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?

Homemade Pectin from Apples

Ready to cook

It's always nice to know we can make our own pectin for jams and jellies if necessary, and there are several advantages: cost, convenience and no potentially dangerous chemical preservatives. See my post here for more details on commercial pectins.

The best pectin is made from citrus peels and seeds, but many of us don't live where citrus grows. If we had to buy the citrus fruit to make pectin, it would get very expensive. However, the next best thing is apple pectin, and apples aren't expensive. You may even have an old apple or crab-apple tree nearby, providing free apples.

The most important thing about making apple pectin is to use UNRIPENED apples. (The amount of pectin goes down as fruits ripen.) If you are making something with peeled and cored ripe apples, you can save those skins and seeds for pectin; most of the pectin is the seeds and skins, but it's better if you have green (as in not ripe, not as in green in color) apples, which contain more pectin. I picked a small bucket full from an abandoned tree on the roadside to make this apple pectin.

To cook the pectin:

Wash and stem the apples. Do NOT remove the core, but do cut out any bad spots. Add to a large pot and pour on just enough water to almost cover or float the apples. I brought my crockpot into my office so I could work, and not have to watch a pot on the stove. My crockpot doesn't hold much, so I had to do mine in 3 batches; I quartered the apples so they would fit easier in the crockpot but if I had used crab-apples I probably would have just halved them. 

Cook down until the skins and solids are really mush, stirring occasionally to prevent burning or sticking. I started mine on high in the crockpot, and after maybe an hour, turned it to low for 2 or so hours more. Strain the pulp through some cheesecloth or butter muslin. Let it drip, overnight if necessary; don't force it, or you will have cloudy pectin which will make your jelly cloudy.

How much pectin to use in a jelly or jam recipe depends on the strength of the pectin you just made. Once the pectin is strained and cooled, you can easily test the strength. Pour some rubbing alcohol in a small container, and drop in a teaspoon of the cooled liquid pectin. If it coagulates into a jelly-like mass that can be pulled out intact with a fork, it is strong enough to jell perfectly. If none can be picked up with a fork, you need to cook it down more. If it just some of it can be picked up by the fork, it will still jell, but loosely. Pectin strength depends on how juicy your apples were, how ripe, and how much water you added.

The test mix of rubbing alcohol and pectin is POISONOUS... do not add it back to the pot, or leave it where a child might drink it!!

After all mine was strained and tested (poor jell), I put it back in the crockpot and cooked it down by maybe 1/4, and tested again. (My photo of the jelled blob was too out-of-focus to use. I have mentioned before I'm not a photographer!)

Pour the hot liquid pectin in sterile canning jars, add lids and rings, and place in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from water bath and allow to cool. (You could also put it in small plastic containers and freeze.)  Remove rings and wash the jars in warm soapy water. I never store home canned foods with the rings on them. It's easier to see a failed seal if the rings have been removed before storing. The canned pectin will keep for several months on a cool, dark shelf in the pantry.

It's really rosy colored, but not in the photo. Sorry.

To use the apple pectin:

When using homemade pectin, you can't just follow the proportions of fruit and sugar found on the chart in a Sure-Jell package; you have to understand something about what makes pectin jell. Basically, there are two factors: the amount of sugar, and the amount of pectin. Too little of either one, and you end up with syrup. It is possible to compensate for less sugar with more pectin, or the other way around... but you can't stray from the recommended ratios very much.

It is much easier to calculate how much homemade pectin to use if you will test the fruit or juice you have cooked for jam or jelly. (See here for a list of high, medium and low pectin fruits which will give you an idea of pectin that may be in your fruit.) It's just like testing your homemade pectin before you canned it. Put 1 tablespoon rubbing alcohol in a small container and add 1 teaspoon of the cooked fruit/juice. If it makes a jelled blob, your fruit is high in natural pectin.

If it doesn't make a blob, add 1 tablespoon homemade pectin per cup of your cooked fruit/juice, and test again, and if necessary, do it yet again until you get a jelled blob the consistency you want in your jam or jelly. Remember, the container with the rubbing alcohol is POISON, so do not add it back to the cooking jelly; dispose of it promptly and properly to avoid a hazard.

If the juice contains enough pectin, you will add from 3/4 - 1 cup sugar PER cup of juice. (Don't forget to figure in the amount of homemade pectin you added.) If the pectin tested slightly less than firm, use 2/3 - 3/4 cup sugar per cup of juice. (Too much sugar coupled with low pectin will make syrup.) You also need to add a bit of acid, like the juice from one lemon to help the jam/jelly set.

When you think that your fruit-pectin mixture is about right, mix in sugar with the cooked fruit. Stir constantly over high heat, especially with jam, to keep it from burning on the bottom of the pan. After the mixture comes to a full, rolling boil, let it boil for about a minute. If you don't leave it in a rolling boil for a full minute, it may not set. (It needs to reach a temp. of 220ºF to set at sea level...  that is the jell stage; adjust temp.higher if you are in the mountains; use a candy thermometer if you are unsure.) It will foam... and you can skim the foam before pouring into hot jars. I always add about a teaspoon of butter just as it begins to boil; it eliminates almost all the foam and doesn't affect the jelly.

Note: Some recipes suggest equal amounts of homemade pectin to the juice if the juice is low-pectin. I'd just test and keep adding pectin until I got it really close...

