New, Improved Egg Separator

One of my friends sent me this short video and it fascinates me! Don't worry that you don't understand the language because it isn't necessary. The pictures tell it all.

 

Do you wonder what ever made someone try this in the first place? LOL

Green Wall for Summer Shade

I am building a green wall, aka "summer shading wall" about 30 inches from the house on the south end. Eventually the deciduous trees I'm planting nearby will grow up to shade that end of the house, but that will take a few years. In the meantime, I am putting up a trellis with 2 horizontal cattle panels, one on top of the other. Cattle panels are 16 feet long and 50" wide, which will cover most of that area. I plan to grow some flowering vines on it, but also some hardy (smaller, smooth-skinned edible) kiwi vines, and pole beans. I may consider putting some grape vines on it next year.

The south end of our house is narrow (the house was originally a single-wide trailer, with more house built around it). That end has no windows except one to the long front porch, but it absorbs a LOT of heat during the summer. I suspect there is scant insulation in the walls, and since it is the master bathroom, I'm not about to tear out everything (including all the plumbing and fixtures) down to the studs to fur out the walls and add adequate insulation. The foam insulation they can pipe into walls doesn't work very well if there is already minimal fiberglass insulation and/or fire-stops in the walls.

After having some sod removed for an adjacent food forest area and the post holes drilled, I started on the shade trellis. Photo above is the posts just stuck in the holes, awaiting some help to hold them plumb while I backfill. (The temporary opening in the skirting is for access where the plumber is replacing all the water pipes.)

Finally the posts are set, the area between the house and trellis has been covered with weedcloth and a heavy layer of wood chips on top, but only one horizontal cattle panel has been attached until I can get 2 people to hold it up while I hammer in some fence staples. That will happen before any vines grow that tall.


I ended up planting Japanese morning glories, 1 moonvine, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, Mexican sour gherkins and my 2 hardy kiwis along the base of the cattle panels. I cut a bunch of comfrey and sorrel leaves for a "chop and drop" fertilizing mulch, covered with some wood chips. 

The cattle panels don't cover the whole end wall... about 3 feet on each end will be exposed after it all grows and leafs out. I think I'll plant giant sunflowers along the ends for the summer, and transplant some Jerusalem Artichokes on the ends this fall.

I'll post another photo in a few weeks when stuff has grown up the trellis enough to see it.

The Importance of Trees

This is a gentle, touching and inspiring movie called "The Man Who Planted Trees", and I encourage you to fix a cup of herbal tea (or a glass of wine), and make the time to and sit back and enjoy watching it. The video is beautifully drawn in what appears to be hand drawn pastel charcoals; it is narrated by Christopher Plummer. Written by Jean Giono, this popular story of inspiration and hope was originally published in 1954 in Vogue as "The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness."

The Man Who Planted Trees tells the story of Elzeard Bouffier, a man who, after his son and wife die, spends his life reforesting miles of barren land in southern France. He patiently plants and nurtures a forest of thousands of trees, single-handedly transforming his arid surroundings into a thriving oasis. Undeterred by two World Wars, and without any thought of personal reward, the shepherd tirelessly sows his seeds and acorns with the greatest care. As if by magic, a landscape that seemed condemned grows green again. A film of great beauty and hope, this story is a remarkable parable for all ages and an inspiring testament to the power of one person.

There's an interesting story about the importance of trees in our world, "Why Trees Matter" published in the New York Times.

Excerpt:

 

"What we do know... suggests that what trees do is essential though often not obvious. Decades ago, Katsuhiko Matsunaga, a marine chemist at Hokkaido University in Japan, discovered that when tree leaves decompose, they leach acids into the ocean that help fertilize plankton. When plankton thrive, so does the rest of the food chain. In a campaign called Forests Are Lovers of the Sea, fishermen have replanted forests along coasts and rivers to bring back fish and oyster stocks. And they have returned.

Trees are nature’s water filters, capable of cleaning up the most toxic wastes, including explosives, solvents and organic wastes, largely through a dense community of microbes around the tree’s roots that clean water in exchange for nutrients, a process known as phytoremediation. Tree leaves also filter air pollution. A 2008 study by researchers at Columbia University found that more trees in urban neighborhoods correlate with a lower incidence of asthma.

