Milk, and Making Cheese

Photo from NickPiggott's photostream

Once again I am looking at the possibility of making cheese on a very small scale, which has brought up the subject of milk. Real Milk.

What is Real Milk? It's certainly not what is available to buy in most stores, and it's difficult to make good cheese from store milk.

Many years ago, Americans could buy fresh raw whole milk, real clabber and buttermilk, luscious naturally yellow butter, fresh farm cheeses and cream in various colors and thicknesses. Today's milk is accused of causing everything from allergies to heart disease to cancer, but when Americans could buy Real Milk, these diseases were rare. In fact, a supply of high-quality dairy products was considered vital to American security and the economic well being of the nation.

What's needed today is a return to humane, non-toxic, pasture-based dairying and small-scale traditional processing, in short . . . A Campaign for Real Milk. The Weston A Price Foundation is waging a Campaign for Real Milk across the country and their website explains all about milk much better than I can.

The consumption of raw milk is legal in every State, yet its sale is currently illegal in about half the States. Want to know the laws in your state? Click here.

Cow shares are legal in Virginia (where I live) and last summer I made a half-hearted attempt to find a local place to buy one share and did indeed find one. In the end, I did not buy it because it would have given me far more milk once per week than I could use, a 75 mile round-trip to fetch it, and a price I considered too high since the share required an initial investment as well.

Now that time has passed and I am continuing to learn more and more about health from real foods, it is time once again to look for a source of reliable, healthy raw milk. This year I might actually try my hand at making cheese if I can find real milk!

To that end, I'm looking at the possibility of joining a Weston A Price Foundation Local Chapter. They can help find local milk products, butter, eggs, organic and biodynamic local produce, as well as grass-fed chicken and meat.

What's Good for the Goose... Health Care Plan

Photo from takomabibelot's photostream

While Congress is holding heated debates over a national health care plan, they themselves are exempt from any such plan. (You can bet their current plans are far superior.)

I read on Alan Caruba's blog that Congressman John Fleming (from Louisiana and a physician) has a petition worth signing. He's polling the American Public on whether we think Congress should be required to have the same health plan they want to pass for us.

If you'd like to express your support for Congressman Fleming's proposal, here's the link.

Photo Note. Caduceus: Detail Of Giuseppe Moretti's 1922 Bronze "Hygeia" Memorial To World War Medical Personnel (Pittsburgh, PA)

Lookie, lookie... Daffodils are Emerging!

I noticed these yesterday while I was walking around the house trying to get my sister's dumb dog out from under the house. (I think he chased either a cat or an opposum through a small opening, and couldn't figure how to get back out.)

Anyway, the daffodils coming up are a sure indication that spring is (eventually!) on the way. Alexander Pope was right on when he wrote, "Hope springs eternal..." !!

Aluminum Industry Jobs

Recycled Aluminum Dragon Photo from austinvan's photostream

In 2009, the Pittsburgh aluminum producer Alcoa eliminated thousands of jobs and curbed production as the recession dried up demand.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the Alcoa CEO (Klaus Kleinfield) earned $11.2 million in his first full year as CEO, according to preliminary figures released in a regulatory filing. His Performance Bonus doubled to $3.8 million as he cut costs to counter the effect of a deteriorating business environment.

I wonder how many lost jobs are represented by his Bonus, never mind his salary?

Root Cellar Catastrophe

Well there I was, strutting about the yard in my shirtsleeves today just because I could... we finally had some sunshine!!! ... and then catastrophe!

Yesterday I noticed a fair amount of water running down the side of the driveway and across the walkway, and I assumed it was the melting snow since the yard slopes UP to the hill in back. Partially, it really is/was snow-melt. But this afternoon I went to the root cellar to fetch some potatoes and onions, and found the water flowing out over the threshold. Opening the door, I saw water about 10" deep inside, and the pump from the spring chugging merrily along...

Of course, the electric panel box for the pump is IN that room, which meant wading over to the panel and hoping there were no live wires in the water! I checked the main panel box inside our house, and there's no breaker for the root cellar; it is powered directly from the main outside the house. I wonder what dunce installed that??

The inspector must have missed that in the Home Inspection when my sister bought this house 4 years ago. At any rate, it needs a safety breaker at the pole, so I'll have to get an electrician out here. Meanwhile, I did get the power off to the pump.

Hopefully it will drain in the next day or two, before it freezes again and I have a mini ice rink in there. My boxes of winter vegetables stored on the floor are ruined; potatoes, onions, shallots and lots of garlic. I may be able to salvage some of the garlic to plant in April but I sure wouldn't eat any of it. I don't know what else I had stored on the floor; the bale of loose straw I had around some of the stuff on the floor obscures it in a soggy mess now.

Fortunately, the plumbing is exposed (behind all the cardboard food bins rather than inside the walls), and I should be able to fix the split pipe(s) myself. The pumped spring water is only used for the garden anyway, so repairs can wait for warm weather.

I really lament the loss of the food, though, and the resulting mess. My other BIG concern is my 2 Harsch Fermenting Crocks, which are sitting on the floor in the back. It looks like there is water in the moat on their rims, which means the water must have been pretty high earlier. (My crocks are the 2 gallon size, which now sell for around $120 each, plus shipping... and they aren't lightweight.)

The moral of the story is: Just because the pipes didn't freeze and burst over the last 3 winters doesn't mean they can't, or won't!