If you are unsure if you have enough pectin, cook your recipe longer, and test for jell with a dab on a frozen saucer, just as you do with natural high-pectin fruits without added pectin. (Testing and adjusting the pectin content before adding sugar seems easier to me.)

Kudzu, Miracle Vine

"Kudzu Angel" by Sgt. Yates

This scene above may not be familiar if you don't live in the Southeastern United States, but it is a legume/vine called Kudzu, and known by many other names... the Miracle Vine, Foot-a-Night Vine, Mile-a-Minute Vine, and most commonly: The Vine That Ate the South.

I grew up hearing "Close your windows at night to keep kudzu out of the house" and it's not a joke. It is a seriously invasive vine that can grow as much as a foot per day in summer and 60 feet per year, covering anything and everything in its path including houses and vehicles. It destroys valuable forests by cutting off the sunlight to the trees.

Kudzu on Trees, Atlanta, GA

Kudzu was introduced from Japan in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, promoted for forage and erosion control, and as an ornamental plant for its lovely and fragrant flower. Unfortunately, the kudzu pests were not introduced along with it, nor did anyone know the southeast US would be an ideal environment for it to spread out of control. Kudzu now covers 8,000 - 12,000 square miles in the US, and adds an additional 150,000 acres every year. Lost cropland and control costs run in excess of $500 million annually.

Ever since the Civilian Conservation Control planted it widely from 1935 to the early 1950's, people have been trying to find uses for it, or how to get rid of it. The leaves do make low-quality forage but it is difficult to cut and bale due to the thick vines; it makes decent grazing especially for goats, but over-grazing will kill out the stands in 3-4 years.

It's not 100% bad, though. Like many weeds, the deep taproot of kudzu brings up valuable minerals from the subsoil to the topsoil, thereby improving it, and since it is a legume, it 'fixes' nitrogen in the soil. Now, if we could just control it or use it better...

The roots contain a starch, which can be made into a flour, used as a food ingredient in East Asia. In the US you can find kudzu blossom jelly and syrup, and creative basketry made from the pliable vines. (It may prove very useful for survival if one has to live off the land!)

Kudzu has been traditionally used as a remedy for alcoholism and hangovers in China; the root used to prevent excessive consumption and the flower thought to detox the liver and alleviate symptoms. Harvard Medical School is now studying kudzu as a possible way to treat alcohol cravings by turning an extract from the plant into a medical drug, but it may take years.

Meanwhile, keep your windows closed at night!

Smart Chickens

When an animal refuses to eat its regular feed it is often a clear sign that something is wrong with the food. Animals, as opposed to humans, tend to have a “sixth sense” about what’s safe to eat, and what’s not.

I know that to be true in my own house. I have a loss in the sense of smell, and because of it, I am often afraid of foods that have been refrigerated more than a couple of days since I cannot smell them unless almost putrid. My solution has been to give a sample of questionable food to my (now-deceased) fat cat. If she refused it, the food went into the trash or compost. 

A 2003 report on the British Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) web site states that both experimental and anecdotal evidence shows animals seek to avoid GM food, and do not thrive if given no other choice.

Last year in South Africa, chickens refusing to eat the maize (corn) they had been fed led to the discovery that their feed had been genetically modified to include a well-known weed and insect killer.

Owner Strilli Oppenheimer was approached by Dawid Klopper, the head gardener at the family estate, Brenthurst, informing her that her indigenous African chickens were refusing to eat the mealies in the chicken feed bought from a large supplier. Concerned that the birds may be ingesting genetically modified maize, she instructed Klopper to have the maize tested.

The chickens' diet was immediately changed to include organic vegetables, and the Oppenheimer family stopped consuming the home-grown eggs. The maize was sent to the GMO testing facility at the University of the Free State for analysis. The results confirmed Oppenheimer's initial suspicion - the maize had been genetically engineered to produce proteins that are toxic to certain insects and weeds.

"It contained BT1 which makes the maize insect resistant, as well as Roundup which makes it weed resistant. This is the first report we have had of chickens not eating GM feed," said a GM expert. 

Oh, really?

While small quantities of BT1 and Roundup weed killer were found in the seeds, the concern remained with the cumulative effect of GM feed, not only on the chickens, but also on the eggs they produced for the family.

"This is of serious concern. Do you know that 96 percent of soy-based foods are genetically modified, and that maize in South Africa is contaminated?" asked Oppenheimer, pointing out that research by well-known scientist Dr Arpad Pusztai had shown that rats fed on GM potatoes suffered from a weakened immune system and stunted growth of their internal organs, including the liver, kidneys and brain.

Pusztai was fired by the Rowett Research Institute in the UK in 1998 after his research into the human nutritional consequences of GM. His findings had far-reaching implications for the biotech industry, which had contended that GM crops and products would not adversely affect human health.

Yeah, it's harmless... right?

Sources: 

http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11354-smart-chickens-not-duped-by-gm-feed
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=vn20090802102554511C805624

Pectin in Jam and Jelly

Peach Melba Jam

It's summer fruit season again, and many of us are busy making jams and jellies.