Trees also release vast clouds of beneficial chemicals. On a large scale, some of these aerosols appear to help regulate the climate; others are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral. We need to learn much more about the role these chemicals play in nature. One of these substances, taxane, from the Pacific yew tree, has become a powerful treatment for breast and other cancers. Aspirin’s active ingredient comes from willows.

Trees are greatly underutilized as an eco-technology. “Working trees” could absorb some of the excess phosphorus and nitrogen that run off farm fields and help heal the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In Africa, millions of acres of parched land have been reclaimed through strategic tree growth.

Trees are also the planet’s heat shield. They keep the concrete and asphalt of cities and suburbs 10 or more degrees cooler and protect our skin from the sun’s harsh UV rays. The Texas Department of Forestry has estimated that the die-off of shade trees will cost Texans hundreds of millions of dollars more for air-conditioning. Trees, of course, sequester carbon, a greenhouse gas that makes the planet warmer. A study by the Carnegie Institution for Science also found that water vapor from forests lowers ambient temperatures."

I'm planting trees this year, are you?

My Passive Solar Nautilus House

It has been a struggle for me to post the pictures of the floor plan and the model I'm constructing of my Nautilus House. Generally, anytime I (or anyone) mention something different than the accepted mainstream beliefs, we end up being ridiculed and thought totally weird. The concept for this house came to me from Spirit, in a meditation about 10 years ago.

The shape of this house is based ion a Fibonacci Spiral, or Phi:The Golden Number/Golden Mean/Golden Ratio.

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Putting that aside, there are still many, many questions still to answer in fine-tuning in the plans for this house. The changing pitch of the roof in each section will be a real challenge to build. The "public space" of kitchen, dining and living room are planned to be one large open space, with probably a kitchen counter/bar as a visual separation. Then there are the things not definable, like the energy contained within the Fibonacci spiral shape.

There are a number of things I see built into this house. First off, it is basically Passive Solar, with the long exterior window-wall of the living room facing south. I envision radiant hot water pipes in a well-insulated concrete slab floor, now that hot water heat with long flexible lengths of piping to prevent leaks at junctions is possible, and affordable.

Some sustainable considerations include: a greywater system, composting toilet, earth cooling tubes, rocket mass heater, solar chimney, solar heated water, possible passive solar greenhouse attached, sustainable forestry adjacent to the site, and a sheet-mulched, no-dig permaculture / edible food forest garden.

I envision this as a long term project that includes other eco-buildings, food forest gardens, aquaculture ponds, coppicing and possible timber production depending on the site, a classroom for courses and workshops, orchard, cider making facility, wild food, wildlife refuge and maybe even part a future small sustainable community.

This house is only 1 bedroom, with slightly under 900 square feet of living space, but could be built to include one more turn of the "nautilus shell" so there are 2 bedrooms. Alternatively, there could be a loft bedroom above the private spaces (laundry/pantry, bath, and bedroom) without increasing the footprint. I didn't even consider a 2 bedroom mock-up since there is so much interest today in smaller houses, rather than McMansions.

I looked into several different types of exterior construction... from straw-bale, earthbag, and cob to a cast-in-place sculptural form like Flying Concrete. In the end I decided the transition to a passive solar non-conventional shape would be more readily accepted by using conventional stick-building techniques. The large vaulted, open (public) space with exposed wood beams supporting a wood tongue and groove ceiling would be striking, with a strong feel of "mountain getaway cabin".

I am hoping to interest some university (or perhaps private) schools with sustainable and/or alternative energy departments into considering this house as a hands-on teaching project.

Squash Bug deterrent

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.

Row covers as season extenders

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.

How the Ice Cream Turned out...

Photo by my friend Faye in NC

My weekend gardeners' gathering at a state park in Virginia was a LOT of fun, and the Hand Churned Ice Cream I posted about was the big hit! The grown-ups enjoyed it the most, bringing back memories and tastes of the past when foods were real.

Photo by my friend Susan in VA

The kids had fun turning the crank, but I don't think they truly appreciated the ice cream itself because they have no frame of reference for old-fashioned ice cream.

