Golden Acre Lives On

More Scrapbooking

2011-04-16T12:03:00.001-05:00

Thanks for all the compliments on my scrapbook project. As promised, here are a few more pages to look at. Feel free to copy any layouts or use any ideas you get from my pages.

Halloween 2010

Alan's graduation from Fordham, complete with original tassle.

Tribute page to my mother.

Thanks again for the compliments.

Golden Acre Lives On: Mama's Sweet Pickles

2011-03-31T09:15:00.000-05:00

Golden Acre Lives On: Mama's Sweet Pickles

Scrapbooking

2011-03-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

Scrapbooking is all the rage, and the elements are cute, so I thought I'd give it a try. First I used an old copy of Farewell to Arms and did some creative things to the pages. Then I went on to trying my hand at traditional scrapping. It's relaxing and keeps my mind occupied in a zen-like way. Below are some of my beginner's pictures. Many still require missing elements.

For more information there are plenty of sites about scrapping, complete with free ideas. To get started, read more about this cute hobby at http://scrapbooking.about.com/.

Make Your Own Granola

2011-03-03T19:05:00.000-06:00

With food prices increasing every day, it makes sense to cut corners whenever possible. One way to reduce costs is to make your own granola. You can eat it alone with milk or hot water, on top of other cereals, mixed into yogurt. When you make you own, you are able to control what kind of additives and ingredients go into your food.

Ingredients:

Oatmeal

1 c. Honey

2 TBLS. Margarine

Fruits

2 cups Flax seed

1 cup nuts

2 cups sunflower seed

Gather all your ingredients together.

Mix honey and margarine in a saucepan. Heat until almost boiling.

Mix together sunflower seed...

Add nuts and flax seed...then fill bowl with oats. Pour the honey mixture over the ingredients and gently stir and turn the oat mixture until evenly coated.

Prep pans by lining with foil if desired, and spraying with PAM spray. Very important to spray the pans to keep the granola from sticking.

Spread the oat mixture evenly in two pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Add fruits now, when granola is slightly cool. Gently mix together in pans.

When fully cooled, finished product should be sealed in an airtight container.

Wormy Delight

2011-02-24T14:04:00.002-06:00

This is such great info that I lifted it from the Gardens Alive website located at http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=8815 to share with you. I can personally attest to the value of adding earthworms to your garden sites. Read on to find out more from Gardens Alive®!

“Encapsulated Earthworm Cocoons from Gardens Alive!® are convenient and easy to add to your garden soil. You plant them in garden soil just as you would plant ordinary seeds. They’re especially useful for people switching from conventional to organic gardening. Better soil quality gives your organic seeds the best start. Each cocoon contains 1-10 eggs, depending on the species, and each egg will produce one earthworm.

Greatest Living Natural Soil Boosters

Gardeners covet earthworms' presence in their plots because:

their castings boost nitrogen in the soil
they move deep-soil nutrients closer to plant roots
their tunnels loosen soil, improving aeration
their activities help soil particles bond, balancing moisture retention and drainage

Earthworms perform this same magic in compost, speeding the development of nutrient dense, moisture-dispersing humus.”

Shimmering Images of Fall

2010-09-13T11:06:00.000-05:00

When I talk about pictures in my mind I am talking, quite specifically, about images that shimmer round the edges…you just lie low and let them develop. Joan Didion

Rough cut fields spotted with brown hay bales… smooth rounded gourds in gold, orange and green… sharp smell of mown grass… fat yellow garden spiders weaving stories in their webs…brown crunchy leaves underfoot… Farmer’s market bounty: colorful greens, papery onions, gourds and pumpkins…blue cloudless skies…clever scarecrows in straw hats and overalls…a clump of brittle corn stalks…

Fall is my favorite time of year. The skies are gorgeous, gardens putting forth their last glorious efforts, and the sensory sensations of the season are Nature’s last gifts before the onslaught of winter.

Second Planting

2010-08-03T09:22:00.000-05:00

Fall planting is a wonderful thing, giving us a chance to enjoy Nature’s bounty up until the holidays. Now until Aug 15th is the time to start sowing the seeds for another crop. And while Fall planting is not easy, with care and attention you can have another bumper crop this year.

Most importantly, choose the right plants for the season. Remember, these plants will be fighting extreme heat, low water, full-grown insects, and those ever-present weeds. Near the end of their season the weather will be cold, perhaps rainy, so you want plants that are meant to grow in those conditions. Broccoli, cabbage, snap beans, collards and other greens and lettuces, radishes and potatoes all perform well when planted late in the season.