I switched to Pomona's Universal Pectin about 10 years ago, and I love it. A box of their pectin is more expensive than a box of Sure-Jell, but you can get at least 3 runs of jam or jelly, versus just one with Sure-Jell. Another big plus is that you can reduce or even eliminate the sugar in a recipe and it will still jell, making it great for diabetics.

An often overlooked issue is that most commercial pectins (other than Pomona's) contain preservatives including potassium benzoate or sodium benzoate. Preservatives are what are known as biocides, and I don't want biocides in my foods. Many jam and jelly recipes call for ascorbic acid (Vitamin C, or some lemon juice) to prevent fruit from browning, and when it's mixed with the sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate in the pectin, it may form benzene, an aromatic hydrocarbon known to be a carcinogen.

How else Pomona's is different: the box contains 2 bags, one of pectin, and another thin packet of powdered calcium which you mix with a measured amount of water per the directions. The calcium water will keep for weeks refrigerated, and the pectin package can be re-sealed with tape after you measure out the amount needed for a recipe.

I swear I think Pomona's Pectin could jell water, and one of these days I am going to try it, just to see!

But, what happens when there is no pectin to purchase? Some fruits contain enough pectin to jell just with the correct amount of sugar, but for that you need no-added-pectin recipes, not the recipes on a pectin box. There are some great cookbooks dedicated to recipes for preserves, and the internet has many recipes as well.

Most fruits contain pectin, some more than others. The pectin content in all fruit is generally higher when fruit is just barely ripe, and it diminishes as the fruit matures from fully ripe to overripe. The process of ripening involves the breakdown of pectins, which softens the fruit as it ripens.

Here's a handy list of fruits by pectin content.

High pectin content fruits:
As long as the fruit is not overripe, these have enough natural pectin to jell with only added sugar.
Citrus skins (oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, limes, etc. - the pectin is high in the skin but low in the fruit), tart cooking apples, crab apples, lemons, wild grapes (Eastern Concord variety), cranberries, gooseberries, boysenberries, sour Apples, Blackberries, Currants, Gooseberries, Loganberries, most Plums (not the Italian kind), and Quince

Medium pectin fruits
These are low in natural acid or pectin and may need the addition of either acid or pectin.
Ripe Apples, very ripe Blackberries, sour Cherries, Chokecherries, Elderberries, Grapefruit, bottled Grape Juice, (Eastern Concord), Grapes (California), Loquats, Oranges, rhubarb

Low pectin fruitsThese always need added acid or pectin, and may need both.
Apricots, Blueberries, Sweet cherries, sour cherries, Figs, grapefruit, grape juice, grapes (other than wild and Concord types), melons, and oranges, Pears, Plums (Italian), Raspberries, Strawberries

Very Low pectin fruits
These always need added acid and pectin.
Nectarines, peaches, elderberries, grapes (Western Concord variety), guava, and pomegranates.

My grandmother always made her own pectin, and I'll cover how to do that in another post. Look for it soon!

200 Million Pounds of Manure?

Photo By Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Day and night, 24/7, a huge contraption prowls the grounds at Frank Volleman’s dairy in Central Texas. It has a 3,000-gallon tank with a heavy-duty vacuum pump and hoses... and underneath, adjustable blades that scrape the surface as it passes along.

In function it is something like a Zamboni used to smooth ice, but one that has crossed over to the "dark side". This is no hockey rink, and it’s not loose ice being scraped up. It’s cow manure.

Lots of cow manure. A typical lactating Holstein produces about 150 pounds of waste — by weight, about 2/3 wet feces, 1/3 urine — each day. Mr. Volleman has 3,000 lactating Holsteins and another 1,000 that are temporarily “dry.” Do the math: his Wildcat Dairy produces about 200 million pounds of manure every year!

Mr. Volleman, who came to Texas from his native Luxembourg 16 years ago, takes pride in his operation which produces about 25,000 gallons of milk a day. “It’s all about keeping it clean, keeping it comfortable and producing high quality milk,” he said, adding that what is good for his cows is good for him. “They’re writing my paycheck.”


Dairies differ from feedlots, poultry operations and hog farms in how they handle manure. At a feedlot, for example, manure is often collected only once every six months, after the thousands of fattened cattle have been shipped out. (Can't you just imagine how our foods get contaminated?) Dairy operators seem like neatniks by comparison, but even among dairies, manure management varies according to location, climate, regulations and other factors.

At a large operation like Mr. Volleman’s, it is the inexorability of excrement, as much as the sheer volume, that defines the waste-handling process. A cow’s digestive system, with its series of four stomachs, is built to handle lots of roughage. And you cannot turn it off.

So among the 40 employees at Wildcat Dairy are some whose main task is to handle the manure, 24 hours a day. They collect it from the huge open-sided barns, which house up to 1,200 cows each. The animals bed down in sand, but there are concrete alleys running the length of each barn for food, and others for excrement.

While the cows are at the rotary parlor — the stainless-steel merry-go-round of milking stalls that the Holsteins ride every eight hours around the clock — a worker on a tractor tows the tank-pump contraption up those manure alleys. The worker hops off the tractor as needed to rake solids in the bedding area into the alleys for collection.

When the tank is about half full, the worker drives it to a nearby patch of dirt, opens a valve and spreads — sprays, really — the manure out to dry. Twice a week, the solids are scraped into windrows and then spread on fields as fertilizer.