 

I didn't quite follow the family recipe posted in that link because later I found my mother's copy, with her notes. 

So, here's Aunt Ola's Ice Cream Recipe:

4 eggs

1½ cups sugar

2 Tbs corn starch

1 Tbs all-purpose flour

2 quarts whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

½ tsp salt

1½ tsp vanilla

Beat 4 eggs until fluffy. Mix with sugar, cornstarch and flour. Scald 1 quart of the milk; add the salt then add to the egg mixture. (The scalded quart of milk must be cooled before adding the egg mixture, or it will cook the eggs!!) Cook over low heat, stirring constantly to make the custard.

Mixture is done when it coats the sides of a spoon. Cool to room temperature.

Add the cream and the rest of the milk, and vanilla. Chill (overnight if possible), then freeze in a churn according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Ideally, you would remove the dasher after churning and put the ice cream canister in the freezer for an hour to firm up the ice cream before serving. We didn't have that luxury at the state park so we ate it on the soft side. There was a little bit of the gallon and a half left over, and I put it in the canister and packed more rock salt and ice around it in the churn until we got back to the cabin and then froze it. 

It was as good the next day... YUM!

Prepared for Emergencies?

Having been born and raised in Hurricane country, preparedness in some form has been part of my life for more than 60 years. Some natural events cause great fun when you are 9 years old... going in and out of the house through a slim window because the doors were nailed shut after they blew off... and not taking a bath because there was no water was fun, too!

Later as an adult, I thought about where we must have obtained drinking water for 2+ weeks... maybe boiled water from the bathtub we had filled? How long would that last for a mother and 2 children? I have no clue, but I don't remember any community handout either. Children don't always remember the details when it didn't seem threatening to them.

We didn't lose the roof, and the walls didn't cave in. I do remember it was wet, wet, wet and dark, windy, and noisy... much more so when the back door blew off and a neighbor helped nail it back in the frame. Fortunately we found the door before it blew very far away, and had a neighbor to help. The front door didn't actually blow off, but the rain that was forced under the door buckled the floor so that the door wouldn't open more than 3 inches.

Now, sixty years later, I live on a creek that floods; it hasn't flooded its banks enough in the 4 years I've lived here to prohibit leaving the house and driving down the road... but I'm told it has in the recent past. The road was under water then for several days. The electricity has been off as much as 24-30 hours in the last 4 years, but it has been tolerable. Just don't open the freezer. But what if the power was off for 2 weeks or more? And the road completely flooded for weeks, and we couldn't get out (or anyone get in)?

I have plenty of home-canned food; there's spring water and a portable container to filter it, along with enough firewood, matches and candles to make it through maybe 2-3 weeks if necessary, although it wouldn't be very comfortable. I would have to share what I have with my sister and niece (who live in the other part of the house) because their preparedness is not much more than a few cans of pork and beans, some sodas, an extra bag of chips, a flashlight with old or possibly dead batteries, and maybe 2 stubby candles.

I am not a 'doomer'; I don't stockpile weapons and ammunition to protect my life and home, not that it would be effective in the long run anyway. I don't have a cache of food buried deep in the woods. I don't have a vehicle packed, ready to flee and hide somewhere. Where would I go anyway? 

What I do have is an ability to plan; to learn some long-forgotten skills, especially where potable water and long-term food storage without refrigeration are concerned. And I can purchase a few dollars' worth of staples every month, even if just an extra pack of TP, a box of salt, some hydrogen peroxide and 2 cans of Spam (just kidding, I don't eat Spam!).

The bigger ticket items like stand-alone water filtering systems, a chain-saw or a good portable radio are harder to come by on a limited income. I've had 2 wind-up radios in the last 5 years. Neither wind-up generator on them worked more than a month or two, so not very dependable at all. One wouldn't even work with batteries, and I'd rather not depend on batteries anyway... although I do have a solar battery charger and some rechargeable AA batteries.

I am thankful that due to my food protocol, I am off all medications. Otherwise, that would be extremely worrisome in adverse conditions.