Follow the directions on the seed packet or plant insert that direct you when to plant. If you live in Nashville, keep in mind that the first frost date is approximately October 29th and count backward accordingly. If the plant requires 60 days to fruition, you want to plant by August 29th or sooner to beat the frost date.

Plants require nitrogen, and fall plants are no exception. Fertilize your seed with nitrogen. Nitrogen is very mobile in the soil, making it subject to leaching and other types of losses, so it has to be replaced. Urban soils are often lacking in nutrients, especially where organic material such as leaves and grass clippings have been constantly removed and not allowed to return nutrients to the soil. Adding compost, leaf mould, animal manures, seaweed, straw, etc. on a regular basis is the best recipe for plant health. A word of warning though: don't incorporate organic matter deeper than 20cm - it can produce gases around the roots of plants and kill them. Organic mulches are great for water conservation and weed control as well. Organic material does however use up nitrogen as it breaks down. A good way of replacing nitrogen is planting a green manure crop of legumes and digging the crop into the soil. Chemical fertilizers allow you to be more scientific and exact in the way you apply nutrients.

All in all, you can plant fall crops with confidence by following the tips mentioned in this article. I relied heavily on the websites listed below and even used some of their words verbatim. Please visit both sites for more extensive info.

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/homeGarden/default.asp

http://www.global-garden.com.au/gardenbegin_soil.htm#More%20Good%20Oil%20on%20Soil

Sweet Summer Corn

2010-06-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

The key to high quality sweet corn is rapid growth, adequate soil moisture and nutrients, and harvesting the ears at optimum maturity.

When the corn is about 6 inches tall, thin short varieties to two feet apart and tall varieties to three feet apart. Although corn can be grown closer together than this, the roots are then more crowded and more watering and feeding are needed. Corn is a heavy user of nitrogen. Fertilize in the spring, again when the corn is eight inches tall and again when the plants are 18 inches tall. Hill soil around the plant roots to help support the stalks.

Watering is very important. Keep the soil evenly moist. Corn often grows so fast in hot weather that the leaves wilt because the roots can't keep the leaves supplied with moisture. Although corn requires much water, avoid getting water on the tassels. The pollen from the tassels must fall onto the corn silk to produce kernels, and if pollination does not occur, all that will grow is the cob. Weed early and keep the weeds cut back. Remember that corn has shallow roots, and a vigorous attack on the weeds may destroy the crop.

Yummy Recipes from the Cupboard

2010-06-05T13:06:00.002-05:00

Yummy Dinners from Food Storage

I’ve been promising to include some recipes from my food storage. Here are a couple of quickies.

Chicken Alfredo with peas
1 jar of Alfredo sauce¼ c. dried peas 1 can white chicken breast meat Spelt
Dried mushrooms Start the water for the spelt. Combine the sauce, peas and chicken in a saucepan. Simmer on low until peas are tender. Boil spelt until tender. Drain and serve with sauce on top.

Cannellini with Dried Shitake and Canned Diced Tomatoes
Cannellini beans, cooked
Shallot or onion
Garlic, thyme, oregano
Dried mushrooms
Cook dried beans according to instructions. In a skillet, melt some high-heat canola oil. Thinly slice some shallot or onion and sauté. At the last minute, add some minced garlic. Stir until garlic starts to turn golden. Add tomatoes with juices. Simmer. Add thyme, Greek oregano, salt and pepper, mushrooms, and beans. Simmer until mushrooms are soft. Serve over noodles.

2010-05-27T17:36:00.001-05:00

Bounty...

and beauty...

Gardening Tips

2010-04-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

Got wisteria that won’t bloom? It might be that your plant is going through its juvenile phase, which encompasses the first seven years of the plant’s life. Prune wisteria in late spring or early summer for more blooms. You can control the shape of your wisteria with pruning.

Pinch back your mum three times before July 4th. Don’t bother them after that for full fall blooms. Failing to pinch back mums results in early blooming and leggy plants.

Take control of weeds. Spending five minutes a day on weeding will help you avoid spending hours later.

Chicken wire and rebar help keep the cats from scratching in your gardening areas.

Remember to use the magic formula when you plant:

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup bone meal

1/3 cup Epsom salts

1/4 cup blood meal

Mix together and add about a tablespoon to the bottom of the plant hole. Fill with water and let the water drain out. Then plant. This works best for flowering plants.

Sometimes azaleas will grow in a sunny spot, but the bloom period will be shortened.