Even dried, manure contains a lot of water, so it is not economical to truck it very far — beyond about 10 miles, it is cheaper for a farmer to buy inorganic fertilizer. Some dairy producers compost their manure, making it more valuable as fertilizer, but composting costs time and money.

Mr. Volleman’s manure is spread only on his fields and those of nearby farmers. “We bring the manure to their fields, they spread it out to grow crops, we bring the crops back to feed the cows,” he said. “So it’s kind of a circle — a closed circle.”

When manure is mismanaged, the nutrients in it can foul streams, lakes and aquifers; the pathogens in it can contaminate food products; and the gases it produces, including ammonia, methane and bad-smelling volatile compounds, can upset the neighbors and pollute the atmosphere.

Even with best practices, manure can cause environmental headaches. So researchers are working on ways to improve manure handling, to modify the nutrients in it and to develop alternative uses.

Some dairy producers do compost their manure, making it more valuable as fertilizer, but composting costs time and money.

One problem, said Robert T. Burns, a professor in the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University, is that manure typically has more phosphorous than needed. “Manure is an unbalanced fertilizer from the plant’s view,” Dr. Burns said.



Diet modification can help, to some extent. Phosphorous is added to dairy feed as a supplement, and research has shown that it tends to be added in excess, said William P. Weiss, a professor in the animal sciences department at Ohio State University. 



Nitrogen, on the other hand, comes from protein, and a lactating cow needs to consume a lot of protein. “Decrease it a bit, and then milk production falls off,” Dr. Weiss said.



With nitrogen, the problem is usually not that there is too much, but that much of it is eventually lost from the manure in the form of gaseous ammonia. The bacteria in feces contain an enzyme, urease, that breaks down the urea in urine into carbon dioxide and ammonia. As with phosphorous, diet can affect the amount of nitrogen retained in the manure.

As corn-based ethanol production has increased in the United States, many dairies and feedlots now give their animals a large amount of so-called distillers’ grains, the waste corn after fermentation, which is plentiful and cheap. (...and I wonder if there's still any nutrition in the grains after distilling?)

A recent study of feedlots in the Texas Panhandle, by scientists with the United States Department of Agriculture, showed that feeding a diet high in distillers’ grains produced significantly higher ammonia emissions from the manure.

There are several options in handling manure, but they are expensive. Even in a good economy, a dairy producer may be reluctant to add costs. And the industry is currently suffering — milk prices are low, producers are losing money and some are going out of business. “Given these times,” Dr. Mukhtar said, “there is really not a whole lot of incentive to do all that.”
Source


Phosphorus in the Garden

Photo from benketaro's photostream

We are told it is hard to get enough available phosphorus into our garden soil, yet did you know it is also easy to get too much phosphorus?

Phosphorus is the "P" in NPK fertilizers, and plants need a lot of it to build proteins and to transfer energy within the plant's cells. There is a delicate balance necessary between nitrogen and phosphorus for both to be effective, and too much of either poses serious problems in the garden and in the environment.

Phosphorus is not very soluble and tends to be immobile in the soil instead of working with the nitrogen. Too much nitrogen gives you lush-looking tomato plants with no fruit, and nitrogen run-off also happens where there is excess nitrogen. The soil pH affects how easily or not the phosphorus can be altered into a form plants can use. When the soil is more acidic, the phosphorus is more easily broken down by microbes in the soil to a form the roots can take up into the plant.

Plants store phosphorus in the form of phytates in the bran and seeds, where it acts as a protective mechanism until time for the seeds to sprout. Many of those seeds become foods (and not necessarily good for us), although some seeds were always saved for planting another crop before Monsanto bought control of the seed market.

The human digestive systems lack the enzyme phytase which separates the phosphorus from the phytate molecule. We need phosphorus, just as plants do, but ingested phytates in beans and grains keep us from absorbing phosphorus and many other minerals unless we break them down before ingestion. (See my post on soaking grains and beans.)

Commercially raised non-ruminate livestock like pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc. are usually fed grains like maize (corn) and legumes like soybeans. They also cannot digest the phytates. When these non-ruminates eat seeds and beans (containing phytates) the unabsorbed phytate passes through the GI tract and elevates the amount of phosphorus in the manure.

If the bagged compost you buy has manure from non-ruminants, you can bet it probably has an excess of phosphorus. (If it's home-grown, and the non-ruminant farm animals are not fed grains and soy, you probably have great compost!) Excess phosphorus can kill off the mychorizzal-forming fungi who perform the process necessary for the plant's ability to absorb micronutrients; it also leads to eutrophication such as reduction in water quality and reduction of fish populations in our creeks, streams, lakes and rivers.

On the other hand, ruminates like cattle, goats, sheep, and deer with multiple stomachs are able to digest the phytates during the fermentation process that goes on within their stomachs (which includes chewing their "cud"). Their manure would be the better bet for compost as far as phosphorus content, if it is otherwise healthy.

Alert: You should never assume your garden needs NPK, or how much, without a soil test.
If you choose to be organic for yourself, your family, and the planet, as I do, there are many choices better than commercial chemical fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are salts, and salts sterilize the soil... sometimes little by little, but ultimately chemically fertilized soil is mostly dead soil.