I don't deny that things might get worse as the economy continues to falter. Already in my county, the police say meth usage (and its manufacturing) is up, partly due to extended unemployment benefits running out; a deputy sheriff told me last week that even if there were jobs, many of the unemployed could not pass a drug test. Addicts frighten me, especially meth addicts... they can become so out of control.

I doubt there's very much I, or anyone else in my neighborhood, can do to prepare for an unlikely threat such as an asteroid or a nuclear attack, or something else unthinkable. But I can be better prepared for likely threats (hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, long blackouts, fire, etc.).

Yesterday I read a library book cover-to-cover on the 'unthinkable'. I read half while I was waiting at a car repair shop, and finished it at home because it really captured my interest. I don't read much fiction anymore although I used to read 3-4 books a week. 

This book (One Second After) is fiction, about a small community in western NC with total loss of power after an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) from a small nuclear warhead detonated in the atmosphere above the US. (EMP's can come from solar flares too.) Total loss of power, not just electricity: All of the cars and trucks built after about 1970 died where they were on the highways, or in their driveways, because of the computer chips in them; no electronic banking so no money, grocery stores with limited amounts of food, pharmacies with only small amounts of medicines in stock, all communications gone... no fire, police, rescue...

Intellectually I know about the hazards of an EMP, and even posted something about it here; but I have never actually considered the realities of what it could be like. We are a society conditioned to 100% dependence on power and the immediacy of supplies. 

Hey, if there's a hurricane or winter storm coming, we know the grocery shelves will be empty of most food in a few hours... but we also know it will be restocked a few days after the storm has passed. Until restocking, FEMA and the Red Cross will (eventually) come to the rescue with food, water and maybe blankets and tarps. Someone in the neighborhood will have a portable radio so we know what's really happening... and the electrical trucks from several states will be on their way to repair damage.

But what if there IS no "Cavalry to the Rescue"? What if FEMA and the Red Cross are disabled too? What if an EMP shuts down or destroys the whole country's power and communications? If Food can no longer move by truck or rail? When CAFO animals die because no trucks can bring in grains which cannot be harvested anyway because equipment won't work? If Foods and Medicines can't even be manufactured because the plants don't work? I cannot truly even imagine such a possibility, despite having just read a book about it.

One thing that helped in the book was the community banding together, and some eventual resurrection of pre-computer technologies including old automobiles, coupled with scrounged antiques like vacuum-tube ham radios, old hand-cranked telephones with simple copper wire connections from the fire station to the police dept., wood-fired boilers/steam engines to get a fire truck running and/or cook community foods, bartering... and finding someone's personal library full of lots of old books on forgotten ways of doing things.

After reading that book, I need to take another look at my own preparedness for likely threats and see what I can do to better prepare for potential risk and deprivation. There are things in the book I had not considered, and probably more not mentioned that I should consider. Their shut-down was totally without any warning; how prepared am I for something that happens with absolutely NO warning? What essentials have I used up that I'm out of at this very moment? What would I wish I had available?

Pickles, Lacto- Fermentation or Old-Time Fermentation

Free Pickles at a sandwich bar, photo from frankh's photostream

In the last few years, we have become focused on probiotics, and a spot-check of many refrigerators will find a container or two of yogurt, along with real cheese (naturally fermented; processed cheese is not) and maybe some wine, also naturally fermented. There might even be a bread box with some sourdough bread (which is naturally fermented). We all know that eating yogurt will increase the good bacteria in our intestines. As a cost-saving and ingredient-control, many of us even make our own yogurt, kefir and kimchee for the health benefits of the good bacteria cultured in the batches we make.

Why then, did we discontinue the old-time method of fermenting pickles, sauerkraut and other vegetables, which were probiotic? That older method is what today is known as lacto-fermentation or lactic acid fermentation (and sometimes called wild fermentation), the very same fermentation process that takes place in turning milk into yogurt. This process was known by earlier generations merely as 'pickling' and most general stores had a barrel of pickles where for a pittance you could spear one to eat.