It reminds me of a funny story though. Years ago when I lived in Boone, I had a friend who was a potter that lived in a remote cabin with her boyfriend. One winter they closed the cabin, left the spring-fed sink tap halfway open so it wouldn't freeze, and went to upstate New York for 2+ months. Well, the sink tap did not freeze... but the sink drain did! When they returned, they found the floor about 6" thick with crystal-clear ice. She said the oriental rugs under the ice had a very surreal look...

Brix, Food and Cannabis

Photo from Oilbac's photostream

I belong to a discussion group about improving soil for better Brix, and lately there have been some amusing comments I thought I'd share.

The moderator commented that he said many years ago agriculture would not be revolutionized until a million housewives/mothers showed up at the grocery stores, brixmeter (refractometer) in hand, and screaming, "take this junk back and get us some real food". If that happened, farmers can and would do the right things to the soil for higher Brix... whether organic, or conventional farmers.

Then someone posted that there is some excited discussion on the Cannagraphic Magazine Forums about raising the quality of pot using refractometers to measure Brix.

The moderator replied that it's amazing that we live in a world where you can buy better quality dope than food!

Federal Reserve Ponzi Scheme?

Recently CNBC reported that the Federal Reserve bought aprox. 80% of the US Treasury securities issued in 2009.

What does that mean? Well, when the US government needs more money, they go to the Federal Reserve Bank (a PRIVATELY-owned bank, not government-owned bank). The Federal Reserve prints some greenbacks (Federal Reserve Notes... look in your wallet), and the US government issues US Treasury notes (called T-Bills) for the same amount in return.

Normally the Federal Reserve sells these Treasury notes, but last year no one wanted to buy many, so the Federal Reserve sold itself about 80% of them. Now, please note that the US Treasury notes are normally sold at a discount, but pay interest.

So the Ponzi scheme is this: the Federal Reserve creates 'money' out of nothing but a printing press and special paper. Then they loan those greenbacks to the US Government for interest, and 'buy' back the US Treasury notes which also pay interest. If they sell them, great. If they don't sell them, they are out some paper and ink, and the government still owes the full value plus interest.

Nice gig, eh?

Money, and the American Revolution

We have been taught that the American Revolution against the British was fought over taxation without representation... like the Stamp Act (tea tax) and other related impositions. However, during my history searches for my family genealogy, something else has become clear: money and the banking system... which ties in with our current economic crisis.

In 1764 when Ben Franklin went to London, he found very high unemployment and poverty everywhere. He asked his English friends how England, with all its wealth, could have so much poverty among its working classes. His friends replied that England was a prey to a terrible condition: it had too many workers! The rich said they were already overburdened with taxes, and could not pay more to relieve the needs and poverty of this mass of workers. Being astounded, he was asked why that wasn't also true in the Colonies, and how we raised money for our "Poor Houses". Here's his reply:

“We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps.

In the Colonies, we issue our own paper money. It is called 'Colonial Scrip.' We issue it in proper proportion to make the goods pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to no one."

When the bankers of England understood what Franklin said, they immediately took the necessary steps to have the British Parliament to pass a law that prohibited the Colonies from using their scrip money, and ordered them to use only the gold and silver money that was provided in sufficient quantity by the English bankers but at outrageous interest rates.

Only a year later, Franklin said, the streets of the colonies were filled with unemployed beggars, just as they were in England. The money supply had suddenly been reduced by half, leaving insufficient funds to pay for the goods and services these workers could have provided. Then began in America the plague of debt-money, which has almost ever since brought so many curses to the American people.

Franklin maintained that it was "the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament which has caused in the colonies hatred of the English and . . . the Revolutionary War."

This, he said, was the real reason for the Revolution: "the colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction."

Is this just ancient history?

No.

The ability for America (and the individual states to create its own credit) has largely been lost to private bankers. The lion's share of new credit creation is done by private banks, so - instead of being able to itself create money without owing interest - the government owes unfathomable trillions in interest to private banks, most notably The Federal Reserve Bank, which name is printed on every bit of US paper money in your wallet.

When a desk isn't just a desk

I've been debating about posting this photo for a number of reasons, none of which are political. In the end I decided to go ahead, primarily for the history behind the desk.

The desk pictured is called The Resolute Desk, and it's in the Oval Office. The picture above does not show the desk in all it's glory; for that you need to go here. It's an incredible piece of carving and history!

The desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, and there's an interesting story behind it. In 1852, England sent a 5 ship squadron, including the HMS Resolute, to search for the missing English explorer, Sir John Franklin (of the ill-fated Franklin Polar Expedition) who had left England in 1845 to search for the Northwest Passage to Asia.

The squadron spent 2 winters trapped in the Arctic ice in the Wellington Channel. Finally one ship broke free and took on all survivors and returned to England. The following summer the ice pack broke up for the first time in 3 years and the Resolute became adrift.

The American Whaler George Henry found the Resolute adrift in an ice floe. The ship was then salvaged and sailed to New London, Connecticut which is still a major deep-water seaport and had been the base for American Naval operations in the Revolutionary War. The US Congress purchased the Resolute for $40,000 and presented it to Queen Victoria as a gesture of peace and goodwill in 1856.

When the barque-rigged Resolute was finally broken up, the British Government arranged for 2 desks to be made from the timbers. One was presented to President Hayes, and the other to the widow of Henry Grinnell who was the man responsible for lobbying the US Congress to purchase the Resolute.