Forsythia sets bud right after the blooms fade, so if you’re going to prune, do it as soon as blooming is finished. This will increase the number of blooms on the rest of the plant and cause the plant to thicken.

Got clay soil? Don’t despair. You can grow roses. Follow online instructions for planting, pruning and feeding. Knockout roses are fun and easy to grow.

Rare and Beautiful Country

2010-04-07T08:43:00.000-05:00

"It began in mystery and it will end in mystery, but what a rare and beautiful country lies in between." --Diane Ackerman

I can’t help but apply this quote to my gardens. They too begin in mystery, with a tiny seed that magically grows. At the end of the season, they simply die, a mystery in itself. But oh, the beauty in between.

A budding apple tree...

Happy herbs!

Pretty maids all in a row.

A tiny treasure...

Tending What You Have

2010-03-31T09:33:00.000-05:00

I’m dying to try whatever new and experimental gardening method comes out. I have raised French intensive garden beds, a cinder-block composter, a drip water system, companion plantings, cold frames...you name it. Recently I got on a straw-bale garden kick. The pictures look great, the gardens produce, and it wouldn’t take much of an investment. But suddenly I found myself visualizing the work involved in getting the bales ready, the intensive watering required, and I realized I’m not ready to add to my existing collection of garden beds—I’m not even taking care of the ones I have!

So today I re-sketched the front and back yards and all the different gardening areas. It’s easy to see from the drawings where the weak points are. I do these sketches in pencil so I can erase and rename areas that change and are added to.
Following the paperwork phase of taking care of the yardens, I

spent two hours weeding and grubbing onions,

spread a cup of blood meal each on the compost heaps and watered in,

fed the seedlings, indoors and out,

and mowed around the raised bed gardens.

Small chores, true, but necessary to the health of the garden, the compost heap, and the neighbors’ happiness. My gardens will reflect the level of attention and care they’ve received from me. I learned that it’s more fun to start a new project than continue with an old one, but that continuation is what brings about good results.

Where Do I Start?

2010-03-02T10:47:00.000-06:00

This year you want to make a garden. You’ve tried before with little success, and you’ve decided to make it happen this year. But there’s all this ground in your yard and you don’t know how to start. Where do you begin? My best advice to new gardener’s is to use raised-bed gardening. It helps cut down on weeding and provides an instantly wonderful growing medium for your plants.

Now is the time to build your garden. Here is my list of steps to help you get started this year. No tools needed.

Materials Needed:

16 cinder blocks

Newspapers

One bag manure

One bag sand

One bag peat

Six bags of top soil

Find a spot that gets sunlight for at least eight hours a day. No shade trees nearby, no other plants growing around the area that might pollute your food garden.

Lay the cinder blocks out in a square or rectangle.

Line the bottom of the square with thick, thick layers of newspaper. Be sure to line under the cinder blocks to keep weeds from growing out of the holes in the blocks.

If you have raw compost, spread a layer over the newspaper.

Pour three bags of dirt over that layer.

Add a layer of leaves if you have them.

Pour the sand, peat moss and manure next.

Top with the remaining top soil. Add top soil into the holes in the cinder blocks.

Congratulations, you’ve built a raised-bed garden. Think of it as a large flower pot where you will be growing your veggies.

PLANTING

You have 4 square feet of earth to grow foods in. Using the French Intensive gardening method, you place your plants in such a way that they shelter and mulch each other. Here are things you can plant in your garden bed.

Beets

Carrots

Romaine

Spinach

Sweet Pepper

Cabbage

Onions

Chard

You choose the seeds according to when you’ll be planting. For a good planting guide, go to http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/zipcode/38401. Choose your planting dates according to where you live.

Remember when you plant, slightly water the soil first, and then put the seed in the prepped soil. You only want to plant as deep as the seed is large. For myself, when I plant a new bed outdoors, I cover it with landscape cloth to keep the cats from digging in the soil. That also allows me to plant early.

These plants need their own beds or prepped areas away from your raised-bed garden:

Zucchini, Eggplant and other squashes

Tomatoes

Peas

Cukes

Pumpkins

Some herbs

Look around your yard for other planting spots. Do you have a fence or trellis that gets lots of straight sun every day? Perfect place to plant peas. Peas are very forgiving, they are easy to grow and harvest. Mine grow up the trellis on the deck and on the fence in the courtyard.

Tomatoes need a huge growing area. You can see from the photo of my September tomatoes that by fall you’ll have your hands full. I grow mine on hills along the fence next to each other.

HERBS
You can plant herbs with your other foods. Stay tuned for more information about planting herbs.