Today, many of the same folks that are focused on eating yogurt and kefir for the good bacteria, are still making pickles with vinegar and heat-processing them, killing all the good bacteria, vitamins and enzymes in the process, and leaving the ingredients tasting of vinegar. Why? Lacto-fermentation is the simplest type of fermentation, and produces a superior tasting and healthier product. No canning necessary!

"The prized cultures of a San Francisco sourdough, or the finest Bleu cheese, have their roots in someone's kitchen or farmhouse long ago." ~Sandor Katz, Wild Fermentation, The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods.

When we 'lost' this old method of food preservation, we lost the incredible health benefits that came with it. Canned sauerkraut and pickles, whether home canned or store-bought, simply do not give us the same healthy benefits.

The pickling method our grandmothers used was easy: put your cukes or sliced cabbage or vegetables in a crock in layers with salt (which draws out the vegetable juices and becomes a brine), weigh them down with a plate and a jug of water, cover, and ignore. Pretty soon they had tasty pickles or sauerkraut, loaded with beneficial bacteria. Over time, recipes evolved for different tastes in their pickles... garlic, dill and mustard seed come to mind. Adding fresh grape leaves or fresh horseradish leaves produced a crunchier pickle. Sauerkraut might include caraway seeds, or juniper berries... or even cranberries. They found they could pickle all sorts of vegetables including carrots, cauliflower, radish, beets and even pickle eggs and pigs feet. Soon they had a whole cellar-full of healthy eating stored for winter.

The brine serves as a protection against the growth of putrefying microorganisms, and favors the growth of desired strains of bacteria, Lactobacilli. Fermentation breaks the nutrients down into more easily digestible forms. For example in making yogurt, Lactobacilli transform lactose (milk sugar) into easier-to-digest lactic acid. (Many meat products like salami are also fermented, although today it may be a chemical imitation rather than the real thing.) These bacterial cultures also create new nutrients – B vitamins, including folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and biotin. Lactobacilli create omega-3 fatty acids, essential for cell membrane and immune system function. Some ferments have been shown to function as antioxidants, scavenging cancer precursors (free radicals) from the cells of the body. No matter how you look at it, it is simply this: Fermentation makes food more nutritious.

There are many ways to preserve besides the brine method. Vegetables can be submerged in whey, or wine instead of a salty brine. There are dry-salt methods used around the world for foods such as lemons, anchovies and salt cod. However, an easy way to start is with vegetables in a brine. The only trick is to keep everything submerged as the bacteria work in the absence of air. My mother kept a big pickle crock in the unheated garage. You could dip out a few into a jar (with some brine or just added water to keep them from drying out) and refrigerate them for weeks, and as long as what remained in the crock was submerged in the brine, the pickles or sauerkraut would keep all winter.

I will be posting how to make a variety of fermented vegetables as my vegetables mature in the garden throughout the coming months, and it can be done in canning jars if you don't have a crock. Right now I am fermenting grape leaves to be used for the Mediterranean foods known as dolmas, or dolmades. Look for it soon.

Update July 7, 2010
After more trials and a few errors, I am refining my fermentation procedure, away from open crocks although I have 2 of those going right now too. I will start posting my newer methods in about 5-7 days, so stay tuned.

Drinking Water

Photo is a Creative Commons License, Some Rights Reserved, by Jenny Downing

From some of my earlier posts, you must know I am passionate about water: cool, clean water. Water pure as Nature intended it. Water that quenches thirst as no other liquid can. Water that not so fouled by our contamination of the environment that it requires adding a toxin to make it drinkable. You can live a long time without food, but only a few days even in optimal conditions without water.

When my sister and I started searching for a small home/stead to purchase, potable water was high on the list of priorities. This house was not advertised as having a spring, or even a spring house; instead they listed as a big selling feature that it had town water! In fact before "town water" was mandated here 15 years ago, this house and an adjacent house used our spring as the sole source of water for drinking, bathing, laundry, and maybe washing the goats.

I have lived where the water was so sulfuric-smelling you could not possibly get it past your nose to drink; I have lived where hurricanes made the water undrinkable for weeks on end; I have lived where my water pipes froze for the winter and I had to haul water for personal use, and break the ice on the trickle of a creek for the horses to drink. Never, never again, given the choice!