My Grandmother would never allow feet on the furniture; to do so would be disrespectful to my grandmother, and no doubt mar the furniture. Once I became an adult, I always had a coffee table designed to hold feet and frosty cold drink glasses without fear, except in one house where I had a lovely antique table that I dare not set my own feet upon even barefoot.

Call me old-fashioned, but I sure wouldn't put my feet up on The Resolute Desk.

Mardi Gras: Whoever Dies with the Most Beads Wins

All the wonderful photos in this entire post are from Ray Devlin's Photostream

Mardi Gras is famous for 'Throws'... the act of throwing beads from the parade floats to the onlookers. It's a time-honored tradition started in the early 1870's by the Twelfth Night Revelers.

Some historians theorize that the tradition has roots in a pagan post-winter ritual, during which lucky peasants who'd survived the cold months celebrated by throwing milled grain into the fields—an offering of gratitude to the deity (or deities) who had given them enough food to last.

Tongue-in-cheek: I have heard it said that geologists say the heavy weight of beads from Mardi Gras stored over many years in the attics of houses in New Orleans is what sunk the houses below sea level!

Waiting with anticipation for the next float...


Even Parade Marshall's like Kevin Costner get to throw!


Beads ready-to-throw...


Some throws go wide of the mark and end up hanging in the trees...




And even the Pups get beads!

Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day

Photo from orsorama's photostream, used by permission

Welcome to the day before Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras!!

For some of us, all Tuesdays are Fat, but the holiday known as Fat Tuesday (the English translation of the French 'Mardi Gras') is a special day of over-indulgence and celebration which has spread in popularity regardless of religion. Fat Tuesday is the last day of eating rich foods before the ritual Christian Lenten fasting season which begins the next day, Ash Wednesday.

The traditional purpose of Lent was to prepare the Believer for the celebration of the Resurrection by means of self-denial, penitence and prayer for 40 days before Easter. The traditional 40 days excludes Sundays which were/are mini-feast days, and early Catholics followed the church rules closely.

Fasting rules were originally very strict. Today, the fasting during Lent varies. Some people fast all day and eat only a simple evening meal without meat or alcohol. Certain Orthodox Churches restrict all animal foods like meat, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy. And some folks just eliminate ('give up') certain things for Lent, like chocolate or a favorite pastime.

The pre-Lenten celebrations have grown in popularity worldwide, largely due to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, but the carnival atmosphere is pagan in origin. (I'll cover Mardi Gras in another post.)

Some believe the pre-Lenten celebrations may have originally had practical purposes too, as food stored for the winter was subject to spoilage after a time. To consume what was in danger of spoiling, they held big feasts prior to moving into the lean days before new crops could be grown and harvested.

Fat Tuesday is also called Shrove Tuesday, and Pancake Day. (The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance.) The custom of pancakes came about as a means of using up the rich foods like eggs, milk and sugar before Lent; many cultures around the world have their own rendition of sweet delights for Fat Tuesday.

Photo from adactio's photostream, used by permission

I think I'll make my pancakes as Chicken and Mushroom Crepes.

For a filling, slice some chicken breasts and sauté them in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned (but cooked thoroughly, please). Remove from the skillet and add some sliced mushrooms, cooking until they are well wilted and golden in color. Throw a couple tablespoons of flour in the pan to make a roux. You can thin the roux with chicken broth, white wine, or even cream to make a delectable sauce. Season with your favorite herbs (I like basil, thyme or tarragon) and a generous grind of black pepper.

Add the chicken back to the pan, heat thoroughly, and ladle some into a crepe. Fold it over or roll it, and dress with more of the sauce. Serve with a fresh green salad and steamed broccoli with a splash of lemon. Voila! Pancakes!!

NAIS Abandoned!

In case you missed it, the USDA announced on 5 Feb 2010 it will abandon efforts to implement the National Animal ID Program, which would have required registration of every chicken in your backyard pen and every cow you milk for your family, right along with every commercial farm animal raised for food.

I realize they were putting forth an attempt to track diseased foodstuffs back to the livestock where it may have originated, but it was far too restrictive to small farmers and homeowners who raise some of their own food. My personal opinion is that most contaminated foods come from either poor sanitation in processing, or the practice of feeding dead/diseased animals and spoiled vegetable waste to the animals in huge feedlots. God forbid they should blame the big guys with deep pockets who buy legislation.

The USDA plans to explore alternative methods for tracing livestock. They hope the revised program will win more widespread support from farmers. Here's the USDA press release.

Mardi Gras: Send in the Clowns

Photo from sfmission.com's photostream

I just had to post this Mardi Gras picture from the Tucks Satirical Parade... 'nuff said?

Mardi Gras Prep

Photo from Ray Devlin's Photostream

Welcome to more tidbits about Mardi Gras! I know all eyes are on focused on the Winter Olympics opening today... but frankly, I'm sick of looking at all the white stuff (snow) all around me, with more on the way. Looks like even "N'awlins" might be cold this year for the celebration.

The ladders shown above are a means of seeing above the crowds during the 56 or more parades. Of course, the ladders are also a bone of contention because they block the view of anyone behind them.

Another Photo from Ray Devlin's photostream

The best seat in the House has to be the one owned by a friend with a balcony!

