, I also planted several red currant seedlings, and a couple of "buffalo" currents from a friend. Slowly but surely they have all withered away. (Not sure what that's about, but that's not the focus of this post either.)

The compelling reason for growing black currants is my love of currant scones, and the very healthy benefits of currants. Black currants have some amazing properties... high in antioxidants (almost 2X most fruits), potassium (one cup has more than a small banana) and Vitamin C (one cup has more C than 3 oranges), plus iron, calcium, magnesium, and manganese.

Finding I had less than a cup of black currants from this year's pitiful harvest (I finally trashed the bushes) saved in my freezer, I picked up a box marked "Zante Currants" in the local grocery store so I could make some Christmas scones.

Well, Pooh!! It turns out that Zante Currants are NOT currants at all, merely a very tiny dried small grape (a seedless variety of Vitis vinifera named Black Corinth), containing very few of the healthy properties of real currants, which are a Ribe. Now I wonder about the "dried currants" I buy in the health food stores since misnaming is so common.

There is a semi-legitimate reason for all the confusion in the name. A hundred years ago (1911), the US government outlawed growing currants (and gooseberries which are in the same family). It was believed that the White Pine Blister Rust threatening the pine lumber industry needed to have currants or gooseberries to complete it's cycle, and that the disease would wipe out the white pine lumber industry if those fruits were not banned. The ban was actually lifted in 1966 but few were ever aware it was lifted. (Regardless, the belief that currants are the cause persists even today.)

So, for a hundred years, almost no one in the US grew currants, and now we in the US really don't know much about currants at all. Very few are grown today, although there are improved varieties that have eliminated any possible connection to the pine disease. Happily, NY state is now seeing a few currant farms spring up. Well over a century ago currants were a huge cash crop in NY, and may be again!

The confusion about Zante Currants started about 90 years ago when a small Greek island named "Zante" exported a tiny dried grape called Black Corinth to the US. It was 1/4 the size of a normal dried grape (aka raisin) and accidentally named a "currant" due both to similar size and to language barriers at the import docks that changed the word "Corinth" into "currant".

Almost any American recipe originating in the last hundred years calling for "currants" surely intended "Zante Currants" and not real currants, since that's all that were generally available. I encourage you to try the real thing! (Besides, earlier this year a report out of Tuft’s University announced that “Black Currants may thwart Alzheimer’s.”) Source

There is a noticeable difference in the plants. Currants grow on a bush and are tart, and grapes (of all sizes, including the tiny Zante/Black Corinth) grow on a vine and are sweet. I am satisfied that what I bought and planted are true currants because they were bushes, but I'm not so sure that what I buy in bulk are real currants. Clearly, though, the box of Sun-Maid Zante Currants doesn't say anywhere that they are raisins. I guess it's implied when they say in the very tiny print that "raisins are mechanically processed and may have some stems".

(BTW, Crème de Cassis, the favored drink of the fictional detective Hercule Poirot created by Agatha Christie is made from black currants, as is the popular wine cocktail Kir.)

Celebrations of the Day

2011-12-25T00:10:00.000-05:00

For my Pagan friends, the Winter Solstice has passed but I trust your celebrations will help bring us all a fruitful spring planting leading to a bountiful harvest;

For my Jewish friends, wishing you wonderful celebrations for the remaining 3 days of Hanukkah; may your lights continue to burn brightly;

and for my Christian friends, Merry Christmas, and may His Light bring us all Peace.

(If I have missed your religious group it is only out of not-knowing on my part that you celebrate this time of the year.)

All Through the Night

2011-12-24T00:10:00.000-05:00

My favorite song at Chrismastime: All Through the Night

Though not a Christmas song when the music was first published in 1784, this Welsh tune has survived for over 225 years. Harold Boulton wrote the 'Christmas' lyrics to it sometime around 1900.

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.

Angels watching ever round thee
All through the night
In thy slumbers close surround thee
All through the night
They will of all fears disarm thee,
No forebodings should alarm thee,
They will let no peril harm thee
All through the night.

Wishing everyone a peace-filled and joy-filled holiday!

Celebration is Celebration

2011-12-22T00:10:00.001-05:00

Christmas is Celebration, and Celebrations are Instinct in the Heart!

The Christmas Celebration to me means sharing the abundance we have been given. Some of us may not have much materially, but we can celebrate with the gift of an open heart, and share the wonderment all around us. There is the wonderment that grows from tiny seeds, whether they are the seeds of love and inspiration, or the miracle of "seeds" that grow to produce our children and loved ones who nourish our hearts... or the seeds that grow the animals, fruit and vegetables that nourish our bodies.

These are the everyday miracles we have been given, and we celebrate them. I like to celebrate by sharing the gifts of food treats, but the best is sharing a meal and conversation around a table of congenial companions.

MFK Fisher summed it up nicely: "Dining partners, regardless of gender, social standing, or the years they have lived, should be chosen for their ability to eat -- and drink! -- with the right mixture of abandon and restraint.

They should be able, no, eager, to sit for hours over a meal of soup and wine and cheese, as well as one of 20 fabulous courses.

Then, with good friends of such attributes, and good food on the board. and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask,"When shall we live, if not now?"

I can think of no better way to celebrate the day than being with friends and family, sharing good food.

"Christmas IS celebration, and celebration is instinct in the heart. With gift and feast, with red ribbon and fresh green bough, with the sound of music and merriment, we commend the day– oasis in the long landscape of the common.

This Christmas mend a quarrel.

Seek out a forgotten friend.

Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.

Write a love letter.

Encourage youth.

Show your loyalty in word and deed.

Keep a promise.

Find the time.

Forego a grudge.

Forgive an enemy.

Listen.

Apologize if you were wrong.

Try to understand.

Flout envy.

Take up arms against malice.

Examine your demands on others.

Be kind; be gentle.

Appreciate.

Laugh a little.

Laugh a little more.

Express your gratitude.

Cry out against complacency.

Welcome a stranger.

Gladden the heart of a child.

Take pleasure in the wonder and beauty of the earth.

Speak your Love.

Speak it again.

Speak it once again."

Source: a long-ago bit I copied from either a Life or Look magazine about 1960...

Change, for a Dollar

2011-12-20T00:10:00.000-05:00

Change... for a Dollar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXL9vIUbWg

Laid-back Christmas Decorating

2011-12-19T07:05:00.000-05:00

Photo from one of my friends who does animal rescue. This dog is a "ferocious Pit Bull mix".

Yeah, Right.

Nutrient loss in Our Vegetables

2011-12-18T00:10:00.001-05:00

A good friend recently sent me a note that there is a story in the current Mother Earth News concerning the serious decline of nutrients in vegetables. Loss of nutrients in vegetables isn't news to me because I have been long aware of the published (and hard to find) data by the USDA on the declining nutrients in crops since the 1950's/1960's. (I used to have the USDA chart on my computer, but I lost it when the last hard drive died, and now it is not easy to find.)

Several "causes" have been cited in the research literature, ranging from overall loss in our soil nutrients, to the specific varieties chosen to plant. It certainly appears true that veggies remove micronutrients from the soil which are never replaced by the additions of just the popular NPK.

However, the loss of nutrients by the "choice" of planted varieties has me stumped. From what I read, some varieties that are chosen to grow quickly with a minimum of amendments to the soil might indeed result in a great crop of pretty and marketable produce, but lacking on the nutrition scale. Personally I am more inclined to believe the soil deficiency idea.

In 2008 I wrote a post on DavesGarden called "red tennis balls" which listed some USDA stats on nutrient decline in tomatoes. Here's an excerpt:

Taking statistics from theUSDA comparing a tomato in 1963 to a tomato now (2008) shows that 100 grams of 'fresh'tomato has:

30.7% LESS Vitamin A

16.9% LESS Vitamin C

61.5% LESS Calcium

11.1% LESS Phosphorus

9% LESS Potassium

9% LESS Niacin (B3)

10% LESS Iron

1% LESS Thiamine (B1)

65% MORE Lipids (fats)

200% MORE Sodium

Vitamins E and K are notmeasured, nor are essential micronutrients like molybdenum and selenium.

Broccoli has lost 45%Vitamin C.

80% of the tomatoes grown inFlorida now comprise just 5 varieties, and one of those 5 counts by itself for 35.9% of all tomatoes (the variety is Fla. 47).

In the last 50 years, the Canadianpotato has lost 100% Vitamin A, and 57% Calcium, 50% Iron, 50% Riboflavin (B2) and18% Thiamin.

So, its not just Red TennisBalls that are nutritionally deficient...

I've been working on increasing nutrient density (measurements aka Brix, and also taste in the veggies... the better the taste, the higher the nutritional value) in my own garden for 4+ years now and I still don't have a good handle on it, although my results are getting better. I DO believe that sufficient micro-minerals, good compost and an excellant microbial population are a big part of the equation. I hope to have some increased positive reports this coming gardening season.

Antibiotic Spices

2011-12-16T00:10:00.001-05:00

Many of us use certain spices for their antimicrobial activity; I know I use garlic and onions a LOT in my lacto-ferments... and I know that other spices have some degree of antimicrobial properties, but I've never had a clear picture of which ones, nor how much benefit is available. Given that many pathogens now come packaged with our industrialized foods like fresh produce, I thought the information might be helpful.

Cornell University did a survey on food-spoilage microorganisms and spices a few years back. The news release about the survey is here. (Full report: "Antimicrobial Functions of Spices: Why Some Like It Hot," Jennifer Billing and Paul W. Sherman, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 73, No.1, March 1998.)

"Garlic, onion, allspice and oregano, for example, were found to be the best all-around bacteria killers (they kill everything), followed by thyme, cinnamon, tarragon and cumin (any of which kill up to 80 percent of bacteria). Capsicums, including chilies and other hot peppers, are in the middle of the antimicrobial pack (killing or inhibiting up to 75 percent of bacteria), while pepper of the white or black variety inhibits 25 percent of bacteria, as do ginger, anise seed, celery seed and the juices of lemons and limes."