Winter Wait

2010-02-27T09:05:00.000-06:00

February is a tough month. The weather can be relentless, and those sunny days are few and far between. I sit at the window like a cat, gazing out at the gardens. Although it’s not too early to start some seedlings, it’s too cold to put out seed in the ground, and I’m tired of my household projects. Let me rephrase that: I’m tired of having to do projects to get me through winter. I want to get my fingers in the dirt, to feel the “freshening breeze” on my face and neck, I long to be one with the earth again. I have a bad case of spring fever.
So what do we do in late February to get by?

1. Plan your garden layouts.
2. Check all your tools. Take the mower and tools that need spring checkups and sharpening to the shop now, before the rush.
3. Spread chicken manure on the garden beds.
4. Make a list of the seed you need. Set up a Seed Exchange with friends. Don’t forget flowers!
5. Get your seedling pots and trays in order.
Mix seedling dirt.
6. Plant below-ground seed now: carrots, onions, turnips, garlic, beets, potatoes. They grow best if planted after the full moon.
7. Plant peas on February 28th, the full moon day

What do YOU do during the winter lull? How do you get through garden fever? Planning seems to be key. Also staying in touch with other gardeners. Blogging about gardening helps, at least I can talk about the gardens and dream about July, when the gardens come to fruition and the long winter wait will seem to be worth it.

Cinderblock Composter

2010-02-18T10:57:00.000-06:00

A quick way to make your raised bed gardens is to use cinder blocks to enclose the garden area. Cinder blocks are about $1.30 each. I like my gardens to be small enough to reach across, so I used 24 blocks for a cost of about $30.

Line the bottom of the area and under the cinder blocks with thick layers of newspaper to kill weeds.

Fill garden area with compost, leaves, sand and soil. Cover with a landscape cloth that allows rain to run through. Allow the heap to rest for a week. Then pour a beer over the whole pile. Cover.

Fill the holes in the concrete blocks with garden soil and plant with herbs and flowers. Petunias and marigolds help repel pests and beautify the cinder blocks.

More Compost News

2010-02-02T16:39:00.002-06:00

Your compost should not smell bad. When you pack it in the garbage can mentioned in the former post, you should be careful to pack everything loosely. I sometimes spread a little dirt over the top of mine, but I use dirt sparingly. I follow the directions I’ve given on my posts.

Recently our composting garbage can filled up with compost layers, so Alan built a square wooden frame for the next raised garden bed in the back yard. We lined the bottom of the frame with a thick layer of newspaper to kill weeds. The inks and soy in the paper decay and are beneficial to compost. Next, we upended the garbage can. Try to keep from tipping over the pile. Pour a can or bottle of beer over the pile. Cover the pile with a tarp to keep the rain from washing out all the ingredients. My tarp allows water to slowly seep into the compost pile, wetting it and keeping the enzymes active.

Love your compost pile. Rake through the pile after a week, then once a week rake the pile backwards and forwards. Gradually, miraculously, a rick dark earth will form.

Steps to Making a Compost Pile

2010-01-21T11:36:00.000-06:00

1. Cut the bottom out of a garbage can.

2. Mount wire mesh across two pieces of wood to create a screen raised slightly off the ground.

3. Upend the garbage can onto the screen.

4. Cover the screen with a thick layer of newspaper.

5. Spread a thin layer of kitchen waste on the newspaper.

6. Mound a layer of dry leaves and dirt on top of that.

7. Sprinkle with worm casings

8. Make a second layer of kitchen waste.

9. Cover with soil and dry leaves. You can also use dry grass cuttings from your yard.

Keep the compost loose.

Never add anything harmful to your compost. Some shrubbery is poisonous so don’t add anything except grass cuttings to your compost. Don’t use meat or meat juice. Shrimp shells are good. Eggshells are good. I do not use manure in my compost because I don’t have access.

If possible, grind up or chop up whatever you add to compost. This step creates more work for you in the beginning, but the end results are well worth it.

Boosts

Worms

Instead of using animal manure in your compost, try using worm castings, a super boost. Follow directions for making worm casting tea.

Leaves

Every fall I beg for leaves. I keep some of the leaves in bags to add to the compost. The rest I spread liberally in a thick layer on my garden beds. I tarp them down with landscape cloth that allows the rain to filter through. By planting time the leaves having decomposed enough to be turned into the soil.

Grass

During grass-cutting season, we let the grass on the back half of our land grow long. When it is cut, I let it lie in the sun until dried out before raking up to use in compost. Grass acts a green manure in your compost, eliminating the need to use animal wastes.