More Mardi Gras History

Photo from Toast to Life's Photostream

Mardi Gras is music, parades, picnics, floats, excitement ... and one big holiday in New Orleans! Everyone is wearing purple, green, and gold, the traditional Mardi Gras colors. I'll post in a few Mardi Gras photos here and there all the way up to Fat Tuesday.

New Orleans has celebrated this carnival for a very long time but it was not until 1872, the year that a group of businessmen invented a King of Carnival - 'Rex' - to parade in the first daytime parade, that the celebrations started to become traditions. The businessmen introduced the Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold. There is also a Mardi Gras song, and a Mardi Gras flag.

We can trace the origins of Mardi Gras to Medival Europe, but the origins of the Mardi Gras we celebrate today are strictly New Orleans!

I love Copper!

Native Copper photo by “Jonathan Zander (Digon3)"

Out of all the many different materials I have used in arts & craft work over the years, I think copper is in the top 2 or 3. I particularly like it for Yard Art. It's quite malleable, and it takes on a wonderful verdigris patina over time outdoors. Copper is one of the few metals to occur naturally as an un-compounded metal, and it has a history of use at least 10,000 years old.

Years ago I rented an office in the Historic District of Annapolis, and the window by my desk looked out over a wonderful old copper roof. Some of the older boats in the harbor even had copper plate on the lower parts of their hulls to repel barnacles. Few can afford copper roofing today, and even copper gutters and downspouts now cost a small fortune. Plus I suppose boat hulls today are probably painted with something to kill barnacles.

Meanwhile in doing my genealogy research, I came across this wonderful copper statue dedicated to the copper miners in Arizona.




I love this plaque on the statue base:

My White Front Yard

I really love snow, but this year it is beginning to try my patience! The good news is that the Locals say the gardening should be better.

We had about 18" in early/mid January, followed by a couple inches here and there... then 2 days ago another 8" on top of what had not melted in the interim. Now, more snow is forecast from tonight (Monday, as I write this) through Thursday.

The photo above is my house when I lived in Annapolis, Maryland years ago, and my friends up there tell me it's like that again from this weekend's snowstorm. Thankfully, we aren't that deep here!

I just want to get out of my driveway and do more than a quick run to the grocery store! I even had to cancel a 3 day trip to upper mid-Virginia (this week) to see my doctors and have some tests done, thanks to the storm. Sigh.

The trip would have been a good antidote for 'cabin fever'.

Jitneys

I had an email from a cousin containing a funny article about being in Miami for the Superbowl. Part of it was tongue-in-cheek about transportation, which somehow triggered my memory of the Jitneys in Miami when I was a teenager.

While the ones I knew were not as colorful as the one pictured above, they were great fun! We could take the city bus to downtown Miami, but to get to Miami Beach you took a Jitney for 25¢. They looked kinda like stretch limos, but not nearly so nice. In fact some were pretty beat-up.

We took the Jitney over so we could go to Wolfies or Pumpernicks, two of the great Jewish Deli's on Miami Beach. They had the most incredible desserts anywhere.

But what was really fun was the wild assortment of people in the Jitney, usually 8-10, and all the strange stuff they carried along.

While I never saw any live chickens, I saw lots of wannabe chicks, often coming from the Dog Tracks. Usually they were old ladies in quasi-casual clothing with their stockings around their ankles, and a wad of cash in a paper bag, fumbling for a quarter for the Jitney. Of course, there were all sorts of working people, too... waiters in black pants, white shirt, and a tie in their pocket... maids carrying unknown bulky items in large brown paper bags, and the beach bums all smelling like Coppertone.

It was a great time to be a people-watcher!

My New Hardesty Genealogy Website

Since I have mentioned several times here about my work on my Hardesty Genealogy, I thought I'd post the URL of my new site. It's hardesty-hardisty.com and it's just a very small 2 page site.

What I hope is to sell folks their lineage going back to the early 1800's at the very inexpensive price of $9.95 for a PDF. I don't expect to sell a pig in a poke either, so no money is exchanged until I can check to see if their ancestor is actually in our database of almost 18,000 related Hardesty's in the USA. If so, they they can pay by PayPal and I'll send the PDF which will include all the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.

Furthermore, since the Hardesty name is so common in some areas, it is hard to distinguish whether 'John' born in Paynevile, Kentucky in 1843 is the son of William T(homas) or the son of William's cousin William T(aylor) who also named a son John in 1842 in Payneville. Once they no longer lived at home, it is sometimes impossible to tell which 'John' is which. Census records were difficult to read anyway, and not all the census-takers had legible handwriting.

If I send someone a lineage that's in error, I will gladly refund their money providing they can show me where it's wrong. $9.95 is a cheap investment for someone who hasn't the time or inclination to spend $19.95 per month (and can take years) to do the research themselves and yet would like to have a better sense of their own family history.

Mardi Gras Celebrations Begin Today

Photo from Ray Devlin's photostream, Used By permission

There is a LOT to Mardi Gras, far too much for one post! The phrase Mardi Gras, when translated from French, literally mean Fat Tuesday, the last day of indulging in certain foods before the Lenten fasting season begins the following day, which is Ash Wednesday.

This year (2010) Mardi Gras falls on Tuesday February 16, but the celebrations we have come to know as Mardi Gras actually begin Friday, February 5th and run through Fat Tuesday, February 16. The celebration in New Orleans is so large that now there are 56 parades scheduled during this time!