Top 30 Spices with Antimicrobial Properties
(Listed from greatest inhibition to least inhibition of food-spoilage bacteria)

1. Garlic
2. Onion
3. Allspice
4. Oregano
5. Thyme
6. Cinnamon
7. Tarragon
8. Cumin
9. Cloves
10. Lemon grass
11. Bay leaf
12. Capsicums
13. Rosemary
14. Marjoram
15. Mustard
16. Caraway
17. Mint
18. Sage
19. Fennel
20. Coriander
21. Dill
22. Nutmeg
23. Basil
24. Parsley
25. Cardamom
26. Pepper (white/black)
27. Ginger
28. Anise seed
29. Celery seed
30. Lemon/lime

1st Ever Carrot... Please Don't Laugh

2011-12-14T00:10:00.002-05:00

Today it was warm enough that I pulled open the end of the hoop garden bed to see what's really going on inside. We've had several nights in the upper teens and I wasn't sure what to expect.

Then I picked my first ever carrot, and since I've never successfully grown something that could be called a carrot by any stretch of the imagination, I consider it a milestone! I forget the variety; the seeds came free with a seed order that I think was from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

You may remember I posted that the flooding from TS Lee (or was it TS Irene?) washed away most of my seedlings in this experimental hoop bed, and by then it was too late to replant.

The faint white circles on the photo above outline a few beets, carrots and spinach that have survived despite chewed-off tops. (I should have used a heavier line weight for the circles on the photo, but it's too late now.)

The larger plants down the middle are Brussels sprouts, and purple cauliflower towards the far end; the seeds of everything in there were planted at the same time. I believe most of the insect damage seen in the front Brussels sprout plant is from before I closed up the hoop, although the chewed off carrot and beet tops are clearly the work of Br'er Rabbit when the hoop still had gaps.

The Brussels sprouts are not filled out yet, but certainly much larger than 2-3 weeks ago when the clamps to fasten the fabric properly against Mr. Rabbit (and the weather) were installed.

All in all, I'm not a bit disappointed in how bed has functioned thus far, even though there are very few plants inside of it. The weeds are also doing great; too bad they are not edible weeds!

Freezing Eggs

2011-12-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about storing eggs because I bought 3 dozen for Christmas baking and have decided not to bake, lest I eat too many sweets. Last year I put 6 dozen eggs in my root cellar in January, and still had fresh eggs in early May (when the root cellar began to warm up with the outside temps).

What I did to keep them fresh was to line the inside of the cartons with plastic wrap, and then coat each egg with lard, and add a layer pf plastic wrap over the top. The idea is to keep the eggs from drying out (as well as keeping them cold). Fresh eggs straight from the hens have a protective coating that does the same thing, but most folks wash the farm eggs they sell so they "look pretty" but they don't keep as long as they do if unwashed.

Did you know you can also freeze eggs? It's simple, and if you raise your own eggs, the frozen extras will come in handy when production slows down.

Crack eggs into a small container or freezer bags in the quantity needed for recipes, such as "X" number of whole eggs, or yolks only, or whites only. Be sure to label, including quantity!!

If you don't use them for baking, they make great scrambled eggs.

It CAN Happen Here

2011-12-10T00:10:00.001-05:00

There is a long history of populations saying, "It can't happen here..." and then it does. There is a new food bill pending in New Zealand that takes away the human "right" to grow food and save seeds, and instead makes it a government-authorized "privilege" that can be revoked on any pretext.

I've heard for years about the freedom hazards of adopting Codex Alimentarius, which is a world-wide attempt at regulating foods, vitamins and OTC medicines/herbal medicines, and now even water. Codex is what's behind the move to take supplements off the shelves in the US and make it necessary to get a doctor's prescription for vitamins.

The spin on Codex is food safety, but I believe it is more about control pushed by BigAg, BigPharma, and BigBusiness in general. For sure, food safety is a major concern to all of us, but that phrase is used to push the buttons on an uninformed public to get legislation passed. We'll pass almost any ridiculous Law if it guarantees food safety, even with a great but hidden expense to our freedom to choose.

I get frequent email updates from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS), along with updates from CMS.gov and and every week we move closer to full acceptance and implementation of Codex here in the US.

Here are 2 quotes from the article I read about the New Zealand Bill:

"I read that the bill is being brought in because of the WTO [World Trade Organisation], which of course has the US FDA behind it, and of course that is influenced by big business (Monsanto and other players). It looks like this NZ food bill will pave the way to reduce the plant diversity and small owner operations in New Zealand, for example by way of controlling the legality of seed saving and trading/barter/giving away; all will be potentially illegal. The best website to read about the problems with the new bill is http://nzfoodsecurity.org".

"- The Government has created this bill to keep in line with its World Trade Organisation obligations under an international scheme called Codex Alimentarius (“Food Book”). So it has to pass this bill in one form or another." (emphasis mine)

Already in the US, new regulations about cleaning seeds (Multi-million dollar special equipment now required for each seed type) has put many non-GMO seed sellers out of business.

I just downloaded the 252 page Codex bulletin on milk. It will take a while to read and decipher because many regs are based on mandates listed elsewhere on Codex, rather than in the brochure. Typical legalese! I suspect I will find the USDA push against raw milk has a foundation somewhere in Codex. JMHO.

Walk the Talk

2011-12-08T00:10:00.000-05:00

As much as I continually suggest we should all eat nutritious, real food... I fell off the wagon a year ago. Actually I didn't fall... it was a very long, slow descent, adding a few empty calories here and there... until the additives (which are designed to addict) took over after a few months. I even lost the habit of taking my few daily vitamins. As a consequence, my energy levels are down and my weight is up. So it's time to get back with the program.

I don't have the disorder known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but I can sure tell the difference in how I feel on bright, sunny days, even in winter. My self-diagnosis is a shortage of Vitamin D3 (the sunshine vitamin) and I started taking it again this very morning. I take about half a teaspoonful of fermented cod-liver oil in a gel that's mixed with a high-vitamin A butter oil made by Green Pastures. Mid-day and evenings I take a less expensive D3 gel cap.

A good breakfast had fallen by the wayside too, giving way to something high-carb and/or high sugar with my 2nd cup of coffee. I picked up 2 dozen farm eggs (from chickens fed NON-GMO feed) and some decent organic bacon this weekend, but not enough for the whole month because I didn't intend to start this until January, after the holidays. (It may still be just half-measures over the holidays.)

I'll need to make another trip to the nearest natural foods store (80-90 miles one way) later in the month to re-stock, plus buy some fresh yogurt to inoculate/make my own. I should order some kefir grains too. Mine were stored in milk in the fridge but unmarked, and I accidentally discarded them. Probiotics are an important part of a good food regime for me.

I don't expect the first several weeks will be easy, and I know that every time I nosh on something not good for me, it will just lengthen the time of adjustment back to well-being. No doubt I'll be cranky as a bear much of the time, but the Vitamin D3 should help.

I can't promise this change won't affect my every-other-day postings for the next few weeks. I will do my best, but they may contain some rants against the food companies where their designed use of addiction additives helped my fall from the wagon.

Through the Looking Glass: Culture Shock

2011-12-06T00:10:00.000-05:00

I had occasion to travel a bit out of my corner of the state the week before Thanksgiving. It was a great time with friends, but also some culture shock (seeing how the other half lives) when we went for a drive on the Parkway.

Château Morrisette Winery


Château Morrisette Restaurant, photos from their website

We stopped to check out Château Morrisette, and while I was sitting on a bench outside the winery on that gorgeous sunny day, I had the chance to watch folks drive up in their status-symbol imports, town cars, Hummers and fancy SUV's... and leave with multiple cases of wines. Not too many years ago, I ~~might~~ could have been part of that crowd, complete with designer jeans and a fresh manicure (and in the Mercedes I drove).

The exposure and the culture shock of seeing my life "then vs now" really got me to some hard thinking over the last 3 weeks, and to some honest reflections in my mirror. I'm still somewhat of the consumer 'mindset' (minus any credit cards), albeit now more for tools, equipment and other things geared towards survival. AND... I still love good wines and gourmet foods. It's hard to believe I used to think nothing of buying anything I fancied. I freely admit to champagne tastes, only now with a Near-Beer pocketbook. (Do they still make Near-Beer? It was all we could get, or even afford, in college.)

It took me a few days to realize and admit that I still ~~had~~ have some residual internal pique at not having that kind of discretionary income anymore. (Actually I thought only the rich still had much discretionary income in this economic downturn. I guess I don't get out of Dodge enough.)

The reason I am in an economic pit despite having made good money is due to naively believing that economic growth would always continue, that corporations were honest, and that Life was fair. Add in the governments' manipulation of the social security fund and the rules that changed during the few years before I retired, and it reduced my "estimated [by the government] SS income" by 75%... which necessitated bridging the gap for living expenses with my assets until they ran out. The government did not single me out; there were many tossed in the same boat. Factor in the economic crisis of the past few years and you have enough added weight to sink many lifeboats.

I have had to really take a hard look at what I have been doing with my life over the last few years: my goals, and what things give me satisfaction in order to balance out the pique I felt. Would I go back to that lifestyle if I could? I doubt it. Of course, a little extra cash now and then would be nice. :)

I suspect I'll never get over my taste for international and gourmet foods, since I spent most of my whole life traveling, and tasting new foods... but I've worked out how to still have them. As for the wines, designer jeans and fancy cars... pfffffttt. My 20 year old, high-mileage pickup truck gets me where I'm going (most of the time!) and if someone is going to judge me based on what I wear or drive, that's their problem. (Besides that, 2 Buck Chuck can taste pretty good.)