Beer

You can add a half bottle of beer per 2 bushels. The beer contains yeast which will ferment.

Charcoal

We have an outdoor fire pit. I dump the cold ash and charcoal directly into the compost. Be SURE you allow ample time for the ash/charcoal to cool.

Blood Meal

If you use blood meal, remember it is high in nitrogen and can burn your plants. It will speed the breakdown process in your compost. Be advised that blood meal is a slaughterhouse by product.

Herbs for the garden

Comfrey tea is a wonderful addition to compost. After making poultices and tinctures, always bless the herb and put it into the compost to go back to the earth.

Bone Meal

Adds phosphorus to the soil and can be used liberally. Sprinkle on compost.

Epsom Salts

Add magnesium to the soil.

Endgame
At the end of one month, I lift the garbage can off the compost pile and cover the pile with a tarp. Once a week I uncover the heap, stir the compost, then wet it down and re-tarp. I use a tarp so that rain doesn’t wash out all the nitrogen in the pile. With care and boosting, you can produce good compost in 3 months. Just in time for spring planting.

Biodynamic Planting

2010-01-04T13:34:00.003-06:00

I've begun to research biodynamic gardening. I've laid out all the garden beds (8). Inside the fence where the beds are more sheltered I plan to use plastic lean-tos to cover the plants so I can get started earlier. Below is a schedule of moon phases and my planting times. You can save yourself some time by consulting the Farmer's Almanac, which shows a schedule for planting indoors and out. I'll follow their recommendations which are very similar to my own research listed below. I'm getting started earlier than usual because I am experimenting with covered beds.

Capricorn- An earth sign. Productive and dry. Good for planting potatoes and other root crops, and for encouraging strong hardy growth. Cut back plants damaged by cold. Good for grafting, and pruning to promote healing, and applying organic fertilizer. December 22 to January 19

Jan 30 – full moon
Jan 15 – new moon
Jan 16 Start petunias

Aquarius- An air sign. Barren and dry. Harvest root and fruit for storage. Cultivate, destroy weeds and pests. Good for planting onion sets. January 20 to February 18

Full moon Jan 30th
New Moon Feb 14
Feb 15 Start lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach, basil, thyme, cilantro
Jan 31 Start carrots indoors.

Pisces- A water sign. Very productive and moist. Second best sign for planting and transplanting. Especially good for root growth and irrigation. February 20 to March 20

Full Moon Feb 28
New moon March 15
March 16 Transplant to outdoors: lettuce, spinach seedlings, plant snow peas, artichoke, broccoli
use mini greenhouses
Feb 29 - seed onions, carrots, radishes, beets in back bed. Transplant carrots. Cover with greenhouse
Start indoors: Yolo peppers, tomatoes, winter squash indoors, zucchini and cukes, more lettuce, cabbage
Start marigolds and zinnias indoors.

12 Things You Can Do To Be Healthier

2009-12-30T13:14:00.000-06:00

Each year during the holidays, Dr. David Eifrig publishes a list of his top-12 tips for dramatically improving your health – and life – in the coming year. In brief, they are:
1. Enough sleep
2. Sun on your body every day
3. Movement
4. Massage
5. Eat more fruit
6. Meditation
7. Aromatherapy
8. Aspirin –one low-dose aspirin/week
9. Wine – small doses
10. Don't share items that carry germs
11. Take an antibiotic once a year
12. Music

The Hierarchy of Food Waste

2009-12-28T12:27:00.004-06:00

Our friends at Love Land Local posted this wonderful blog about food waste. I learned from reading the story and I hope you will too. Visit LLL's site for more informative articles.

To do your part to reduce food waste, you need to do some planning. First, make plans of what you would do with extra food of various types rather than landfill it. This is particularly important for perishable food such as meat, dairy products, vegetables, and fruits.

Plan A: Do what you can to preserve the food for your family: freeze meat before it turns, or cook into soups, stews, casseroles, etc., and freeze them (be SURE to use wide-mouth freezer-safe jars or plastic tubs). Can soups with a pressure canner. Mildly freezer-burned meats can be cooked in stews or braised; you'll probably never know the difference.

Vegetables can be canned, lactofermented, frozen, or dried. BE SURE to do this while they're still fresh, before they get wilted, discolored, or slimey. Fruits can be cooked into desserts, dried in pieces or as rollups, frozen, made into jams and jellies... well, you get the picture. Milk can be made into fresh cheese; fresh cheese can be frozen successfully. (Look for a post on this subject soon.) Same for cream or half-n-half, if you ever have such things left over. Or you can use milk or cream in soups, casseroles, puddings, etc.