I'll post a bit about some of the interesting traditions and history later next week, and then another on Fat Tuesday (with a recipe). It's a fascinating time of revelry and tradition in New Orleans, and this post is merely to let you know it has begun!

Salmonella in Peppercorns?

Green peppercorns, photo used with permission from macinate's photostream

I get all the updates on food recalls by the USDA, sometimes several a day. I seldom post them anymore because all that does is dwell on the negative.

However, I just recently noticed something I had not previously considered. A couple of huge batches of salami, Italian sausage, pepperoni, etc. were recalled for salmonella contamination, and it seems the culprit may be the peppercorns used in the spicing. I thought that would be almost impossible... aren't peppercorns machine-dried which entails heating?

Photo used with permission from exfordy's photostream

So I did some research. What turns the pepppercorns black is fermenting, the first step after harvesting. Traditionally the spikes are threshed and the ripe berries left overnight at room temperature to begin a simple fermentation. Depending on the drying process, the fermenting continues through the drying process.

Alternatively, the berries can be steam blanched to deactivate the enzymatic reactions in the pepper to speed the fermentation.

Traditional drying (rather than mechanical) is still done in many countries around the world. Usually the berries are placed on mats in the sun for about 4-5 days, until the moisture content is reduced to about 10%. You can also use a solar dryer, or even a tray-style dryer. The draw-back to air drying is the increased risk of contamination, so sorting must be done carefully.

In machine processes, sterilization is done just before packaging. Some processing plants use a steam process where the peppercorns flow through a steam container. This is not true sterilization. True sterilization requires a certain amount of time at prescribed temperatures and pressure to kill the microbes.

However, salmonella does not ever originate from the peppercorns themselves. Salmonella bacterium live in the intestines of birds, reptiles and mammals (including humans), and can contaminate our foods by transmission from animal and human feces due to unsanitary conditions, or even by bird droppings on air-drying peppercorns. Someone who has had salmonella exposure can unknowingly be a carrier for up to a year.

So when you purchase peppercorns, do so from a trustworthy processor. Bulk peppercorns may come from a reputable vendor like Frontier Herbs (mine do, via my natural food stores), or they may come from purveyors of imported and unknown origin goods at the wharves.

There's lots more to know about various peppercorns and flavoring techniques, but that's for another day.

Bluing

Blue used in Paintings

For some unknown reason, I awakened the other morning with the image of my grandmother using bluing on the whites in her laundry. Not personally remembering anything else about the bluing used in my childhood, I decided to do some research.

Bluing is made from a synthetic dye called Prussian Blue which is made from ferric hexacyanoferrate; it's basically a blue iron powder suspended in water, with an added pH balancer. It is used because white fabrics eventually turn a dingy color as the fabric never really gets thoroughly clean. A touch of blue dye gives the fabric the slightest blue tint, making it appear white to our eyes. Some laundry detergents today contain fluorescing agents for the same purpose.

So why should I be interested in bluing? Well, for starters, chlorine bleach is toxic. Bleach is particularly bad for my septic tank because it kills the bacteria that make the tank digest properly. Besides, I happen to be one of the people with skin allergic to those fluorescing agents added to detergents.

Reading more, I found that bluing has been used by farmers for over a hundred years in stock watering tanks to keep the algae down. Even in a concentrated form, bluing is non-toxic, and farmers over the years have claimed it reduces distemper and other diseases. (The farmers say that flies carrying those diseases won't lay eggs on blue water.)

While the best known US manufacturer of bluing (Mrs. Stewart's Bluing) makes no such claims, they also say that since 1883 when their business began, they have never received a single report of an animal becoming sick or dying from such practices.

In fact, according to the Atomic Energy Agency, an adult male could eat at least 10 grams of Prussian blue per day without any serious harm. I don't plan to eat any, but it's good to know it wouldn't hurt any fish if I ever build a fishpond!

Before the discovery/invention of synthetic Prussian Blue, people often added lumps of indigo mixed with starch to their rinse water. I also found it has been used in pottery glazing to identify which parts have been glazed prior to firing since any glazing doesn't show up on wet clay. In the firing process, the blue is burned away, leaving the glaze just where the potter wanted.

We all have seen little old ladies with Blue Hair... so don't over-do it!!

A Pinch of Salt in my Coffee

A pinch of salt improved my coffee. Yes, my coffee!! I know a pinch of salt improves most flavors but I never would have paired it with coffee.

As the economy has worsened I have found it more difficult or impossible to afford the better coffees available. But the cheaper coffee always seems to have a decidedly bitter taste. Recently, I caught some of an Alton Brown rerun and it was about coffee. His recommendation (for any coffee, not just cheap coffee) was to put a pinch of salt on the grounds before whatever technique you use to make coffee. He was using a French Press, which I do not own.

Anyway, I tried it the next morning... and sure enough the coffee was better! Then I totally forgot all about it, probably because I'm usually not fully functional when I make the coffee in the mornings.

For the last few days, I have kept a small container of salt (sea salt or Kosher salt with no additives, please) next to the coffee pot so I don't forget. I must say that consistently over those days my coffee has had a better taste, with no trace of a salty overtone. I just use a pinch between my finger and thumb.

I know I should quit drinking coffee again, but until I do, at least it will taste better.

Modern MRE's

Well, kinda ready to eat... the one I just tried required a 10 minute cook time on the stovetop.