I'm learning that many of the things I love and can no longer afford are things I can make myself; the list is much too long to list here other than a couple of examples below. BTW, I did make some decent champagne this year from wild elderberry flowers; it cost me some sugar, water, yeast... and my time. Not Dom Perignon, but drinkable.

Buying $30-$50/pound cheese is not in my food budget, but I AM learning to make cheese. I may never make cheese anywhere near that good, but I can sure keep trying. Meanwhile, I make lots of tasty, real cheese for the price of some milk, a few small expenditures for cultures, and my labor. I make butter (from 100% Jersey cream) as good as, and much cheaper, than imported butter costing $7.95 for half a pound. Actually mine is cheaper than even American store-brand butter, too.

I buy whole pork belly and season then cure/smoke it myself, and wind up with a tastier product than store-bought organic smoked bacon for a fraction of the price. The pastured, free-range meat I buy isn't cheaper, but it's much healthier and tastier. And I discovered the cheap "odd bits" that most folks never buy (or even see) anymore make some outstanding dishes, equal to or better than imported patés, terrines and rillettes, and much cheaper than buying them.

I plan to try to make pancetta and proscuitto which are not in my budget either; after all someone makes them... how hard can it be to do what average people have done in France, Italy, Spain, and many other countries for centuries?

I find a great taste satisfaction in snapping a tomato right off the vine and eating it while standing in my garden, the juices dribbling down my fingers and chin. You cannot buy that "yummy fresh taste" in a store.

My home-grown herbs, fruits and vegetables are free of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, chemical washes and irradiation. Anything I cannot eat fresh does not go to waste. I have a pantry full of home-canned, lacto-fermented, dehydrated, and frozen goods. Plus I always grow some vegetables that will keep over winter in my root cellar.

However many things I can make, there are still some things I either must buy, or do without... because of my location and gardening zone. Wild Alaskan Salmon is high on the list, as is good olive oil... and spices that won't grow here, like vanilla (a tropical orchid), cardamom and cinnamon. However, I can grow the most expensive spice (herb) in the world, saffron, for the cost of a few fall saffron crocus bulbs (Crocus sativus), which will multiply and give me more fresh saffron every year. Paella, YUM!

In the final analysis, the trade-off is that for every tasty morsel I can make myself, it frees up money in the budget to occasionally buy some goodies I cannot make. Nothing is so wonderful as something sinfully delicious straight from the stove or pantry, even if NOT ALL the ingredients are homegrown.

Who said "back to basics" aka being poor, has to be dull, boring and tasteless?

Where's the Sun on YOUR Garden?

2011-12-04T00:10:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a cool app! With this Google Maps hack, you can find the path of the sun across your own garden for any day of the year. Just plug in your address in the search bar.

According to the descriptionon the site:

SunCalc is a little appthat shows sun movement and sunlight phases during any given day at the givenlocation.

You can see sun positionsat sunrise (yellow), specified time (orange) and sunset (red). The thin orangecurve is the current sun trajectory, and the yellow area around is thevariation of sun trajectories during the year. The closer a point is to thecenter, the higher is the sun above the horizon. The colors on the time slider show sunlight coverage during the day.

The default is set for the current day, but I was able to change the dates and get the trajectory for both the shortest day of the year in winter, and the longest (summer) day. Knowing the winter trajectory makes a big difference in where I should locate cold frames and a future, wished-for greenhouse. I had a good idea of the summer sun's path although I was a little bit 'off', but I was woefully off on the winter sun. Probably because I grow nothing in winter so I don't pay as much attention.

Since I have hopes of eventually doing some winter gardening a la Eliot Coleman's Winter Harvest, this little app is a treasure for planning. It gives me a great location for a possible greenhouse when I win the Lottery! Sure wish I'd had something like this when we first looked at this property... the gardener in me might have passed on buying it.

I will also use this online calculator in planning the placement of a solar collector for heating water when I can get to it as a project.

Update, just after Thanksgiving: I plugged in the shortest day and the longest day again for my house today, and took a "Grab" screen shot of them. There is a choice in the app on the upper right for a road map type image, or a satellite image, and by looking at both images on those 2 dates, I now know exactly where to plant 4-5 deciduous shade trees for optimum shading of this house in summertime. Cool, huh?

For less trouble, there is a littlegadget available (photo above) that you can place in a container or garden bed for 24 hours and it willgive you total sunlight hours (categorized as full sun, partial sun, part-shade, shade), although it will nottell you whether it is hot midday sun, early morning sunlight, or late afternoonsunlight. It would be handy in the garden, esp. if taller plants tend to shade another, lower plant.

Traditional French Onion Soup

2011-12-02T00:10:00.000-05:00

Michael Ruhlman posted this Traditional French Onion Soup over on his blog recently. It is made without a beef stock base, and I wanted to try it for a weekend party because we had a vegetarian in our group. Let me tell you, it is a great tasting soup! I liked it better than the typical French Onion Soup made with canned beef broth... but to be fair, I've never tried the stock version with homemade beef stock.

I made a double batch to take to my pre-Thanksgiving vacation weekend with friends. The pot of onions shown above is just the start of one batch, about 5 pounds of Vidalia onions in the pot, which is what I had on hand, rather than Spanish onions the recipe calls for. Vidalia onions are sufficiently sweet for this soup, although not always available all year long.

The onions cook down slowly in a bit of butter. Here's what they look like (above) after 6½ hours at a low simmer.

The next step is to slice and toast some baguettes or french bread, and grate half a pound or more ofEmmanthaler or Gruyére cheese. Set the toasted bread rounds and cheese aside, and preheat the broiler.

To the pot of onions, add the water and sherry, bring up to high heat, and adjust seasonings to taste. Fill oven-proof soup bowls with soup, float the baguette slices on top, cover with a generous amount of grated cheese and stick under the broiler to melt and lightly brown the cheese.

In all our dinner hubbub, no one took photos if the individual bowls as they came out of the oven, but the photo on Ruhlman's blog is great.

Serve immediately. YUM!

Hoop Garden Bed aka Rabbit Hutch

2011-11-30T00:10:00.001-05:00

After Thanksgiving when I went to check my small, experimental winter hoop house, I found a rabbit in it (it got in via a clothes-pinned seam the wind had blown apart).Darned cat and dog were just observing the rabbit munching away on the beetgreens. My snap-clamps had finally arrived so I fixed the hoop house fabricsecurely, and fastened the edges against tunneling.

Unfortunately the battery in my camera was dead so I have no photos.

BUT, I am happy to report I spotted some small budding Brussels sprouts on a few stems, and I saw a few carrot shoulders protruding. Plus, there are a few babyspinach leaves the rabbit didn't munch down like the beet greens. Considering that we've had more than 2 dozen nights below 25ºF (and who knows how long that seam had been open), I'm pleased to see some growth, and no apparent frost damage.

So far, I am encouraged to do it again, but with better planning next year. One thing is the need to get seeds started sooner and planted earlier, so the plants have more root growth before covering when cool weather sets in.

Admiring a Man for Standing Up

2011-11-28T04:30:00.000-05:00

Photos from The Bovine

Y'know, regardless of where you stand, or even if you have no opinion on the matter, there's something admiral to be said for a man who stands firmly on his beliefs, and in the case of Ontario dairy farmer Michael Schmidt, his belief in food rights.

Although found guilty on appeal, fined over $9,000 and placed on a year's probation, he argues raw milk has greater health benefits than pasteurized milk, and that consumers should have a right to decide what to put in their bodies. The judge at his hearing told the court, “(Mr. Schmidt) is a man of principle. He’s willing to fight for his principles. There’s a lot to admire about Mr. Schmidt.”

Michael Schmidt is hosting Handel's Messiah in his barn on December 17th.

Black Friday Blues: Electronics Purchases

2011-11-26T00:10:00.000-05:00

Lose your sleep before your decision, not after it
By Scott McLeod

This year's Black Friday was violent in many places, and some Buyers didn't get as good a deal as they might have at another time.

I came across this great website to help anyone decide on the purchase of electronic items. A professor who is an expert on data mining (he sold an airline fare program to Microsoft for $115 million) has a start-up website that studies all the pricing data on electronic products like TV's, computers, cameras, Home Theater Systems, and more... it also looks at new models coming soon, and then it figures out the best time to buy.

You just plug in the name of a product and it will search prices and tell you if you should buy now, or wait. I looked at one camera just to see how it works; it told me to wait, as there is an 83% probability prices will drop in 2 weeks.

Decision Making Landscape
By toprankonlinemarketing

If you are planning to buy a big ticket item, www.Decide.com could be quite handy to both save you some money, and any regrets you didn't get the best deal!

Bartering and Crop Swaps

2011-11-24T00:10:00.002-05:00

Kate, over on Living the Frugal Life, recently wrote a nice piece on bartering, which prompted me to review some "crop swap" information I had downloaded earlier.

Barter Theater, photo courtesy of Southern Foodways Alliance

Bartering achieved some notoriety around here locally (in the next county south of me) in 1933 when the price of admission to the Barter Theater was40 cents OR an equivalent amount of produce. Four out of five Depression-eratheater-goers there paid their way with vegetables, dairy products and livestock. (It's still an active live theater today, but I don't think they barter for admission anymore.)

So Bartering and/or Crop Swapping is nothing new, but perhaps our ideas about it deserve another look in the light of the current economy. The USDA now reports that storable foods costs have risen by 60% in the last year. Many vegetable crops are easily stored: cabbages, potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, carrots, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, turnips, and more. Those should all be pretty easy to grow, store and/or barter.

It might be harder to barter for sugar, salt, flour, or toilet paper unless you live near a processing facility and know one of the workers who may be able to get "seconds" which are generally packaging defects, not product defects. On the other hand, a surplus of those staples might be quite valuable as trade items if those things really get scarce.

I'd be interested in starting a trial crop swap group on a small scale here where I live... but I don't know enough people who might participate for it to be worthwhile. That's sad, actually. I threw away about 400 pounds of winter squash the first year I had a garden here; the food banks couldn't take them, and I didn't know any of my neighbors or any other place to put them to good use.