If your garden needs phosphorus, you can buy bone meal, acidulated or ground bone, depending on your needs and local availability. Bone meal can contain anywhere from 20 to 30 percent phosphorus, determined by whether the bones were steamed or not.

You could also use rock phosphate if your soil needs phosphorus; however rock phosphate takes a long time to break down when soils are more alkaline than acidic. I use soft rock phosphate in the form of CalPhos if I need phosphate because the plants can immediately use it. It's also great to put on the compost pile if you need phosphorus.

Again, be safe and have a soil test done!

How Monsanto got their Permit

In late 1986, four executives of the Monsanto Company, the leader in agricultural biotechnology, paid a visit to Vice President George Bush at the White House to make an unusual pitch.

Although the Reagan administration had been championing deregulation across multiple industries, Monsanto had a different idea: the company wanted its new technology, genetically modified food, to be governed by rules issued in Washington — and wanted the White House to champion the idea.

"There were no products at the time," Leonard Guarraia, a former Monsanto executive who attended the Bush meeting, recalled in a recent interview. "But we bugged him for regulation. We told him that we have to be regulated."

Government guidelines, the executives reasoned, would reassure a public that was growing skittish about the safety of this radical new science. Without such controls, they feared, consumers might become so wary they could doom the multibillion-dollar gamble that the industry was taking in its efforts to redesign plants using genes from other organisms — including other species.

In the weeks and months that followed, the White House complied, working behind the scenes to help Monsanto — long a political power with deep connections in Washington — get the regulations that it wanted.

It was an outcome that would be repeated, again and again, through three administrations. What Monsanto wished for from Washington, Monsanto — and, by extension, the biotechnology industry — got. If the company's strategy demanded regulations, rules favored by the industry were adopted. And when the company abruptly decided that it needed to throw off the regulations and speed its foods to market, the White House quickly ushered through an unusually generous policy of self-policing.

Even longtime Washington hands said that the control this nascent industry exerted over its own regulatory destiny — through the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agriculture Department and ultimately the Food and Drug Administration — was astonishing.

"In this area, the U.S. government agencies have done exactly what big agribusiness has asked them to do and told them to do," said Dr. Henry Miller, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, who was responsible for biotechnology issues at the Food and Drug Administration from 1979 to 1994.

In June 1986, the company's lobbying effort for regulation began to show its first signs of success. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration were given authority over different aspects of the business, from field testing of new ideas to the review of new foods.

On May 26, 1992, George Bush's Vice-President, Dan Quayle, proclaimed the Bush administration's new policy on bioengineered food.

"The reforms we announce today will speed up and simplify the process of bringing better agricultural products, developed through biotech, to consumers, food processors and farmers," Mr. Quayle told a crowd of executives and reporters in the Indian Treaty Room of the Old Executive Office Building. "We will ensure that biotech products will receive the same oversight as other products, instead of being hampered by unnecessary regulation."

With dozens of new grocery products waiting in the wings, the new policy strictly limited the regulatory reach of the F.D.A, which had oversight responsibility for foods headed to market.

The announcement — a salvo in the Bush administration's "regulatory relief" program — was in lock step with the new position of industry that science had proved safety concerns to be baseless.

"We will not compromise safety one bit." Mr. Quayle told his audience.

In the F.D.A.'s nearby offices, not everyone was so sure.

Among them was Dr. Louis J. Pribyl, one of 17 government scientists working on a policy for genetically engineered food. Dr. Pribyl knew from studies that toxins could be unintentionally created when new genes were introduced into a plant's cells. But under the new edict, the government was dismissing that risk and any other possible risk as no different from those of conventionally derived food. That meant biotechnology companies would not need government approval to sell the foods they were developing.

Dr. Pribyl, a microbiologist, was not alone at the agency. Dr. Gerald Guest, director of the Center of Veterinary Medicine, wrote that he and other scientists at the center had concluded there was "ample scientific justification" to require tests and a government review of each genetically engineered food before it was sold.

Three toxicologists wrote, "The possibility of unexpected, accidental changes in genetically engineered plants justifies a limited traditional toxicological study."

The scientists were displaying precisely the concerns that Monsanto executives from the 1980's had anticipated - and indeed had considered reasonable. But now, rather than trying to address those concerns, Monsanto, the industry and official Washington were dismissing them as the insignificant worries of the uninformed. Under the final F.D.A. policy that the White House helped usher in, the new foods would be tested only if companies did it. Labeling was ruled out as potentially misleading to the consumer, since it might suggest that there was reason for concern.

-The entire text above is excerpted from "Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle," by Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times, January 25, 2001; the underlining and bold text is my emphasis.

She was Old and Cranky, but I Loved Her

 July 2002

I was quietly having my morning coffee on the front porch one summer day of 1994, when I spotted this small gray striped kitten weaving in and out of the potted plants on the steps. She was starving, flea-ridden and skittish... but obviously looking for a home, or at least for food.

Once fed, she stayed... and I named her Baz for the main character in a book I was reading. The character later turned out to be a terror, and so did the kitten as she grew into a big, fat and cranky cat who never stopped being hungry.

Fearless Hunter

Baz and I lived in nine different places from 1995 until now, and she was always a willing companion, a guard cat, and 'fearless hunter' when she was younger. I never walked the garden without her trailing my every step.