If your storage is full, your freezer is full, you know you'll never use the food if you stored it (frozen and canned foods don't keep forever), no one in your family likes the food (buying mistake), or you feel that you have enough, then go to...

Plan B: Give the food to other humans. This includes family members, friends, neighbors, the less fortunate, food banks, food drives, and other charities. The best use of human food is for humans. Food banks probably won't take fresh meat and dairy products, unless truly fresh and unopened, for obvious reasons. Check first. But in general they are happy to take surplus vegetables and fruits, including fruits from your yard that are in excess of your ability to use them. Be sure to do this while the produce is still attractive and useful.

Sometimes, however, food items just get away from us; we turn our backs and they wilt, go sour, turn brown, etc. Not fit for human consumption. Now you can go for...

Plan C: Give the food to animals. If you have chickens, they're perfect! I give my chickens anything except chicken; they're omnivores like us, and will happily eat meat that is starting to turn, old dairy products, mushy fruits, etc. (Actually, chickens would eat chicken perfectly happily, but it's evil to feed animals their own kind.)

Perhaps you have friends with chickens, or even pigs. Don't feed pigs raw meat of any kind, to break the cycle of disease. But the meat could be cooked. Meat slightly past its prime or freezer-burned could also be given to dogs or cats, in modest quantities. Tired old casseroles, freezer burned vegetables, it all looks good to a pig.

Perhaps you don't know anyone with chickens or pigs. And that food is definitely over the hill. Next step:

Plan D: Compost it! If you have land, or even a neighborhood garden spot, get a compost heap going. Non-meat food scraps, outside leaves of cabbage, rotting apples, you get the idea, mixed with fallen leaves, grass clippings, and similar stuff. You can find numerous books with information on composting. Put it in, then let it work. Next year, add it to your gardens or flower beds. It is suggested not to put meat-based foods into compost unless the bins are secure, to keep down problems with skunks, bears, raccoons, the neighborhood dog, etc.

Plan E: The last useful stop on the food waste bandwagon is biogas generation. I don't know of any around here, but in Britain they have loads of them, using all kinds of food waste from "post-consumer" to factory wastes. Methane (natural gas) is generated--very useful stuff. The residue is a good soil amendment. The challenge is getting the icky stuff to the biogas plant, but the British are figuring it out.

Plan F (for failure): The worst thing to do with your food waste is to send it to the landfill. There it rots underground along with the rest of the stuff, producing methane and other greenhouse gases which make their way to the surface and into the atmosphere. Many communities are having problems with overly-full dumps and landfills.

This is waste of the worst sort--human labor and fossil fuels used to grow the food, which is now not of any use to any living thing, and increases the greenhouse gas and waste disposal problems.

BTW have you thought about the term "fossil fuels"? Fossil fuels were laid down under the ground along with the fossils. The natural cycles which make these things take millions of years. But we're burning through it as if there is no tomorrow....

Oh, another thing, "tomorrow", as in the next few decades, is going to be different from the last 50 years. Hate to break the news to you. The excesses that we're accustomed to are going to disappear. Somewhere between a technological paradise on the one hand, and apocalypse on the other hand, is where we're headed. If you want to read some really well-reasoned articles on these and related subjects, try the Archdruid Report.
Posted by Lynnet at 11:26 AM 0 comments
Monday, November 2, 2009
Food Waste--A Global Tragedy
I have recently finished reading Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, by British author Tristram Stuart. His analysis features the UK food distribution system, with significant contributions about the U.S. system and other European countries. The facts are scandalous, as he says. This book is well worth the reading. Here are a few highlights.

Food waste starts right at the farm, particularly with contract growers for supermarkets. Supermarket chains order x pounds of something, like carrots, to be delivered by y date, but they can reduce their order if by that time, demand is down, they already have too many, or for any other reason.

If the grower does NOT deliver x pounds of carrots at that time, he/she is liable to lose their contract for the next year. Weather or crop failure is not an excuse, so the grower who wants to keep their contract will plant more rows of carrots than needed.

If the supermarket chain reduces its order arbitrarily, the grower is left with excess carrots. Or if there is a bumper crop, probably the other growers have one too. The residual value of all those extra carrots is probably not worth the trouble of packaging, shipping and marketing, so they are often plowed under.