Sarah Henry, over on the shareable network blog, has written a few posts on how to set up crop swapping, including one directed at some of the legal aspects. I also know there is a barter section on Craigslist; unfortunately none of them are near enough to me to be to be economically viable. I did trade some cheese I made from goat milk to the farmer who supplied the milk, but it cost me $10-$12 in gas every time I went to pick up just 2 gallons of milk. So it wasn't the best good win-win situation; had he been closer it would have been wonderful.

I'd barter cheese or something else in a heartbeat for frozen free-range duck, even it it meant postage (which is still cheaper than gas). Actually I'd consider bartering lots of things, duck just came to mind because no one local has free-range duck to sell.

Anyone have suggestions or experience with bartering?

Edited the day after Thanksgiving to post a link from a friend on Barter Sites.

Wine and Cheese Tasting

2011-11-22T00:10:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a friend, a verysmall group gathered at a mountain rental cabin near the Blue RidgeParkway for the weekend before Thanksgiving and an early Thanksgiving Dinner.Almost everyone there (except me and maybe one other person) will get to haveanother Thanksgiving Dinner on the "proper" day with Family, butsince I basically live alone, I appreciated being able to share in thetraditional "turkey day meal" with friends, and Giving Thanks for allwe have.

It was a great time awayfrom home and everyone brought great food... in fact, an abundance of foods! Imay post about all the foods if others send me photos they took, but for now,here's our Saturday adventure...

We loaded ourselves into acouple of cars and went over to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday to both awinery and a cidery I've wanted to visit for 2-3 years. The Château Morrisettewine tasting was really quite lovely, and very entertaining thanks to ourbartender. Other than the omission of any palate cleansers for 12 differentwines (including 2 ice wines), it was both professional and great fun.

One wine I would normallyhave never tried actually surprised me by being quite tasty; it was made fromScuppernongs, aka Fox Grapes. I generally shun sweetish wines but this wasnicely complex rather than sickeningly sweet. (The winery gave us the glasseswith their name etched on them that we used for tasting and several of ourgroup bought multiple bottles of wines to take home, so their excellentpresentation and marketing paid off!)

The Foggy Ridge Cidery (hardciders) tasting was disappointing. Being just 3 miles down the Parkway fromChâteau Morrisette, they probably need to do a better job of marketing at thecidery site itself if they continue to be on the "tour". You neverknow just who may drop in for a taste!

It was the same cost totaste 5 hard ciders as 12 wines from Château Morrisette, but the cider sampleswere barely a teaspoonful and the bartender was not fully educated on theproducts (at least not on the fortified ciders, nor did she present how any ofthe ciders could be served or used in recipes)... also she was not verypersonable. I will excuse her as she may have been having a bad day from manytastings earlier, but if that's the case they should have a back-up plan.

I did like the Pippin Black,a brandy-fortified cider made with Arkansas Black apples and Newtown Pippins.

The Thos. Jefferson /American style cider was tart but not dry, but I liked the English-style ciderbetter as it was dry and not too tart. I wouldn't even taste the sweet ciderone. The fresh raw cider I bought and fermented last fall was too sweet for mytaste after it fermented, even with no sugar added. To be fair, that freshcider I bought was made from eating apples whereas good hard cider is a mix,but other than sweet, it was good. I just don't like sweet drinks as a rule.(We didn't get a cidery glass etched with their name to keep, either.)

Once back at the cabin, wehad our own private cheese tasting with wines everyone had brought along forthe weekend. All three of my homemade cheeses (gorgonzola, farmhouse cheddarand a young Caerphilly) were well-received, plus we had about 8-10 importedcheeses our friends had ordered online.

I have to brag a tiny bitand say I finally made an edible blue cheese... the gorgonzola dolce shownabove, which the blue cheese lovers deemed a success. (Remember I had to tossout my first 3 attempts at making a blue cheese?)

The imported cheesevarieties (which I had helped choose from a short list of cheese specials) weretasty and interesting but not great, excepting the very stinky and well past it's prime TommeCrayeuse we had to re-wrap quickly... but the selections didn't contain anycheese that I think any of us would particularly order again except possiblythe 2 year old Avonlea Extra Sharp raw milk Cheddar from Canada (verydry/crumbly almost like Parmesan because of the age, but would be lovely gratedon certain dishes).

I guess it's my fault for not knowing the vendor who isnot a cheesemonger... nor did I know anything of the creameries/artisans foreach cheese. I take full responsibility since several were cheese types Iwanted to try in case I wanted to try to make one.

One of the imported cheeseswas a Welsh Caerphilly [cheddar], and VERY different from the ones I've made sofar. It was a lot softer, creamier and not as traditionally salty; it wasrather more like an American mild cheddar. But at leasdt now I know I need towork on "creamier" in general when I make more cheese.

As a surprise gift for mepersonally, our organizer had ordered a wedge of Rogue River Blue straight fromthe Creamery because I had said rather emphatically I wanted to try itsometime. (Is that a great friend or what??) I put it out to share along withthe other cheese, and everyone who liked blues raved over it. If you like bluesat all, you really need to try this cheese sometime when you have a specialoccasion; IT IS OUTSTANDING!!! No wonder it won Best in Show in combinedAmerican, Canadian and Mexican competitions for 2 of the last 3 years.

Mmmmm, good! Bacon Jam!

2011-11-20T00:10:00.000-05:00

For several years I've been reading about Bacon Jam all over a slew of blogs, and I finally decided to make some to see what all the fuss was about. Well, let me tell you it's one of the tastiest things I've had in years!!!

My kitchen had the most enticing smells coming from it for several hours as I was making this recipe, and it will surpass anything you can buy in a jar. YUM!

I tripled the recipe, using 3 pounds of thick-sliced applewood smoked but uncured bacon, cut into 1" pieces and fried until just curling at the edges. You want them still soft in the middle. Remove the bacon and drain.

Then leave just a tablespoon (or 3 tablespoons since I tripled the recipe) of bacon fat in the pan, add the brown sugar and sliced onions. Cook over low heat until the onions are slightly caramelized.

Add the spices, cook for about 5 minutes, then add the liquid ingredients and the bacon. Cook at a low simmer for a couple of hours, until somewhat thickened. Cool it enough to handle and then run the cooked "stew" through a food processor until it is the consistency you like. After 2.5 hours, mine was still on the thinish side, so after I processed it to a jam consistency, I added a half a tablespoon of Knox gelatin dissolved in a bit of water... then heated it up for the gelatin to "set" before putting it in jars to refrigerate.

I suppose you could can it in a pressure canner, but frankly I think it will be eaten in short order so I just refrigerated it.

Here is the basic recipe I used; the only changes were to add some finely chopped crystalized ginger, and to reduce the hot sauce and chile powders a bit. It still has a 'bite' but not an eye-burning bite. Oh, since I was tripling the recipe, I cut down on the apple cider vinegar, starting with ¼ cup and then adding more to taste as it cooked down. (You can always add more but you cannot take it out once it's added.) I ended up with a nice sweet/sour balance.

Ingredients
1 pound thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch fresh grated nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
½ teaspoon dry chipotle powder [I used ancho which isn't as hot but it's what I had]
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ cup strong brewed coffee
¼ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup good quality bourbon
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon hot sauce

Recipe Steps
In a Dutch oven or large skillet cook the bacon over medium high heat until it begins to crisp up at the edges - the pieces should still be soft in the center. Drain on paper towels and retain one tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan.

Lower the heat to medium low and cook the onion and brown sugar until soft and caramelized (20 minutes or more).

Add the garlic and spices and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the liquid ingredients and the bacon to the pan. At medium heat, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and barely simmer for about 2 hours. Check every 30 minutes to make sure that the mixture does not dry out. If it does, just add a few tablespoons water. The final mixture should be moist and sticky.

Let cool slightly and add to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it reaches the consistency you like - slightly chunky to showcase the bacon or smoother.

Make 1½ cups.

Recipe source: kayb @ eGullet

ps, this is my second attempt. The first time I used a Smithfield hickory smoked, thick-cut bacon without cooking a piece of the bacon first to check the taste. It was terrible tasting, and I should have known better. What a waste of money and ingredients! Usually I make my own bacon, but sometimes I'll buy bacon at a natural foods store if I don't have access to fresh pork belly to make my own bacon.

pps... I'll be out of pocket and able to approve comments until the morning of Nov. 21

Yes, Troubles do come in 3's

2011-11-18T00:10:00.000-05:00

I recently posted that we had 2 "troubles" days apart... First was the septic system, and the 2nd was the water heater quitting.

Yesterday was the 3rd. I found my beloved cat Alice dead in the bushes just across the bridge. She loved to hunt at night and the last several nights have been warm for this time of the year, so I wasn't worried when she didn't come in for the night 2 nights ago. When she didn't come for breakfast nor supper yesterday, and didn't answer when I called, I started to really worry.

Yesterday morning I hunted all the cubbyholes around the property... all the sheds, under the house and in the barn. I even drove down to the Animal Control compound which is just 3-4 miles down the road. Nada.

My sister's dog sniffed Alice's body out early in the afternoon. It appears she may have been hit by a car in the night (they drive like fools on this country road) and was trying to get home when she gave out. I buried her out behind the barn in what has become the Pet Cemetery. My old fat cat Baz would have been buried there, except the creek waters rose and carried her away before I could retrieve her. (She was pretty decomposed and I had gone for gloves, a sack and a BIG shovel.) Four weeks ago we buried my sister's housecat in the new Pet Cemetery. He died of kidney failure, and now Alice will keep him company.

I had Alice exactly 1 year and 13 days; she was my birthday present last November. She spooked easily when she was a young kitten, and was growing out of it. Alice had become very affectionate, and talked to me all the time.