Much of my younger adult life I lived where the treated city water seemed passable, at least for what I knew back then. So, I wasn't too upset that this house was no longer using the spring for water. I would buy water for drinking and cooking, only using the town water for washing dishes, showering and laundry until I could figure out how to easily hook up the spring water again. There was no way I wanted to drink the town water anyway... the chlorine smell is as strong as my old sulfur water.

Chlorine is a toxic chemical. Duh. Why else would it kill bacteria in a water supply? Thanks to widespread use of toxic chemicals and airborne pollutants, most water needs some form of treatment to be safe and healthy to drink, even water from some deep wells and springs, depending on the source of the water.

Now that I finally have the spring pump working, I'm planning to use the spring as my source for drinking/cooking water, but not without some filtering for safety and peace of mind. I had the spring water tested for bacteria, but could not afford the costly heavy metals tests (the water does contain some harmless bacteria, much like our intestines do). After considerable research on the Berkey filters mentioned in my post about Emergency Water, along with research into several other systems, I have decided for cost and quality to buy a Berkey stainless steel water filtration system.

With a Berkey system I can have good, filtered water for about 3¢ a gallon, and it works by gravity feed so it doesn’t need electricity or water pressure. (They offer a fluoride filter as well, but it isn’t necessary unless you have a fluoride problem.) I haven’t fully decided between the “Big Berkey” and the “Royal Berkey”; the price difference is just $25 and both have free shipping plus a bonus item. My choice of which bonus item is a no-brainer: the shower filter! (See my post on Red Eye Showers)

In case you are wondering, I do not work for Berkey, nor do I sell their products.

Why Grow Comfrey?

My grandfather, who was a county agriculture extension agent, always grew lots of comfrey although I was too young to know why. Now I’m finally learning!

Comfrey fell out of favor along with backyard gardens after WWII, and my mother’s generation lost the knowledge of why so many backyard gardeners grew comfrey for anything other than medicinal uses. Even growing comfrey for home herbal preparations fell out of favor with the rapid increase in pharamaceutical preparations at the corner drug store.

So why should a gardener grow comfrey? Free fertilizer, for one thing!! This is because comfrey roots dig deep, deep down in the soil and bring up many needed nutrients other plant roots cannot reach. These nutrients are stored in the fast-growing comfrey leaves, and are extremely valuable for any gardener for plant nutrition and herbal preparations.

One nutrient found in quantity in comfrey is potassium, which is an essential nutrient needed by all plants to make their fruit or flowers. In fact, comfrey leaves have over twice the potassium of cow/horse manure! Some potassium-hungry plants are root crops like potatoes and beets, heavy production plants like tomatoes and grains, and fruit bushes. Roses are also a heavy potassium user. Potassium makes it possible for the plant to use nitrogen, and to increase the protein production.

The comfrey I grow traces to the Quaker comfrey (also called Russian, or blue comfrey) [S. asperum Lepechin (S. asperrimum Donn)], a natural hybrid of S. officinale L. and S. asperum Lepechin, introduced into Canada in 1954. The majority of comfrey grown in the United States can be traced to this introduction.

I put a layer of comfrey leaves in the trench when planting potatoes. Let the leaves wilt a day or two, put them in the trench, and cover with soil. Then add the seed potatoes as normal. I also make a thick mulch of chopped comfrey leaves to place around my tomato and pepper plants after they have set fruit, where it breaks down slowly to release nutrients.
One cautionary note: do not use the raw comfrey flowering stalks or root parts as mulch or in a trench… they will root, and comfrey roots grow deep. Any tiny piece of root left in the ground will make another comfrey plant!

I don’t have the time (or the inclination) to make comfrey compounds like a gardener’s hand cream or an all-purpose cream for healing scrapes, bruises, and bug bites, but comfrey is great for all of those. Here’s an article by Bev Walker about how to do it. I have written a more detailed look at potassium here, as part of my series on plant nutrition. (See sidebar for published articles.) Here’s a link for making liquid comfrey fertilizers and tea.

Grow some comfrey… it’s very useful, and has pretty flowers to boot!

Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Drinking Water and a WAPI

I’ve never lived in Tornado Alley except the year when a tornado leveled Udall, Kansas killing 80 people and injuring hundreds more, about 35 miles from where we lived. However, I grew up in the Land of Hurricanes and have been through perhaps 20 of them from Cat 1’s to Cat 4’s.

So I know only too well the destruction and interruption of services from severe storms. Even now, living in the mountains, hurricanes pose a threat. It’s not the threat of wind damage, but the flooding that brings down mountainsides from rain coming up with a storm from the Gulf of Mexico or coming inland from the Atlantic. 3 inches of rain on relatively flat land isn’t too bad, but 3 inches of rain on a mountain all flows down to the lowest point, becoming feet instead of inches. With any severe storm, the water supply is usually affected.

I have posted how to make an inexpensive emergency water supply apparatus, but that still costs at least $50 for the filter. We all know you can boil water to kill any bacteria in it, but what if you have precious little fuel? Or maybe none? Sooner or later, the sun will come out and with a little cardboard and some aluminum foil you can make a solar oven.

Later this week I will post some plans for making a solar ovens (solar cookers), but solar ovens will not get hot enough to boil water. However, water doesn’t have to reach boiling temps to be safe. Water heated to 149ºF for a short time will pasteurize water; that is, it will kill disease-causing organisms like E. coli, Giardia, Rotaviruses and even the Hepatitis A virus.

Here’s a $6 gadget that you can use with a solar cooker to let you know when the water is pasteurized. It can also be used when heating water over a gas or charcoal grill or even a wood fire. It’s a great addition to camp and emergency packs.

The gadget is actually a simple thermometer called a WAPI, which stands for Water Pasteurization Indicator. It’s a reusable, durable indicator that contains a special soy wax in one end of the tube, and has a moveable weight to keep it at the bottom of the water when in use. When the water (or milk) reaches proper pasteurization temperature, the wax melts and runs to the bottom of the tube. Remove the tube from the pot and let it cool so the wax hardens in the bottom. To re-use, just turn the tube upside down (so the wax is at the top), slide the weight to the bottom, and drop it in cooking water.


WAPI’s are made by Solar Cookers International and sell for $6 (or less in bulk). Churches, Scouts and civic groups often raise money to supply them to Third World countries where millions of people become sick every year from drinking contaminated water. SCI also sells a solar pasteurizer called an AquaPak that is a bag with a WAPI built in. It will pasteurize 4-5 liters in about 2 hours, and sells for $20. Buy 2 and have water for a hot shower!

Hydrogen Peroxide and the Turnip Truck

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is one of the few inexpensive miracle substances still available to the public. The good news is that hydrogen peroxide is non-patentable (it’s in the public domain), so those great pharmaceutical houses with strings to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney can’t make a dime off of it.

What does happen is that some manufacturers add just a tad of some minor (cheap and perhaps ineffective) ingredient to it, name it the “best” green product to clean and disinfect, and sell it to us in a fancy spray bottle at a high price… when in reality it is nothing more than ordinary 3% hydrogen peroxide you can buy in any drug store for under a dollar.

Those companies are pretty sure we just fell off the turnip truck, so let’s debunk that myth!

H2O2 is a weak acid with strong oxidizing properties, and is a powerful bleaching agent. It is used as a disinfectant, antiseptic and oxidizer. The hydrogen peroxide available at drug stores is usually 3% solution but Pharmaceutical/Food grades are available in solutions up to 35%.

About 50% of the world's production of hydrogen peroxide in 1994 was used for pulp and paper bleaching in the manufacturing process. Other bleaching applications are becoming more important as hydrogen peroxide is seen as an environmentally benign alternative to chlorine-based bleaches.

From here on out, when I say H2O2, hydrogen peroxide or peroxide, I’m referring to the standard 3% drug store solution that comes in brown (opaque) bottles. Hydrogen peroxide decomposes rapidly when exposed to light, hence the opaque bottles.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizer. Clean your kitchen counters and bathroom surfaces with hydrogen peroxide to kill germs. Simply put some on a cloth, or spray it directly on the counters. (Remember, it is a bleaching solution so be careful where you spray it.) After cleaning your cutting board, pour peroxide on it to kill bacteria.