I wish I could say she was a most intriguing cat, like Tom Jones in May Sarton's The Fur Person, but in truth she was a rather ordinary-cat kind of cat, with an obsession for food.

Playing 'possum while watching the squirrels

Baz loved to be warm, in front of the woodstove or sleeping on my feet at night. She loved to sit in the sun, and in winter as all cats do, she would follow the shafts of sunlight as they moved across the floor.

There are joys and tribulations inherent in sharing one's life with a cat. Baz would lie next to me on the couch and purr if I wasn't feeling well, and she made sure I was "safe" if I went in the bathroom. (I couldn't go alone!) She 'talked' to me, although mostly when she was hungry, but she was a 'Johnny One-Note'... and her one-note was strident. Her voice was the same whether she was being petted, or louder if you accidentally stepped on her tail, or when she was protesting the tardiness of dinner. 

She loved to sit outside on the warm walkway in summer, and always came in when called by name (especially at dinnertime) or for the night. Four days ago she didn't come when called for dinner, and that had never happened in all the 16+ years she lived with me. I haven't seen her since, and I know in my heart she is dead.

Several neighborhood cats (including the barn cat I inherited when I moved here) have disappeared recently, and the rabbit population seems down as well. There is talk of a predator in this very wooded rural area, and I am convinced something must have taken her.

She will be missed, strident tone and all, but most especially at dinnertime.

Update: I just found her body in the weeds close to the creek, under a low clump of trees. She has been mauled but not eaten. Judging by the matted area in an 8 foot diameter, I'd say she put up a good fight.

When is Yogurt no longer a Probiotic?

Many yogurt manufacturers in the USA seem to have made a change in the yogurt sold in stores. Is this change to increase their profits by eliminating live cultures in the yogurt?

Yogurt is widely touted as probiotic... According to Wikipedia, "Probiotics are live microorganisms thought to be healthy for the host organism. Probiotics are commonly consumed as part of fermented foods with specially added active live cultures; such as in yogurt, or as dietary supplements." We all know to eat more yogurt to replenish good bacteria in the intestines after we have taken a round of antibiotics, but those days may be over in many locations.

I know the "trend" is the small snack-size yogurt cups with lots of HFCS-sweeetened fruit/flavor which add unhealthy calories to the diet, but I thought at least they also contained some live cultures. (I don't buy them; they're just a snack-size candy bar.)

I generally make my own yogurt, which is an easy process that gives me a healthy probiotic at a much lower cost than buying it from a store. The ingredients are simple: milk, and a store-bought yogurt to use as a starter (which is nothing more than a small portion of yogurt containing active live cultures). My preference for a yogurt to use as a starter is the Greek FAGE yogurt, but there is not a store within a hundred miles that carries that brand. So, typically I have used Dannon's plain yogurt, which has always stated it contained live cultures.

Over the last 6-8 months a local friend and I both have had trouble making yogurt; we concluded the commercial yogurt available around here (including Dannon) must contain fewer live cultures than they did previously. Then just last week I looked in the Kroger store for more yogurt to use as a starter. Not a single container stated it contained live cultures, not even the Dannon brand! Even the "Greek-style" yogurts on the shelf had no live cultures.

Most of the yogurt brands did contain some form of a thickening agent, but no live cultures. That's not much of a problem for me since I can plan ahead and save one jar of homemade yogurt from the last batch to use as a starter for the next batch. I can also buy dried yogurt culture on the internet even though I have been told it really isn't as good as using live cultures.

However, this may be a problem for folks who don't read the labels every time. They may think the yogurt still has live cultures simply because it used to, and fail to read the label.

Update: 

Checked another store in another town this week; they carried 2 brands containing live cultures: Stoneyfield, and Brown Cow. However, there were not many tubs of either... in fact just 3 of the Brown Cow.

Dairy Money in Congress

 Photo from AMagill's photostream

This information should have been included in yesterday's post about Dairy Companies playing dirty, except I didn't have it at the time.

According to MapLight.org, in the 2 year period ending last month, Milk and Dairy Producers have 'contributed' over $3 million to members of Congress. That link page has a list of special interest groups who want something from Congress, and are willing to pay for it with visible 'campaign contributions'. Who knows how many invisible contributions there are?

If you want to see how much money your congressperson has received from special interests, click here, and then click on the name. For example, the House Congressman for my district (one of the poorest districts in Virginia) is Frederick (Rick) Boucher. In the last 2 years he has received $1,764,764 in contributions... and on his tracking page at MapLight, the contributions are broken down by Top 10 Interests, Top 10 Organizations, by geography (90% of his contributions come from outside his district.), and by proximity to the actual Vote in Congress.

MapLight tracks all current legislation, who voted Yes or No, and how much money they received for that piece of legislation.

Dairy Companies Play Dirty

Photo from striatic's photostream 

Behind that glass of milk, there are BIG problems. Not only is it almost impossible for a consumer to choose to buy healthy unprocessed milk, the dairy farmers are being forced into what amounts to either slavery or bankruptcy.

The price of raw milk paid to farmers has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years. Dairy farms are going under across the country, and a few dairymen have grown so desperate they've taken their own lives.

Since December 2008, dairy farmers across the country have experienced the greatest economic crisis they have faced since the Great Depression as the price they are paid for their milk has dropped by almost half.