I generally avoid packaged foods, but I guess I was in a low spot when shopping and bought this to try. Here are my observations:

It was very tasty. It was also very expensive (even to feed 2 people) considering the cost of the ingredients. All the chicken in the package could not have been as much as half a chicken breast, and the amount of spinach was about 1/4 of a package of frozen spinach. That leaves the pasta, and sauce. We all know pasta is cheap, no matter what the shape. So I really bought a bag of pretty expensive frozen Parmesan cheese sauce.

In a pinch I might make it again, but I'd add more chicken for protein and a tad more spinach, but if I did that, I might as well make it from scratch.

The package was either $7.99 or $6.99; I forget which, and don't have the receipt, but probably $7.99. (I found the receipt, it was $7.99.) It made one very tasty dinner, and one tasty lunch for me. It was cheaper than eating out and certainly not a TV dinner, and was a nice break from my usual fare.

Gardening Group Woes

Most of you know I've been an active member of the gardening site Dave's Garden for many years, beginning back in the days when it was a free site and had fewer than 1200 members. Many of you who read this blog are also members. Over the years it grew and grew; last count I saw was approaching half a million combined paid subscribers and free limited memberships.

Dave sold the website about 2 years ago, yet managed to retain full control of everything but the headaches. Now the website has been sold again and his new responsibilities are nil, other than being like any other paid subscriber.

My guess is that the list of paying subscribers will dwindle over time, the friendliness and individualism disappear, and the blatant ads increase. After all, don't websites exist just to make money?? That's really too bad. What made Dave's Garden so attractive from the beginning was the community that formed strong bonds. Many of my own friendships have developed from that community, and as a whole, that community is extremely generous and helpful, far beyond what you would expect from people who have never met.

I could cite time after time when they have pulled together in a spontaneous effort, whether just to replenish a garden that was vandalized, to offer shelter and support to Katrina victims, to raise money to buy tech equipment for a blind member, to send daily cyber hugs to a member with a terminal illness, or to send a digital camera and computer to someone in India. I could probably drive across this entire country and back, finding a bed and a meal with a member every place I stopped. Incredible generosity having to do with the people, not the organization.

Like every organization, it isn't all a bed of roses. There has always been an exclusive inner clique but for the most part everyone is generally accepted. Rightfully, troublemakers have been quickly dispatched... but so have some fine members who merely disagreed with management in some way.

I shall be sad to see it crumble because so far it is still the best site to get information and help... whether you are a newbie gardener or an advanced horticulturalist.

Wolf Moon

Photo from Ghetu Daniel's photostream, used by permission

Tonight's Full Moon is traditionally called the Full Wolf Moon by the Native Americans of the eastern and northern parts of the United States. They named it for the wolf packs howling hungrily in this lean and cold month.

It is spectacular, and the closest full moon of the year. Get outside for a moment and enjoy it!

Terra-Cotta Flower Pot Smoker

The place where I live has an old shed that once had been used as a smokehouse. The chimney is still there, but a bare interior, so I'm not sure how they fired it for use. There's enough room to hang several hams, hundreds of feet of sausage, and still hold half a cow too. That's far more space than I want to heat for a smoker, although back in the days of farmsteads it probably was perfect for smoking enough meat for the winter for a large family.

So, I recently found some information on making an inexpensive backyard smoker out of a new terra-cotta flower pot. It is supposedly fashioned after an Alton Brown idea, and actually it's pretty simple. I plan to make one and will post photos, but in the meantime, here's the general idea:

You need a large terra-cotta flower pot (maybe 16"-18"), and a terra-cotta saucer to act as a lid. For a heat source, the heating element out of a hot plate works well. You can run the electric power for the hot plate out of the drain hole in the bottom of the pot, and you should have some spacers/feet to hold the coil itself above the bottom of the pot. (You could use smashed soda cans.)

Then you need a container to hold the charcoal, maybe an old metal pot or bowl... and a grille to hold the jerky, bacon, steak or whatever you are smoking above the heat source. Drill a couple of holes in the saucer to hold a handle or knob, and invert it for the lid. Presto! Inexpensive smoker!

I'm thinking that when I make mine, I'll look for a better temperature controller than what comes on most hotplates, or maybe change it out later, assuming of course that I really like smoking stuff.

Super Bowl Snacks

Are you stocking up on Super Bowl Snacks already?

Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest eating day of the year, barely lagging behind Thanksgiving. There is ONE big difference, though... the sheer volume of snack food consumed. In fact, the average arm-chair quarterback will consume roughly 1200 calories and 50 grams of fat from snacks alone... not counting the 'real' meals of the day. You'd have to run an hour and 45 minutes to burn it off.

Here's what the American Institute of Food Distribution says for consumption on that day:

Nearly 9 million pounds of tortilla chips
8 million pounds of popcorn
29 million pounds of potato chips
An estimated 2+ million pizza's
450 million chicken wings, with Utah and Louisiana eating the most (makes me wonder where all the legs go?)

But there's a bright spot or two in the junk food consumption:

8 million pounds of avocados will be used to make guacamole
And I have no doubts tomatoes will do equally well, even if only there to support the guacamole or become salsa!

Quirky Food Rules

Michael Pollan has a new book out, Food Rules. Here are some fun and quirky food rules from his book:

Rule # 57: Don't get your fuel at the same place your car does.

Rule # 21: It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles).

Rule # 36: Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.

Rule # 20: It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car.

Rule # 26: Drink the spinach water.