My older cat Shug chose to stay inside the last 2 days, and hasn't eaten much, so I think she knows something has happened to Alice. Shug and Alice tolerated each other, but I wouldn't say they were friends. I love Shug, but nothing like I loved my Alice.

ps... I'll be out of pocket and able to approve comments until the morning of Nov. 21

My Septic Worries Are Over, Kinda

2011-11-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

After weeks of agonizing on my part about my work I've been doing towards a new garden spot and the unknown septic system location, a "Committee" from the County Health Department and the Environmental Services Department converged on my house last week with copies of the 26 year old septic permit, old satellite photos of our place, plus a couple of resident neighbors with long memories showed up, and the lone septic tank pumper I called, we finally located the septic tank. It's 90 feet from the area we thought... it's under an addition to the front of the house and the front porch! (Actually it's mostly under my living room.)

However (and fortuitously) the very corner of the tank that has the lid is just barely outside the footers / concrete block foundation for the addition, so all I had to do for pumping access was tear off the front steps. Plus, the tank and leach field were found to be in good working order!

The Distribution box is 2' under a nearby Hosta bed, and most of the leach field is in the front yard and partially under one raised flower bed I built 5 years ago. However, the far end of the leach field trenches run about 15 feet into the huge area I just sheet-mulched for a new garden bed... The good news is the whole flatish area above the new bed (and where I thought the leach field was) is now available for more garden extension and even a couple of shade trees next year.

About half of the 9 truckloads of mulch and woodchips I put over what is now known to be the far end of the leach field will need to be moved, and one huge overgrown shrub in the front yard will have to go. But all in all, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been.

What might have been $6,000-$9,000 for a whole new system will end up costing around $1500 to fix (including material for new front steps which I will build in a few days) and that includes my guess of $1,000 for some heavy equipment to dig out a series of shallow bog ponds for future greywater filtering, along with some terracing on the hillside behind the house for surface water management.

They say things come in threes. So if septic was the first, the next day brought the second one: the water heater died. It has been anticipated as it was old, undersized, and only had 1 heating element (which I replaced by myself 4 years ago). I just didn't expect it to happen the day after the septic costs! I'm not looking forward to the third disaster!

I'll be eating from my survival pantry for a while, between money paid out yesterday for the septic work, and then more money for the new water heater to be installed in the morning, plus a few more dollars to fix yet another new water leak we found under the house today. (That makes 6 leaks in 5.5 years; all the hot-cold water supply lines need replacing.) I'm really glad I have my pantry!

(We haven't even addressed the septic line connecting the 2 bathrooms [under the old trailer portion of the house] which we just found was NEVER properly installed on a slope so it drains correctly. There IS a slope but it actually runs the wrong way. No wonder the bathroom at the other end of the house doesn't drain easily.)

The good news is that I have all winter to re-design a new garden area, and actually a lot more space to play with... so it has all worked out pretty much okay. (And obviously I must have needed the exercise of adding a foot of mulch to a thousand square feet of lawn only to have to move it again.)

ps... I'll be out of pocket and able to approve comments until the morning of Nov. 21

Cushaw for the Best Pumpkin Pies!

2011-11-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

Cushaw is a variety of winter squash that makes the very best pumpkin pies! (In fact the canned pumpkin in the grocery stores is either just cushaw, or a mix of various winter squash including cushaw.) Note: I wrote about cushaw last year here, too.

I don't grow my own cushaw anymore, even though they keep very well over the winter in a cool, dry space like a root cellar. Mainly I don't grow them because they are too big for one person to eat, unless I am processing pumpkin for holiday recipes. However, I just picked up a couple of 10-12 pound cushaws at the farmer's market last Saturday for only $3 each. I got over 10+ cups of purée out of just one cushaw, the equivalent of 5 or more jumbo cans of pumpkin ($2.99 here) from the supermarket.

I cut them in half, removed the strings and seeds from the cavity, and roasted them cut-side down in a 350ºF oven for about an hour and a half, until the thick neck pierced easily with a fork. (I lightly oiled the baking pan, and added enough water to a depth of almost half an inch... once the pan was in the oven.)

After the baked squash was cool enough to peel, I cubed it and ran it through a food mill. In retrospect, I could have skipped this step as these squash were not stringy at all.

Once puréed, I set some aside (in 2 cup amounts) to freeze for pies, or maybe some Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread.

The rest of the first cushaw I roasted went into the crockpot to spice up and cook down for some Cushaw Butter. Even though I put it in canning jars, I did NOT can it. The USDA now strongly recommends against even pressure canning something extra-thick like pear or pumpkin butter because the heat may not penetrate to the center to guarantee safety.

I used local raw honey as the sweetener, and since honey is antimicrobial, it should keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. (Most of mine will be given away over the next few days.)

While I was roasting the squash, I removed all the good seeds from the stringy innards, discarded the flat immature seeds, and rinsed them well to remove any remaining flesh. Then I soaked the seeds several hours in salted water, getting them ready to roast as snack foods. (Soaking the seeds helps assure the nutmeat inside the shell gets a little salt.)

I dry the seeds after soaking... so the surface is dry enough to coat with olive oil. Lightly oil a cookie sheet, toss the seeds to coat evenly, add some sea salt, and roast in a 325ºF oven until toasted (about 25 minutes, depends on the oven) checking and stirring often after 10 minutes.

You can add a variety of herbs or spices to the seeds before roasting. Try some ground chili pepper or ground smoked pepper if you like them spicy, or some garden herbs like sage and thyme... or some cinnamon and brown sugar for someone with a sweet tooth. Experiment and be creative!

Roasted pumpkin seeds will keep a couple of weeks stored in an airtight container. Be sure to smell any seeds or nuts before eating those you store, as the oils can go rancid quickly.

All together, my $6 spent on cushaws gave me 12 cups of purée to freeze (will make 6 generous pies or other desserts like pumpkin custard or pumpkin bread), 10 pints of pumpkin butter, and a bowl full of toasted pumpkin seeds. How's that for stretching food dollars? Plus, I know exactly what is in my pumpkin products... no chemical additives, just real food made with love.

Sure Wish I'd Had a Camera

2011-11-13T00:30:00.000-05:00

No, not for a funny shot... just a Stupid (on my part) Shot of my truck in the ditch.

I'm back home safely, but only afteran eventful Sunday afternoon that included my truck having to be towed out of adeep ditch adjacent to a ravine along a narrow gravel private drive through the woods... where I was going to see an old friendwho lives just over the line into the NC mountains.

Surprised by the first time I've ever seen their gateclosed, I tried to back down the slope on a curve. (Yeah, calling ahead would have been smart but I wanted to surprise them.) My back tires are bald, and I have rear wheel drive so I couldn't get a lick of traction, and I just slidfarther and farther until I was totally in the ditch sideways and on a tilt... and looking down a loooongdeep slope. Scary!

I finally calmed enough to crawl over the groceries and junk now strewn all about in the front seat, and out the upside door (passenger door) to go for help. No cell service that deep in the woods. My friend's grandson came down and tried to pull meout with a chain and his 4WD, and that was scary because I was sure mytruck was going to turn over and roll down the mountain with me in it!

I did finally get towed out... and my truck didn't roll down the mountain either. Shoulda had my camera!

Posts to come...

2011-11-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

I haven't written many good (in my opinion) posts lately. I think all the work I did preparing a new planting spot for next year... which turns out to be over the leach field... really has me in a funk. What the County inspector signed off on isn't what's actually there.

In order not to have to think about starting yet another new garden area in some completely different spot (which now I couldn't even start until spring, thus losing a whole year of planting)... I have been doing more soil nutrition research. Surprisingly, the same nutrients that affect soil also affect out human bodies, and in much the same way.

Several years ago I wrote a series of articles for Davesgarden.com on the various soil nutrients, from the over-used or inappropriately-used NPK, to the common minerals, and then the minor but essential trace minerals. I've learned a lot since then, and when I can sift through all of my notes enough to get a clear picture in my head, I will post it here.

Some good news... there are still folks out there with manners! For several years now, I have lamented that folks driving in the oncoming traffic lane will not dim their bright lights, come Hell or high water. Last night I had to drive home from NC after dark (late because I got my truck in a ditch and had to be towed), and almost every oncoming car dimmed their lights! Often they even dimmed their lights as soon as they saw mine, not waiting until I blinked mine as a signal. There may be Hope for Mankind yet. :)

Meanwhile I am preparing for a weekend cabin stay with friends in less than 2 weeks, and food is on my mind. I'll only be making a few goodies to share (including a couple of easy snacks) which I will post in the next few days as I make them.

The holidays during November and December will be my Last Hurrah of foods I should not eat, and January will see me back on a more Paleo-type diet (although it wasn't designed as such by my Endocrinologist). I lost a pound a week over 6 months of 2010 eating right for my low thyroid, and had more energy than in the previous 10 years. Since going off that food protocol, I have gained it all back and feel sluggish most of the time. So, it's time for me to get back on track.

Boone: The Mind Wanders...

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday I drove over to Boone, NC to go to a Natural Foods store, the closest one to me. It was a gorgeous sunny day, 2 lane highway traffic was sparse, and I was merely enjoying the day and the drive. I used to live in Boone so I know it fairly well. Importantly, my mother and step-father had a home there, as did my Aunt Marion and Uncle Mutt, and Aunt Virginia and Uncle Russ.

My family there have all been dead several years or more, yet as I was approaching Boone along the highway coming from Mountain City, TN yesterday, my mind said, "Why not take the shortcut across Beaver Dam and up Hattie Hill to surprise Aunt Marion?"

It actually felt so real that it was a very strange moment... things have changed, and people are gone, but the mind sometimes strays into the more pleasant past as though it really was real now.