Next, a tremendous amount of food waste is caused by "aesthetic" considerations. Carrots must be perfectly straight, so they all fit neatly into those bags. Non-straight carrots are dumped or sold for animal feed, or in the U.S. are sent to be milled into "baby carrots". Potatoes that are too big: out they go. Apples that are too small: out they go. Any produce item with a little mark on it, a slightly funny color, etc., out they go. In some cases they go for animal food, in some cases particularly in Britain, they are used as feedstock for methane generation. But often they are just composted or plowed under.

It gets worse.

Sell-by dates are the culprit in much meat and dairy-related waste. These are very conservatively set; most foods are good for another several days or even a week or more. This factor combines with the desire of stores to be fully stocked with every possible item, even perishable, regardless of level of sales.

Between the overstocking and the pessimistic Sell-by dates, packaged entrees, sandwiches, salads, and similar foods are usually just dumped. Stuart says that in the U.K., the dumpsters are generally locked to prevent the poor from getting their hands on the food. If not that, the foods are emptied from their packaging and stirred all together with non-food waste to make them unusable. Due to landfill fees in the U.K., more of this waste is going to methane generation, generating pennies on the dollar of their worth as food for humans.

The loss to human food by dairy and meat waste is multiplied by the tremendous amount of human food (corn, soy, wheat, etc.) fed to conventional livestock.

Other sources of food waste include eating too much (waistline as waste), general dislike of organ meats (though some of this goes into pet food), the packaging of perishable food in amounts that are too large for singles or couples to use before they go bad, and the tendency of many children to take a bite of something and throw it away. And the waste of by-catch for seafood runs up to 90% for some items such as wild-caught shrimp. Waste of seafood is particularly tragic since many species are drastically overfished.

Another cause is poor household planning: buying what's on sale instead of what the family will eat; forgetting what you have in stock; getting busy or tired and eating out instead of eating what's on hand.

Stuart has done a great deal of research, and finds that counting waste sources from farm to garbage can, approximately 50% of food production is wasted in the sense that it is does not meet its destiny as human food. The U.S. has more than four times the amount of food required by the nutritional needs of the population (some is fed to livestock). The production of surplus food is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions; the planting of trees on land used for wasted food would offset half to all of man-made emissions.

The good news is that enough food is produced now to give everyone in the world enough to eat. The bad news, of course, is that we do not do that. U.S. households spend about 9% of their income on food, half of what was spent a few decades ago. Food is SO CHEAP for most people that they do not value it. Convenience trumps instrinsic value. It must be especially galling for the hungry, especially in our wealthy nation, to know that tons of perfectly edible food end up in landfills. And it is not showing respect to the animals, the farmers, the land, the Earth, when we treat these resources as unimportant.

So what can we as individuals do? I welcome you to join me in trying to reduce the food waste in your own household. And I welcome suggestions from readers for specific and general ideas.

After all, it isn't just food, it's lives. Lives of food animals, lives of farmers, lives of wild animals whose habitat has been taken away for more soybeans or oil palm or whatever. It's past time for us to consider the Earth and its dwellers as precious.

* Be a better manager. Be aware of your stocks. Use or preserve items before they go bad. Buy only what you will use. There are a multitude of ways to use or preserve food items, and I'll discuss a few in upcoming posts.

* Buy direct from farmers, through CSAs, or through farmers markets or cooperatives. This will eliminate much of the "aesthetic" waste from the supermarkets. The crooked carrot and knobbly potato are perfectly good food.

* Buy grass-fed or pastured meat, dairy and eggs when you can. This will free up more food for humans, and will reduce the need for intensive monocultures.

* Teach your children to respect food. One way is to let them have a garden. The carrot they grew is more precious than the carrot from the supermarket. Or take them to a small farm or CSA, so they can see the plants and animals. Model respect for food in your own behavior.

* If you have fruit trees or shrubs in your yard, work at putting that harvest to good use, not just letting it fall on the sidewalk or be swept into the garbage.

Don't Use Creosote

2009-12-28T09:12:00.003-06:00

Since my last posting, I've learned that creosote timbers are treated with various chemicals, including arsenic. Please don't use creosote and please forgive my ignorance. Best to use untreated lumber or concrete blocks. The blocks are expensive, but you can sometimes find them cheap on Craigs List. Please post a response if you have used concrete blocks before. I'm loving the idea.

2009-12-20T16:24:00.002-06:00

Now is the time to work in the garden. Seem crazy? We’re only a couple of months away from early Spring gardening. So December and January are months to build up your garden soil.

1. Put down a layer of cardboard to kill weeds.

2. Add a layer of leaves.

3. Add a layer of raw compost.

4. Cover with thick layers of newspaper.

5. I cover my beds with landscape cloth to keep everything in place.

This year we're deepening the beds so we'll be adding creosote timbers around the gardens.