Rule # 32: Don't overlook the oily little fishes.

Crash Hot Potatoes

The folks over on a forum where I chat have been raving about this easy and tasty recipe, so I thought I'd pass it on. The photos are wonderful, enough to make me drool. Check it out!

I'm Thinking Gardening...

Last year I became so disgusted at the weather impact on my garden that I vowed NOT to do another garden this year. However, as time rolls around and the catalogs roll in, I seem to be wavering.

Right now, and whether I put in a garden or not, I'm working on how to make an inexpensive biochar crusher. I'm convinced biochar that's been inoculated with beneficial microbes is the best thing next to homemade bread hot from the oven. The problem isn't making biochar, it is in getting it crushed small enough for distribution in my garden.

The charcoal bits remaining in the ashes from my wood stove are 75% perfectly sized, but not many folks have a wood stove anymore. Last year one of my gardening friends up the road crushed some Cowboy Charcoal (which you can buy at Lowe's and is pure biochar) with the help of her husband and son, and said it was a messy and dirty business.

Biochar is easily made by burning any organic matter (sticks, deadfall, tree trimmings, even green plant material) in a drum; the trick is to char it thoroughly rather than burn it to pure ash. Another consideration in making biochar is controling the gases given off in burning rather than adding them to the atmosphere. The optimal idea is to capture the gases and recycle them back under the drum as fuel; that's called a retort.

I have several ideas about making a crusher, but I want to do it cheaply. The roller mills made for crushing feed would do the job but they are hundreds of dollars to purchase. The home grain grinders the beer hobbyists use to crush the grains look like they would grind too small; fine for mash but maybe not biochar.

This project probably won't make much progress until it gets warm enough for me to spend some time working outside. I'll post any progress.

Looking at Time, and Mortality

Yesterday the very last of my mother's generation (and the youngest) died. Aunt Martha was my oldest uncle's second wife, whom he married later in his life. She was 83, and a delightful member of our family. She always has a sunny disposition, even later as Alzheimer's took hold.

Their only son David is the youngest of my generation, nearly 20 years younger than I am. I'm the oldest of my generation, which brings mortality to mind. When we are young, we think death is so far away as to be unthinkable. Now I'm of an age where older family members are all gone, and friends are beginning to die.

Where does the Time go, and so quickly?

Phooee...

Well, my 'puter is back up and running just fine again. Unfortunately I lost some folders full of files. They just went poof from my desktop. The folders included one with notes on ideas for this blog, and one with sketches for a cottage industry making inoculated biochar to sell.

About half the files can be slowly rebuilt, and photos that I've emailed can be sent back to me. The big loss is a bunch of genealogy files that will take me months to re-capture.

The loss wasn't from a hard drive crash; my drive never crashed. It was only part of the stuff on my desktop and It happened in the rebuild of Firefox, my favorite browser. Naturally I hadn't done a recent back-up either.

"American" Test

Okay, here's a quick and easy test.

Similar tests run around the 'Net, but I found this one interesting and informative because it tests what we know about our government, constitution, and rights.

24 out of 30 is considered a passing grade. Supposedly 96% of all High School Seniors FAILED this test...

AND if that's not bad enough, 50+% of all individuals over 50 did too!!

American Test

Short & Quick post...

I'm having computer woes, but I'll be back as soon as I get them worked out.

They're Rioting in Africa

Remember this?

Intro:
There are days in my life when everything is dreary
I grow pessimistic, sad and world weary.
But when I'm tearful and fearfully upset
I always sing this merry little minuet:

They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles

Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much

But we can be grateful
And thankful and proud
That man's been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud

And we know for certain
That some happy day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away

They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man.

© Alley Music Corp. and Trio Music Co., Inc

Vitamin B-3 for Energy

Depression, irritability, mental confusion and even indigestion can be signs that you are low on vitamin B-3.

The B vitamins are what helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy, and to metabolize fats and protein. Since the B vitamins are water-soluble, our bodies do not store what we don't immediately use and we must continuously replenish the supply.

The best foods for supplying B-3 are pork, poultry, beets, brewer's yeast, sunflower seeds, peanuts and dried beans, plus oily fish like salmon that also supply omega-3. Breads and cereals are often fortified with niacin, a form of B-3, ans niacin helps improve circulation and reduce cholesterol levels.

Working on a new web site

Sorry I've been slow to post new items on this blog lately. I've been quite busy creating a web site for some of the genealogy I've been doing for months, and should have it up and running in another day or three.

It's strictly a site to sell bits and pieces of Hardesty/Hardisty family tree data at affordable prices. Many folks don't want to pay a monthly fee to belong to a genealogy site and/or don't have time and inclination to do their own research, yet they still would like to know something about their ancestors.

With just under 16,000 people in the tree, we (a cousin works on it too) should have ample opportunities, provided I can market it correctly. We're not offering to do any new genealogy research for someone, just offering some of what we already have worked so diligently to acquire and document.

I have no idea if we'll make any money at all, but hope to at least make enough to cover the monthly hosting fee. Only time will tell. Plus, we always have the option to take the site down if it doesn't pay for itself after a few months.

It's amazing that a simple site of just a couple of pages can take so much detail work. Most of the work was in choosing a hosting company, then getting email and PayPal set-up. Even though I use my computer a lot, much of the terminology was foreign to me, so I've had to learn a few new things along the way.