I would have given a lot for another short visit with Aunt Marion. She was the only college-educated one of my mother's siblings, and although dedicated to her religious beliefs, she was a free spirit in many ways. In the years I lived nearby, I'd call her and ask, "Do you want to go to..." and I'd never even get the designation said before she'd say, "Yes!" It didn't matter if it was a horse show off the mountain where I had a horse entered, or to a fabric store 50 miles away. She just liked to go, and experience whatever was out there in the world beyond Boone.

Save the Leeks

2011-11-07T00:10:00.000-05:00

Leeks ready to Blanch

I found myself with some store-bought leeks and then no time to make something tasty with them before they spoil. (They are too expensive to allow to spoil!) My freezer is full, as are the canning shelves... so I decided to dehydrate them. Invariably I will want to use leeks in a dish and not find any available in our local grocery stores. Dehydrating solves the problem of limited storage space, and lets me Save the Leeks.

Eazy-Peazy. Many who dehydrate leeks prefer to slice the leeks in half lengthwise, but I prefer whole rings. Cut off the root end, peel off the outer layer, and slice into 1/4 inch slices. When you get to green, tough outer leaves, remove another layer, and slice up to the next tough leaves. When you have salvaged all you can, put the slices in cold running water and clean thoroughly.

Leeks are grown planted in a trench and "hilled" as they grow, blanching the stems white. In the growing process, lots of sand/dirt gets trapped in the leeks so they must be rinsed thoroughly (unless you like to eat grit).

First batch chilling

After they are well-rinsed, drop them into a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes to blanch. You may need to do them in several batches to keep the water temp from dropping with the addition of the leeks, depending on quantity of leeks you have. Remove them from boiling water with a slotted spoon and drop immediately in an ice water bath to stop the cooking.

First batch draining

After chilling for 3-4 minutes, I drained mine briefly on paper toweling before distributing on the dehydrator trays. Dehydrate at about 100ºF. How long depends on how thick you sliced them, but easily done in an afternoon.

After Dehydrating

You can rehydrate them for use later in hot water for 15 minutes; mine usually go into a dish with lots of liquid so I add them dry.

I dry mine to the crispy stage, and just store them in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. I check them after 24 hours... if they aren't fully dry, some moisture will appear inside the jar. If so, they go back in the dehydrator for 2 or so more hours.

Hmmmmm... Daylight Saving Time

2011-11-06T12:49:00.003-05:00

(This was supposed to post at 2 AM when the law required changing the clocks... but Blogger wouldn't let me. Sorry...)

I wonder if my cats will start nudging me to awaken an hour earlier tomorrow morning? Or, will my garden plants perk up an hour earlier?

Somehow I doubt it.

I doubt the sun will change its schedule because some bureaucrats made a Law that changed the hour hand on all of the clock faces in the US twice a year, excepting Arizona. There must have been a monetary incentive for them to do so (isn't there always one?), but the logic of it escapes me. Yeah, I do read that it supposedly cuts energy consumption in our homes during summer by something like 1%. Yeah, Right. (But it's been proven wrong even by our own government.)

"In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset for many people and businesses by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is generally less than one hour. So, the rationale was that Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year, but it saves least during the four darkest months of winter (November, December, January, and February), when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.

In addition, less electricity was thought to be used because people are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When people are not at home, they don't turn on the appliances and lights.

Although a 1976 report by the National Bureau of Standards disputed the 1975 U.S. Department of Transportation study, and found that DST-related energy savings were insignificant, the DOT study continued to influence decisions about Daylight Saving Time." (Source)

In the continental US, only Arizona remains on "standard time" all year long. And, IF you have a sundial, how much of the year is it actually accurate???

Wiki says:

"The practice has been both praised and criticized. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun. Its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited or contradictory.

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) concluded in 1975 that DST might reduce the country's electricity usage by 1% during March and April, but the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) reviewed the DOT study in 1976 and found no significant savings."

Health:

Clock shifts disrupt sleep and reduce its efficiency. Effects on seasonal adaptation of the circadian rhythm can be severe and last for weeks. A 2008 study found that although male suicide rates rise in the weeks after the spring transition, the relationship weakened greatly after adjusting for season. A 2008 Swedish study found that heart attacks were significantly more common the first three weekdays after the spring transition, and significantly less common the first weekday after the autumn transition. The government of Kazakhstan cited health complications due to clock shifts as a reason for abolishing DST in 2005. In March 2011, Dmitri Medvedev, president of Russia, claimed that "stress of changing clocks" were the motivation for Russia to stay in DST all year long. Officials at the time talked about an annual increase in suicides.

So, if it's not really valid energy conservation, what are the reasons we are still subject to "springing forward and falling back"?? Just so some few businesses may possibly make more money in this economic wasteland we find ourselves now living in?

Just my 2¢ worth... my opinion of so many Laws that simply do not make sense.

Row covers as season extenders

2011-11-05T00:10:00.000-04:00

Start of the hoops, at the end of the sweet potato bed, and beside some tall asparagus ferns

Every year I think I will put some hoops in the garden and cover them with row covers for season extenders... aka frost protection, but I usually run out of steam first. This year I decided to MAKE it happen, even if it is just one very small bed with a handful of fall plants. I'm mainly doing this as a trial to see what will survive if left in the ground (and for how long), and how much it generally extends my Fall season.

I am moving towards something akin to what Eliot Coleman puts forth in his book, Winter Harvest but not as quickly as I'd like.

What you see above is only the first few hoops in place. They are just some old PVC tubing that I used once on a temporary structure 2 or 3 houses ago. (I'm a packrat and keep everything that might be useful at another time for another project!) The ends are slipped over 18" pieces of rebar driven into the ground. I did have to buy the rebar, and 50 lineal feet of the strongest frost protection fabric, good to down to around 25ºF if I remember correctly. I won't need anywhere near 50 feet this year, though.

I laid out the bed and cut the plastic pipe for the hoops based on the width the supplier said the row cover fabric was, without double-checking the actual width. Turns out he was short (wrong) by 18" but by then the bed was already planted. Re-cutting the pipe to accommodate the fabric width would have left me with pipe that wouldn't bend enough for a hoop shape, so unfortunately I am having to run 2-3 sections of the fabric from side to side rather than one piece end to end.

I haven't figured out the best way to fasten the pieces together without ruining the fabric, so for now I'm using clothespins. I'll have to remedy that before any snowfall!

Hoops tied together at the top; rope is anchored on each end, pulling against the other end

The bed is 6 feet wide, and is planted with Brussels sprouts, purple cauliflower, beets, carrots, kale and spinach. I lost the majority of my seedlings with all the rain from TS Lee in early September, and by then it was too cool to start more. Also, something has eaten the beet stalks and carrot tops down to the ground, so there won't be any beets nor carrots.

I plan to keep the cover on all winter and leave a few things in the ground, just to see how they fare. I'll leave a few carrots (there aren't many to start with), one or two stalks of Brussels sprouts with a few sprouts left on them, and then I will wait until we start getting deep freezing to see what else I want to leave. Since I am not counting on much food production from this quite-late impetus, I'll be okay with what doesn't do well.

The main thing is that I'm learning.

Update: The best thing to use for attaching overlapping fabric sections are known as garden clips, spring clips, or sometimes called snap clamps. They are cheap (around 50¢ each but shop for the best price) and I have some on order. I could make my own using black poly water pipe, but the big box stores here only carry that pipe in 100 foot rolls. I did buy 10 feet of rigid PVC in a slightly larger size but it's difficult to cut a lengthwise slot without someone holding it down. IfI cut it in 4" sections first, I wouldn't want to get my hands near a whirling blade to cut them!

Update 2: I've already learned there are some shortcomings (for me, anyway) in this system. For example: it would be lovely if there were plastic zippers from one side to the other (or maybe just from the ground to the center top along one side) every few feet to make the plants inside more accessible for harvesting.

What to do with Insipid Tomatoes

2011-11-03T00:10:00.002-04:00

I read somewhere that the taste of bland or insipid-tasting tomatoes may be improved by dehydrating them. I'm thinking that the quick forced-heated air dehydration probably concentrates the sugars, making them taste sweeter. Since I had already made and canned all the tomato variations I wanted for winter...AND I still had a few non-prime, late tomatoes that generally tend to be less flavorful, I decided to give the suggestion a whirl.

First I dehydrated several trays of just thick-sliced tomatoes with no preparation other than washing and inspecting for bad/soft spots. They were cut about 3/8 of an inch thick, and dried into thin, almost membrane thickness.

Next I took several pounds of tomatoes that I dipped in boiling water to skin, then cut into wedges before dehydrating. Those also dried into thin but crumpled wedges.

The final batch was dipped, skinned, cored and rinsed of all seeds. They dried to thin membranes too.

I didn't take any photos because I was busy with some home renovation projects, but the several pounds of tomatoes processed by each treatment all dried to an almost equal amount, filling a quart jar. The REAL test will be in cooking with them this winter!

Snowstorms and Medical Emergencies

2011-11-01T00:10:00.002-04:00

Photo by Marcin Wichary

I have posted often about preparedness, and the current early Fall snowstorm that brought problems and power outages in the N.E. bring it to the forefront once again. (The heavy snow storms of last winter also brought the necessity home. Fortunately my area fared better than many last winter, but it could have just as easily been my town that had deaths because emergency vehicles couldn't navigate the roads.) Those news reports just bring home the importance of preparedness again and again.

Having some emergency food, water, batteries and such should be a given for every household, so I just want to address medical supplies here.

Last night in the kitchen I accidentally dropped a heavy chef's knife, cutting deeply into a toe. I bled like a stuck pig until I could bend my leg into enough of an awkward position to actually see the cut on the very lower outside of my smallest toe, and get it cleaned and bandaged. It didn't really need stitches, and our roads were clear if I had needed to drive to the ER.

Afyer I stopped the bleeding and was rooting in the medicine cabinet, my thoughts went to my "emergency medical gym-type bag". It has lots more stuff in it than the bathroom medicine cabinet, but I couldn't put my hands on it readily... which makes it totally useless in an emergency.