Add a cup of H2O2 instead of bleach to a load of whites in your laundry to whiten them. H2O2 is effective at treating fresh (red) blood-stains in clothing and other items. It must be applied to clothing before blood stains can be accidentally "set" with heated water. After peroxide dilutes the blood stain, cold water and soap can be used to remove the peroxide treated blood.

Hydrogen peroxide is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as an antimicrobial agent by the FDA. Try it as a hand-sanitizer! Carry a bottle of it and some paper towels in the car’s glove box, especially during flu season.

H2O2 is used medically for cleaning wounds. Didn’t your Mama always pour peroxide on a cut before putting a bandaid on it? It causes mild damage to tissue in open wounds, but it also is effective at rapidly stopping capillary bleeding (slow blood oozing from small vessels in scrapes and abrasions).

There are numerous sites (and controversy) about using Food Grade (35%) H2O2 both intravenously and internally as treatment/cures for a number of diseases including cancer. That's not a discussion I want to get in to on this blog. There are also references to using H2O2 in the water for farm animals (like beef cattle, hogs turkeys and chickens) to prevent disease and increase market weight.

Some horticulturalists and hydroponic growers advocate a weak hydrogen peroxide solution in watering. Its spontaneous decomposition releases oxygen that enhances a plant's root development, and helps treat root rot. I have saved many an over-watered plant by adding peroxide mixed with water to the already soggy, droopy plant. Trust me, it works!

For germinating seeds, mix 1 oz. H2O2 with 1 pint (16 fl. oz.) water; soak seed 8 hrs. Peroxide can also be an excellent, safe insecticide. Simply spray your plants with 4-8 ounces of peroxide mixed with 8 ounces of white sugar and one gallon of water.

You probably knew all or most of these uses (and probably more!) already, but if you are like me, you get distracted by fancy commercials and forget. So let’s get back to using an excellent product that’s good for us, good for our pocketbooks and good for the environment. We already have a miracle product that’s multifunctional, cheap and GREEN… we didn’t just fall off that turnip truck!

Solar Lightbulbs

Solar energy, particularly free passive solar energy, has been a passion of mine for 30 years or more. I became convinced years ago that there is lots of free solar energy that we could use, if only we knew how.

Recently a friend introduced this YouTube video on a forum I follow on sustainability. It demonstrates a means of bringing the equivalent of a 50 watt light into dark interiors, using not much more than a clear 2 liter soda bottle, and water. Of course it only works when the sun is shining, but for the price, who cares? (By contrast, a Solatube costs about $300. The only big advantage I see is that it can be installed through a home insulated attic space thanks to the long attached tube.)



The concept is so simple I immediately smacked my head and thought, "DUH!!" The concept is the same as the deck prisms used on wooden sailing ships for centuries. The deck prisms were flat on one end and installed flush with the decking for safety. The prism end hung below deck in all sorts of dark nooks and crannies; it magnified the sunlight and refracted it for a flood of natural light. A plain cylinder of solid glass would not have magnified and refracted the light, although it would have provided a spot of bright light directly below it.

In the case of the soda bottle light... the water it contains acts as a prism and refracts the sunlight all around the circumference of the plastic bottle. Making it is simple, and since the video is in Portuguese, I'll walk through the steps here. Remember, the soda bottle needs to be clear, not green or opaque. Put 2 capfuls of household bleach in the bottle, and fill it with water.

The bleach keeps algae from growing in the water and making it cloudy; cloudy water will not refract light. In the video, they put a used film canister over the top of the bottle, to keep the bottle cap from deteriorating. With the advent of digital cameras, film canisters are hard to find. I think I'd try a short length (2 inches or so) of plastic pipe (but not PEX which I know breaks down in sunlight) and fill it with the same silicone adhesive I'd use to seal around the hole in the roof for the bottle. The water-filled bottle will have some weight and it may be necessary to support it until the sealant cures.

I haven't made one yet but I plan to put several in my old barn, which has a dark interior and no electricity run to it. Perhaps I will also put a couple in my garden shed. I don't go into either structure at night, so darkness is no problem. In fact, they'd do great in a chicken house!