Harder to teach this old dog new tricks than it used to be!

Calcium to Fight Stress

Calcium is essential to maintain the body. Virtually all our cells require calcium, and if we don’t get enough, our bodies rob the calcium in our bones. As we age, our calcium requirements go up, and our ability to absorb it goes down.

Foods we eat can inhibit the absorption of calcium. Iron (commonly added to multi-vitamin supplements) interferes with calcium absorption, as does fiber, and the aluminum in antacid tablets. Too many carbonated colas (which contain phosphorus) inhibit calcium utilization, and so does alcohol.

Calcium is good for fighting stress, and people who don’t get enough calcium often complain of restless sleep and muscle cramping. The better you sleep, the better you are able to handle the next day. Calcium is a natural sleep aid!

Do you get enough calcium, and is it the right kind? We get calcium in foods such as dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt, but many folks are lactose-intolerant so drinking milk is out of the question. Some vegetables like broccoli contain calcium. Green leafy vegetables like spinach and chard contain lots of calcium BUT they also contain oxalates, which bind calcium into insoluble salts.

Bioavailability of calcium varies with the type of calcium, and whether it is in food or supplements. Many of us take calcium supplements, which vary in the form of calcium used; they vary in the amount of elemental calcium they contain.

Studies have shown that calcium supplements are not all alike, and some of us cannot absorb the calcium in them due the kind of calcium or binder used. Some of the forms of calcium are calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, coral calcium (a kind of calcium carbonate), a microcrystalline form called MCHC, and chelated calcium.

Generally, the amounts of absorbable calcium breaks down like this: dairy products, 25-35%. In supplemental forms it’s calcium carbonate, 40%; calcium citrate 21%; calcium lactate 13% and calcium gluconate, 9%. That’s the percentage of the total calcium contained… so if a tablet contains 500 mg of calcium carbonate, at best we can only absorb 40%, or 200 mg.

WHEN to take calcium is as important as how much. Our systems can only absorb so much calcium at one time, so divide up when you take calcium into several doses a day. Calcium taken at bedtime seems to have a beneficial effect not only on sleep, but on bone-building as well.

Remember the old cure-all of drinking a cup of warm milk at bedtime? It works!

Folic Acid Fights Depression

Low levels of folic acid in the body are known to be directly linked to depression. Increasing your levels of folic acid will help fight depression better and faster. It has other health benefits too... read on!

Folic acid is one of the water-soluble B vitamins (B9), and we use it to build healthy red blood cells. Enough folic acid working with vitamin B12 can help reduce the risk of coronary artery disease, strokes and colorectal cancer.

Interestlngly enough to me, short-term memory and mental agility are improved in older people when getting higher amounts of folic acid. The risk of macular degeneration and rheumatoid arthritis is also reduced. There is little risk of getting too much folic acid since it is water-soluble and we excrete any excess. The risk is that higher amounts may mask symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency. Higher amounts usually come from taking too many supplements; try getting your folic acid from foods instead.

Folic Acid is found in green vegetables (higher in green leafy ones like spinach), asparagus, wheat germ, dried or fresh beans and beans, peanuts, fresh orange juice, canned grapefruit or pineapple juice, and fortified cereals. Folic acid found in foods is susceptible to reduction by high heat, and exposure to light.

I have used wheat germ added to cereals and yogurt for years. Generally what is sold in the supermarket is toasted for a nuttier taste, but since heat reduces folic acid, I just use more. Yesterday I found a box of Hodgson Mill wheat germ (un-toasted) on the shelf but I haven’t tried it yet. Bob’s Red Mill also sells it in bags like flour.

Iron and Energy

Liver and Onions Photo by Jannie-Jan's photostream, used by permission

Energy. Ahhhh, wouldn't we all like to have more energy and feel better? Iron increases our energy levels by helping the red blood cells carry more oxygen to our muscles. Iron has some other benefits, too. It is anti cancer; it helps reduce insomnia and improve restful sleep, and it helps our immune system.

We all know we need iron in the body, and we hear everywhere that we get enough iron in our foods and don't need to take iron supplements unless a doctor prescribes iron for anemia.

Yes, that's more or less true. However, absorbing the iron in our foods is another matter, making it sometimes difficult to actually get enough iron. Iron is the central atom the heme group, a metal complex that binds molecular oxygen (O2) in the lungs and carries it to all of the other cells in the body (like the muscles) that need oxygen to perform their activities.

Good sources of easily absorbed iron are oysters, mussels, sardines, salmon, tuna, lean red meats, organ meats and eggs (especially the yolks). The more difficult to absorb iron (non-heme iron) is found in whole grains, legumes, and green vegetables like broccoli, spinach and collards, all still a good source of dietary iron.

Some things decrease iron absorption. Commercial black and pekoe teas contain substances that bind to iron so that we cannot absorb it. Coffee has a similar effect.

On the other hand, foods high in Vitamin C in a meal help us absorb iron. Include some in your meals. Also, if you mix some lean meat, fish or poultry with vegetable sources (beans and/or dark green leafy vegetables) at a meal, you can increase the absorption of iron from the vegetable sources by as much as three times!

I grew up loving liver and onions. The last time I ate liver and onions was a few years ago, while having lunch with a cousin at a Shoney's. He said, "I make it a point not to eat filters." His point was well taken considering today's massive containment feedlots and liver's function as a filter, so I no longer eat commercial liver.