So my job for tomorrow is to ➀ locate it, ➁ check for what needs replacing and do it, and ➂ put it where it's easy to find.

Tip: When I first assembled that bag, I packed all dry things in plastic baggies taped shut. I figured that if we had some persistent heavy rains, roof damage or flooding, wet bandages and a wet first aid book wouldn't do much good. Now that I have a food vacuum sealer, I plan to re-pack things that need to stay dry in ziplock bags and seal the ziplock bags inside vacuum bags. That way if I have to open a bag, and it's wet all around me, I still have a back-up sealed bag to use when I put things away.

Where are YOUR emergency medical supplies, and are they up to date?

Possessed? Why did I do this?

2011-10-30T00:10:00.000-04:00

Today I picked up a hitchhiker on the entry ramp to the interstate. Why? I have no explanation, but it's NOT like me!!

I passed him with a shrug of apology because ① I never pick up hitchhikers, and ② the front seat of my truck was packed with stuff as usual so there was no room for a passenger had I even wanted one. Then 500 feet past him, I found myself backing down the damn on-ramp, and said if he could stand the cold wind in the open back of the truck, he could ride. He accepted with a "Yes, m'am" and hopped in.

I pulled over at the next rest area to talk to him about where he was headed so I could decide where to let him off. I felt absolutely no fear. He said his name was Mickey... clean-shaven, about 45-50, clean clothes, decent quality clean winter jacket, spanky white but not new tennies, clean jeans, good backpack frame and pack... and a fabric-cased guitar. Going home to Corpus Christi, Texas, if I believe him.

I reckon Jeffrey Dahmer was also clean-cut, but somehow this man got past my radar, and my inner guides just said to back-up and give him a lift. I haven't picked up a hitchhiker (including this one) but maybe 3 times in my whole life... one was a college-girl hiker close to my home (and hers), and the other when I was about 20 was a stranded motorist in the middle of nowhere and I could see his steaming, overheated vehicle. WHAT ever possessed me to pick up THIS man????

"Mickey" would prefer to be dropped off at an interstate exchange where there was fast food nearby, but he also had no money (nor did he ask me for any). It happens that I had just done a tad bit of shopping (end of the month, no-money-left tidbit shopping) and had a small bag of dried fruit that I shared with him. I also had just bought cream for my coffee and had picked up a pint of their new eggnog to try. I gave him some of the dried fruit and the pint bottle of eggnog, and left him at a MickeyD's with the last $3 in my wallet so he could eat from the dollar menu, use the bathroom, and get back to the on-ramp with his thumb out.

It was a strange encounter... and aftermath, and it doesn't feel like I was a chump. I actually feel good about sharing the meager foods I had in the truck, and the few dollars I had in my wallet (which were supposed to last until next Thursday when my SS check comes).

Crop Failure: Sweet Potatoes

2011-10-28T00:10:00.001-04:00

Growing sweet potatoes was a valiant first attempt on my part, but in the end: All Hat, No Cattle. The harvest I dug in mid-October was a combination of very large, pest-damaged potatoes, and fingerlings too small to eat.

The fingerlings were the size of long skinny carrots but they will get tossed in the root cellar with hopes they will last until spring to grow some new slips to plant. (That's now iffy; we had an unexpected hard frost last night, and they were still laying out on the ground.)

Close-up, there was a lot of pest damage which appears to be from voles. Also, a bunch of the potatoes looked like they grew fast, stopped, and then grew again, splitting the skin.

The vines were very thick, affording lots of cover which kept my cats from hunting in the bed. There was so much vine growth that the hilled rows were not even evident, just one huge mound of vines. I didn't see any vole tunnels when I dug, but I was using a fork which would have spilled soil and obscured the tunnels anyway.

You can barely see the SP bed in the right half of this photo, taken mid-September. The bed was 10 feet wide, with 3 hilled rows about 12-14 feet long, but in retrospect the rows were too close together.

I learned a lot by growing sweet potatoes but I'm very disappointed that I have none to eat. Sigh.

Septic Leach Field, and Garden Woes

2011-10-26T00:10:00.002-04:00

Damn and Double-Damn!! Seems I've discovered a potential minefield with moving my garden area higher up from the creek, which puts it closer and downhill from our septic tank and leach-field system. Frankly, I hadn't given the septic system any thought until now.

In my process of sheet-mulching a large area for a new garden, last weekend I started also considering the addition of 2-3 small sheet-composted areas nearby as prep for planting a couple of fruit or shade trees in the spring. Now I find that would put the trees smack-dab in the approximate area of either the tank, the leach-field, or both. You are not supposed to plant trees over the septic area because the tree roots can invade and damage the system.

According to everything I read online, eating foods (including tree fruits) grown over a leach field or just downhill from it, could be hazardous to health. That's a very scary thought!

I did find the diagram for the septic system permit in our house closing papers, and it's rather vague about exact location. That hasn't bothered me until now, but in considering what kind of trees to plant, or where to plant vegetables, the location IS of utmost importance.

The tank hasn't been pumped in years as far as I know, and certainly not in the 5 years we've been here. It needs pumping now, and a pump tanker can't get under our low-clearance covered bridge over the creek. The tanker will have to come across the neighbor's field, and I'll have to take down a section of fence. The tanker also will probably have to drive over the fragile leach field to get to the tank too, unless they have a very long hose.

The other disturbing thing I found out is the expected life of a leach field... which with the best maintenance is around 20-25 years. Years ago most leach firlds used small sections of terra cotta pipe, which have a very long life expectancy if tree roots don't get in them. More recently, most leach fields use cheaper perforated plastic pipe, which can silt up.

Our system was installed in 1986, exactly 25 years ago, and surely has perforated plastic pipe. Not knowing the exact location and extent of the leach area, the huge area where I recently added a foot of compost and berms could be over part of the leach field!

Unfortunately, the only somewhat level area on our property for a veggie garden of any kind is on the side of the house with the septic system. The septic tank appears to be above any potential garden area, so it would all percolate downhill.

I have someone from Environmental Health coming out this week to assess the situation. No doubt I'll then need to hire someone to locate the tank, bring in heavy equipment to dig up the lid, and a tanker to pump it out. We won't be able to even assess the leach field until we can measure the scum layer and the sludge layer inside the tank.

I am NOT a Happy Gardener!

Sheet Composting, Update

2011-10-24T00:10:00.003-04:00

The first load of chips, ready to spread over several inches of alfalfa hay on a cardboard base

My effort to build a totally new garden area with new-to-me concepts (based on Gaia's Garden) is making some progress. I may be close to finishing what I can do before the weather is too cold, so it's time for an update.

So far I have spread 12 bales of alfalfa hay, 6 truckloads of chips, 20 pounds of Greensand, 20 pounds of Azomite, about half a 30 gallon garbage-can of biochar... and I'm not yet finished for the year!

Mulch berm with Jerusalem Artichokes and Chard just beyond it. The spent vines on thr trellis back and to the right are Hops. Next year there will be perennial Hardy Kiwi planted on the trellis.

To better manage rain run-off on my sloping garden, I decided to build a mulch berm on the high side of the garden, and it will have a swale dug parallel to, and just above it. The greywater (just from the washing machine) will run into the swale, but only after it exits 2 planned shallow bog areas with plants that filter the water. The berm will help hold and slowly disperse water from the greywater bogs and the rain runoff from the steep hillside behind the house.

Since the washing machine water may not always be enough to keep the bog plants wet most of the time, I will probably run one or two of my downspout water-cachement barrels into the bogs, with a valve to control the amount of water in the bogs.

Hugel Edge, partially covered

On the down-slope side of this area is the hugel-edge, which is now partially covered in rough mulch and chips; I ran out of chips and need a 7th load to finish! I managed to scrounge quite a few lengths of partially decomposing logs I found on our lower hillside, plus a few shorter pieces of punky stuff from the firewood pile. It's not as tall or wide as I'd like for the hugel edge, but I will add to it over time.

The Edge will not only absorb water that moves down-slope, it will also be planted with veggies next year. (It will soon get a layer of topsoil over it.) In fact the whole area needs a layer of topsoil... good topsoil, full of microbes... but I'm not counting on finding any. When is the last time you bought topsoil that actually had a worm in it? It's all sterilized dead dirt they sell.

The other thing I really need to do (and possibly cannot this late in the year) is add some Efficient Microbes to my mix. If I cannot, that will get top priority in early spring. There are already some microbes in the mulch/chips I've added, because I have seen some small patches of fungi. It just isn't enough, nor a balance, in my opinion.

Segue
I recently attended a conference on economic opportunities of goods from wooded properties, for which mine certainly qualifies. (19 acres total, 17+ of those are fairly steep woods.) Among the several topics presented were elderberries. See the white fence in the background? I plan a row of elderberries parallel to the fence next year, and maybe even start a coppice of basket willow against the fence itself. I won't be planting enough elderberries to market, but certainly enough elderberries to make elderflower champagne, elderberry wine, elderberry cough/cold syrup, elderberry jelly and juice... and who knows what other uses I will find! The elder row will act somewhat as a buffer to prevailing winds, and some basket willow along the fence should help.

Little Black Box for my New Cheese Vat

2011-10-22T00:10:00.001-04:00

Hooray, I now have a means of accurately controlling the cooking temps of curds when making cheese! Some recipes call for increasing the temp of the curds by a mere 1º over a 10 minute span, something my kitchen stove definitely will not do!

As a side benefit, the "vat" will hold twice as much milk (at least 4 gallons) as my biggest pot, which means I can make larger wheels of cheese (which age much better).

The "vat" is a new Oster electric turkey roaster, large enough for a 22 pound bird. It has a fixed pan which will hold water, and a deep removable pan to heat the milk.

PID and Temp. Probe

The "Black Box" my friend Dyson put together for me has a PID temperature control on the outside, connected inside to a solid state relay wired to the temperature probe that inserts into the milk. On the opposite end is a receptacle that accepts the plug from the vat, and a plug to power the whole thing by plugging into the wall.