It may be hard to believe, but the story behind the milk your children drink or the ice cream they eat this summer is more murky than the scandals that have rocked Wall Street in the past several years. In fact, speaking about an investigation into dairy price fixing during the George W. Bush administration, one Department of Justice official said the dairy industry was “more corrupt than Enron.”

While dairy farmers suffered historic low prices in 2009, the dairy processors and the “farmer-owned” co-ops that are supposed to offer them a fair price, have been skimming off all the profits. In 2009, Dean Foods' (the largest milk processor in the US) profits soared to $76.2 million, more than 254% higher than 2008. During this same time, farmers have been taking on record debt, with a 100 head dairy farm losing more than $10,000 per month on average.

The other large dairy player in the US is the the nation's largest dairy cooperative of over 17,000 members, Dairy Farmers of America. Over the past decade, through mergers and acquisitions of co-ops and dairy processors, both Dean and DFA grew bigger and bigger. Then, the goliaths linked arms: DFA entered into a 100 percent, full-supply agreement with Dean.

So as Dean came to dominate regional markets, any dairyman who wanted to sell to one of Dean's 50 brands had to go through DFA, whether they wanted to or not.

Milkmen have been gaming the system for years. 

Back in the 1980s, prosecutors in two dozen states got 100 convictions or guilty pleas for milk processors who were charged with bid-rigging on school milk contracts. 

In 2008, two former executives of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) were fined more than $12 million for “pricing fixing” and “manipulating” milk prices. DFA was fined by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2008 for attempting to manipulate cheddar cheese prices. 

As of 2009, 17 dairy farmers are suing DFA, alleging that it is engaged in anti-competitive behavior by setting up a monopolistic "cartel" in the southeastern United States.

The antitrust division of the Justice Department spent two years investigating anti-competitive conduct in the dairy industry. Congressional and legal sources told NPR that in 2006, investigators recommended charges be filed against Dairy Farmers of America and Dean Foods, among others, for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Under President Bush's Justice Department, the case was shelved.

Fruit Fly Trap

Photo from uberculture's photostream

Since I started lacto-fermenting vegetables and fermenting plum pits recently, I seem to draw an abundance of fruit flies into the prep area. Both of the types of ferments I am doing allow the CO2 pressure inside the containers to push past the seals and run down the sides of the containers... and sometimes even pool in a saucer underneath them.

There is an easy way to attract and trap those pesky fruit flies, though.

Take a small glass or jar and put a fruit scrap, some beer or some fruit juice in it. (If you use a fruit scrap, add some water.) Then put a drop or two of dish detergent in the liquid (the detergent changes the surface tension of the liquid).

Cover the top with a piece of plastic wrap and secure it tightly over the top with a rubber band. Take a small pointed object like a pencil or large nail and poke several small holes in the plastic wrap. The fruit flies are attracted to the smell, get in and cannot get out; most will drown. Instant fruit fly trap!

Pitting Plums and Plum Vinegar

I don't have posts lined up in advance like I usually do; in fact, this is the only post in the pipeline for now. I'm very sorry, but I will pick back up in a few days. I have been very busy helping a friend in the next town pit plums for wine, and we think we'll have about a thousand pounds by Sunday when we finish. 

Pitting plums is just plain messy and tedious, but at least with 2 of us, we pass the time with conversation and it goes faster. I haven't done my fair share of pitting because after about 4 hours, my back begins to spasm. That, in turn, prohibits anything else I might do during the day, including writing posts for this blog.

In this post, I mentioned I'm playing around with making real fruit vinegar. The jug of fermenting plum pits above is merely a trial of the process; I don't expect it to be a viable comestible but I have to start somewhere. The best way to make real fruit vinegars is to first make fruit wine, and the folks who make plum wines do not all agree on fermenting the pits or not. Most don't ferment them, because 'everyone' says the pits make the wine bitter, although some who do include the pits have won awards for the wine. Go figure.

So I decided to do some of each. Here's why:

I'm sure you've heard the story about a young wife who cut off the end of a whole ham before baking it? Her husband asked why, and she replied because her mother always did. Questioning her mother about why brought the response "because your grandmother always did". Well, the grandmother was still alive, and when questioned about the 'why' she replied "because the pan was too small". So it had nothing to do with the actual ham at all.

Now, it may turn out that the pits fermenting for more than a week or so actually make the juice bitter, but at least I will know firsthand... and not from hearsay!

Making Real Sauerkraut

I made the time to start a jar of sauerkraut fermenting, using Sandor Katz's method of pounding the lightly salted cabbage to release the juices. The dark speck is one of the juniper berries I added for flavor. You don't really see the juice in this photo below, but there was enough to fill the very tightly packed jar.

I pounded the cabbage (half at a time) with the butt of my chef's knife, mainly because it was handy, and heavy. The carrots were added just for color, and I barely managed to pack the entire shredded and pounded 6-or-so-pound cabbage into the jar. 

I started it at suppertime, and used about 1-1/2 tablespoons of sea salt. The juice tasted salty but it hadn't had time to penetrate the cabbage so I'm hoping it isn't too salty when finished. (This is my first kraut in years and it's trial and error again. You can always rinse it before serving.) It started fermenting quicker than I thought it would (less than 24 hours), and I hadn't placed the jar in a container to catch overflows yet. When I came home from pitting plums the next afternoon, it had already spewed juice out all over the counter!