I bought the electronic components several months ago after reading a similar set-up on the cheese forum, but really had no tools nor know-how to put it together. Dyson came to the rescue!

Instead of wiring the PID directly into the turkey roaster controls (which would have meant taking the roaster apart), he made a separate box for the controls, leaving the roaster fully intact. All I have to do is plug the roaster into the black box, and plug the black box into an electric receptacle. The PID will let me increase curd temp by as little as one degree, something I could never do on a house stove.

So my cheesemaking tools are slowly accumulating! I now have a temperature-controlled aging cave I made from an old refrigerator this past summer, and a small wine cooler "cave" for blues given to me by a friend. Now I need to build a Dutch-style press, and get some decent cheese molds. Of course, a cow would help too.

Hopefully by this time next year I will be making some really good cheese!

Latest Gardening Fashion: Slug Collars!

2011-10-20T00:10:00.001-04:00

Split Copper Collar on seedling

Nope, I am NOT putting collars on the slugs, nor am I wearing a collar fashioned out of slugs! I'm making collars to deter slugs in the garden. Slugs are a gardener's problem almost everywhere, and living on the creek, my problems are exacerbated by also having snails who do the same kind of damage.

Years ago I read that slugs will not cross a copper strip because it gives them a jolt, so I bought a roll of 1 inch copper tape to put down on the top edges of my raised beds. It didn't work!

Recently I read that copper actually IS effective (it was a science experiment), BUT to work, the slugs have to crawl across 3 inches of copper to build up the galvanic action between their slime trail and the copper. THEN it works!

Two weeks ago I ordered a 2 foot piece of 12 inch wide copper from Basic Copper. It wasn't cheap... but it is thick enough (16 mil) to re-use for several gardening seasons... and when it gets too beat-up and out-of-shape to use, I can sell it as scrap copper. I probably could have used a thinner gauge of copper, but I really want to be able to use them over and over.

The first collars (made today) were for larger plants already in the ground, so the copper needed to be split to go around the stem. (I'm going to make all of them that way... it's easier.) I thought about taping the collar split ends together, but that would just give the slugs a place to climb that wasn't copper. In putting them around a plant, I found I could just squeeze the copper "tube" around the stem and the ends would overlap... then I pushed the collar into the ground just enough to hold it in place.

What I did:
I cut a 4 inch wide strip off the copper sheet, then the first strip into 6" lengths... that gives me collars 4" tall, enough to push the bottom into the soil and still have 3" or more for the slugs to climb. I'm testing it tonight before I cut any more, but I have every confidence the science experiment was correct. I put those first 3 collars on small tender seedlings this afternoon, and will check them in the morning. The only thing I might change is either taller collars so more length can go in the soil for stability, or wider sections to roll into split tubes.

Update:
It Works! I will, however, make them a bit taller and wider just for my own convenience.

The 99 Percent Declaration

2011-10-18T00:10:00.000-04:00

I've been watching the growing "Occupy" movement for several weeks with some curiousity, even though there seemed to be no particular agenda. Now a Working Group that includes pro bono lawyers and university students arrested in NYC for their peaceful demonstrations, have drafted The 99% Declaration.

I will be following this closely because among other things, it addresses the greed prevalent in corporations that affect the laws of this country via political contributions and influence, which means they affect me. (Think BigAg, BigPharma, etc.)

The Working Group wants to draws up a formal petition of grievances voted by to-be-elected representatives of all congressional districts. The US Constitution provides for a petition of a list of grievances to present to the government, but apparently by Constitutional Law only a duly elected body can legitimize a list of demands from the People. Their proposal is only a starting proposal and sample list of just demands on the government, plus how they hope to accomplish it via elected representatives.

Their posted sample proposal includes a fair tax across the board (and cutting ALL tax loopholes), eliminating the contributions (open or hidden) that buy politicians, and a host of other proposals that sound sensible to me, from the War Machine to Health Care and Jobs.

I encourage you to read the whole declaration... it's short and to the point. Who knows, it may even gain wide-spread support!

GMO Bees?????

2011-10-16T00:10:00.001-04:00

Photo by bucklava

Oh LawdyMercy... Monsanto is now in the bee business! They recently acquired Beeologics, LLC, an international firm dedicated to restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination.

Beeologics says: "The challenges of bringing new veterinary therapeutic drugs to market are significant and require careful planning around research, development, testing, manufacturing and regulatory processes." (Source)

Monsanto says: "The expertise Beeologics has developed will enable Monsanto to further explore the use of biologicals broadly in agriculture. Monsanto will use the base technology from Beeologics as a part of its continuing discovery and development pipeline. Biological products will continue to play an increasingly important role in supporting the sustainability of many agricultural systems." (Source)

WHAT is "sustainable" about Monsanto besides greed and profit? As if GMO's aren't bad enough, I wonder if this will turn into something like the recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) developed by Monsanto?

"Monsanto violated federal law (despite government warnings) by promoting rBGH before its FDA approval.

They blatantly attempted to bribe Canadian officials (who admitted it) in order to hasten their approval of rBGH. They also have an apparent conflict of interest with their regulators (FDA) in that they share the same lawyer (Michael R. Taylor of Washington, D.C. law-firm, King & Spaulding). [Taylor is a lawyer who has spent the last few decades moving back and forth between Monsanto and the FDA and USDA.~ Editor]

Monsanto and FDA have ganged up on any markets which try to label their milk and dairy products "rBGH-free" by threatening to sue (and actually suing some). The FDA and Monsanto have both lied about the existence of a test for rBGH in milk (stating that there is none). Monsanto has tried to block publication of research from British scientists on rBGH showing the hormone’s link to increased somatic cell (pus and bacteria) counts in milk as a result of mastitis.

Monsanto is the same corporation which brought us Agent Orange and PCBs (a chemical so toxic that congress banned it in 1976)." (Source)

Hazelnuts, finally

2011-10-14T00:10:00.000-04:00

In August I posted pics of the growing first "crop" on my baby Hazelnut (aka Filbert) tree. Now I'm happy to report they all seemed to mature, and I actually got to them before the squirrels! There were not many nuts this first year (just 21), but according to all I've read the crop will increase significantly as the tree matures.

In the total re-thinking and re-design of my entire yard, I will be planting many trees with edible fruits and nuts... including a couple more hazels. They are easy to grow, reaching 10-12 feet when mature. I figure if/when things get far worse than they are now, I will have at least a small bit of natural fats/oils for my diet (if I don't acquire any meat/milk animals), plus the nuts can be ground for flour.

Hazelnuts are also rich in protein. Moreover, they contain significant amounts of Vitamins B1 and B6, plus smaller amounts of other B vitamins. What's not to like?

Speaking of "huge" harvests (LOL), I finally managed to get ripe figs for the very first time! I have 2 small fig trees in pots, one Brown Turkey and one Celeste. Wouldn't you know, their watering care got away from me this year when they finally had lots of small fruits forming. The Celeste had perhaps 30 tiny figs, and fewer on the Brown Turkey. I lost ALL the Celeste figlets, and all but 2 of the Brown Turkey figlets. Those 2 figlets grew up into small figs... but figs nonetheless! YUM!

Salatin: “Folks This Ain't Normal”

2011-10-12T00:10:00.009-04:00

A Farmer's Advice forHappier Hens, Healthier People and A Better World

Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms and author of Folks This Ain't Normal. He is hailed by The New York Times as "Virginia's most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson [and] the high priest of the pasture" and is a leading spokesperson for local, sustainable food systems.

In Folks This Ain't Normal, he discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love. Salatin has many thoughts on what normal is, and shares practical and philosophical ideas for changing our lives in small ways that have big impact. He understands what food should be: wholesome, seasonal, raised naturally, procured locally, prepared lovingly, and eaten with a profound reverence for the circle of life.

From reading the first chapter (link to download it is on the page linked above), I'd say he's right on target about how our general food supply isn't normal (or healthy) anymore.

Making Gorgonzola Dolce

2011-10-10T00:10:00.000-04:00

I haven't had much time for cheesemaking lately, but I did start a Gorgonzola Dolce. I've tried to make a Stilton 3 times so far, and none have succeeded. The first 2 Stiltons accidentally got bug infected while I was out of town, and the third is just bitter. That turns out to probably be a function of the pasteurizing temps of the milk.

For the gorgonzola, I was able to buy some fresh goat milk (real milk!) for the make. The recipe I used is from here. The only problem I've had so far is that the initial molding calls for removing from the mold and turning every hour for the first four hours. Since I didn't start making this cheese until 2PM, the last turns were long after my bedtime.

Because I couldn't stay awake, the very last turn of the cheese when the alarm went off resulted in it being hung on the top of the mold, which I didn't see at the time. The next morning the cheese was not only lopsided, but part of it was stretched when the mass hung up on the top of the mold. So, it's funky looking! I cut off the top wedge although not quite as level as I thought.

Here are the curds ladled into the mold. I only had a gallon and a half of milk although the recipe called for 2 gallons. I just scaled back the cultures and rennet appropriately.

Here's the cheese after the overnight, lopsided molding. The top of the cheese in the photo above looks like a lack of curd knit... that's where the cheese stretched when it hung up on the top of the mold. It will be okay, just not pretty!

The cheese is in the cave now, at 55ºF temp and as close to 95% humidity as I can get. The photo above and at the top of the page shows the cheese just beginning to grow the blue culture (penicillium Roqueforti) before it went in the cave to age. I will pierce it after a week or ten days so the interior can grow some blue...

Update
Pierced this cheese yesterday, 10/5. Blue is growing nicely, and the paste didn't feel soft enough to close up the pierced holes. The wedge is also growing some nice blue mold. I'm hoping I can scrape some of it off later for another blue cheese.

Wish me luck... I am determined to make a blue cheese!