In another few days it will get moved to the cool and dark root cellar until October. YUM!

Visitor # 10,000!!

 Photo from bfick's photostream

Yesterday, Thursday July 22, 2010 at 12:39:12 pm, this blog celebrated its 10,000th view! The viewer was from Beachwood, New Jersey, and although there is no 'real' prize, I offer my heartfelt Thanks and Congratulations!

This blog was started on May 15, 2009, and I feel quite honored to have had over 10,000 views in not much over one year, considering I do no personal pleading to read my blog. Some came here by word of mouth, some by a search engine, and some by mere happenstance. Since I do not accept paid ads, I generally do not rank high on search engine results, except by a specific topic or phrase, so I am doubly grateful that you arrived here!

Some of those 10,000 views are repeat views by 'Followers' whether anonymous or with a screen name, and I laud your interest and loyalty. A few of you actually 'talk' to me via Comments or by email, and you are what keeps me posting. Thank You, One and All.

Grandma's Home Remedies 1

Arthritis pain in your hands? Mix 2 cups oatmeal (not quick or instant) and 1 cup of water in a microwave bowl. Heat for a minute or two, allow to cool enough to handle and apply to hands for soothing relief.

Bruises? Soak a cotton ball or small piece of cotton fabric in white vinegar. Apply to the bruise for one hour. The vinegar reduces discoloration and speeds healing.

Splinter? Apply a drop of Elmer's White Glue on the splinter, allow to dry, and peel away. Usually the splinter will stick to the glue.

Rust stains? Soak an abrasive sponge (like a kitchen scrubby pad) with Coca-Cola and scrub the stain. The phosphoric acid in the Coke works to get the job done.

Skin scrapes? Apply honey, and cover with a bandaid overnight. Honey kills any bacteria, thus keeping the wound from infection, and honey speeds the healing.

Headache? Rub half a fresh-cut lime half on your forehead; the throbbing will go away.

Egg Cupboards and Fresh Eggs

If you have eggs in the refrigerator that have been there for days or maybe even weeks, there is always a question of freshness and safety of the egg. If I absolutely have to buy factory eggs during the winter when fresh farm eggs are not available, I often keep them far too long because I really don't like the taste. 

The easy test for eggs is to fill a deep bowl full of water, and place an egg in it. The air pocket on fresh eggs is about the size of a dime, and thin. Very fresh eggs will sink to the bottom and lie on their side; eggs a week or so old will lie on the bottom too, but bob slightly. As the eggs get older, the air pocket inside the shell increases; a 3 week old egg will float with the narrow end pointed down, and a bad egg will just float and/or bob around. A fresh egg cracked onto a flat plate will have a yolk that stands firm and high, with a white that is thick and close to the yolk. As eggs age, the yolk and egg white both lose elasticity; the yolk becomes flatter, and the white runny.

Why do they float? Partly due to the 'cleanliness' fetish. 

All eggs (chicken, duck, goose... ostrich) are laid with a mucilaginous coating on the outside of the shell, which acts as a protective barrier. It is designed to keep air (and thus bacteria) out of the egg while the embryo grows into a chick. All factory eggs are washed of this protective coating, leaving the shells porous. Porous eggs do not keep well or long, even refrigerated, as they allow air penetration and ultimately spoilage. Also, most refrigerator air will hold odors of stored (or overlooked, spoiled) foods and can transfer those odors to the already porous eggs.

My mother kept eggs, unwashed (unless exceptionally dirty) in an egg cupboard on the wall in the cool pantry. Most eggs were used within a week or so of being laid, only washed just before cracking, and with a date penciled on each egg so the oldest were used first. My grandmother kept eggs in the cool cellar for months by coating them with paraffin or vaseline and storing in a bowl, or immersed in a crock of lard, but the eggs had to be fresh and unwashed, and preferably non-fertile.

 

Photo from alex_ford's photostream

The reason for using non-fertile eggs has to do with incubation temps of fertile eggs. Fertile eggs are usually in a nest (before the hen actually sets them) for only a day or so at normal outdoor temperatures. However, if the proper incubating temperature of about 102.5ºF is not reached soon and maintained, the fertile embryo will die and cause the egg to decay.

You can use fertile eggs for storage but you must be sure they are fresh that day. One bad egg in a crock of lard is just as bad as one bad apple in a bushel... both will spoil the others around them.

Almost all of the fresh, free-range eggs I find lately at the farmer's markets have been washed. So while they look clean and pretty, they don't keep well, and I have to refrigerate them even though I use them within a week or so. I'm working on a couple of farmers to keep some unwashed eggs aside for me until I have my own layers. They usually forget, probably because one of the children collects and washes the eggs... and not always the same child.

Once I have my own eggs, I will experiment with different long-term storage methods including coating with beeswax, immersing in waterglass (sodium silicate), lard or olive oil in a crock; coated eggs covered in bran or sawdust mixed with salt, and perhaps other methods as I find them. I doubt I will try vaseline or any other petroleum-based material except probably paraffin, just on general principles (same for GMO oils). 

I really would like to be able to store local free-range eggs over the winter in my root cellar so I always have good eggs available even when the local hens aren't laying.