More Garden for Your Dollar

2009-12-13T17:38:00.002-06:00

Last week I was contacted by Hometown Seeds, a new organization that sells vegetable, flower, and herb seed packets to home gardeners throughout the world. Hometown Seeds offers a variety of premium quality seed and supplies.

Most of you know I’m a real fan of seeds. They store well, they don’t take up much space, and when you put them in the ground they grow into the loveliest things. My friend Elle Bobier says, “A miracle is a few seeds sprouting in a clay pot.” I asked Scott Peterson, owner/partner (along with Jared West) a few questions that turned into a lovely interview I wanted to share with you here.

Caroline: How did you find our blog? Were you part of Sharon’s food storage group?
Scott: We are constantly educating ourselves and looking for ways to connect with our customers. Reading blogs is one way we do that. We found your blog by searching garden blogs.

Caroline: How did you organize Hometown Seeds?
Hometown Seeds is a partnership between me (Scott Peterson) and Jared West. We have civil engineering backgrounds and have worked together on several projects. We both have used gardening as a way to unwind and spend time with our family. Incidentally, Jared is by far better at feeding the family from his garden. A key to our success is our good wives who have supported us and allowed us to take a pretty crazy career detour.

Caroline: Where do the seed come from?
They come from different growers across the country. A key reason we were able to create the company was our relation with a wholesaler that has been developing relationships with a variety of high quality seed producers. We also rely on our supplier for his wealth of knowledge. He has college degrees in plant science and has spent over 55 years growing, testing, and researching seeds. We rely heavily on his expertise as a vital partner in our company.

Caroline: Are there instructions with the seed? What about instructions for starting flats indoors?
We do provide general planting instructions with the seeds such as spacing, germination, row spacing, etc. We don’t have instructions on starting flats indoors but that’s a great idea.

Caroline: What is your background as far as growing and plant knowledge goes? Do you come from a farm background? Did your parents garden?
My gardening background was not formal. I grew up in a small town of about 8,000 people. I was the seventh of eight children. We weren’t wealthy and lived on a small lot. There always seemed to be a widow with a large garden plot willing to let us rent. Rent was always the produce, so the widow always got paid a portion of our crop. I learned gardening but I think my parents understood the other benefits. I became close friends with these ladies and learned to appreciate the experiences they had lived through. I was given weeding responsibilities to do on my own so I have memories of getting half way through my job and being distracted as I ate a vine ripened tomato (my favorite), fresh peas, or strawberries.

As far as plant knowledge, I have learned it on the way as a hobby. Since we decided to turn our hobby into a business, I have learned a lot more and also found some local experts that have been gracious with their time in helping us with things such as product mix, quality standards, sourcing, etc.

Caroline: You have a special category for survival seeds. What does the term “survival seed” mean?
Survival seeds are a familiar term these days for a long-term seed bank. These are open-pollinated, non-hybrid seeds that you can use to grow a food crop as well as save seeds to replant the same crop again the next year. If there are food shortages, you can “survive.”

Caroline: How did you get interested in survival issues?
Growing up, my parents always stored a one-year supply of food. This was for a rainy day or emergency. This was religiously motivated. They believed that if they did their part to prepare, God would take care of the rest in a time of need. A time of need could include loss of employment, a natural disaster, or in these days, a recession where earning ability may be hampered. It engrained in me a preparedness mentality so that I live below my means. There have been several times where this practice has served my family well.

Caroline: Do survival seeded plants require more care than regular seed plants?
No, even a novice gardener could grow them. We have added a detailed instruction book with each packet in case a customer has any questions. Our selection has been chosen to grow in a variety of climates and, to the extent possible, utilize shorter growing seasons.

Caroline: What do you say to people who claim you are using scare tactics to sell your survival seeds?
I don’t think we are. As I mentioned before, the title “survival seeds” is what many people would call our product, regardless of what we name it. We want to connect our customers with the product, so we go with what works. We do want people to be prepared and hopefully they consider this aspect if they know how to garden.

Caroline: Survival Gardens are very much like the Victory Gardens of the 1940s. Why not promote your product as a modern-day Victory Garden? Do you see a similarity between the two?
I do see the similarity and have read your experience about Mr. Brown’s victory garden. I agree that is a much more positive name, but the way we generate sales is when our customers search a website with terms that include emergency seeds, survival seeds, long term storage seeds, and others. I am afraid if we marketed a victory garden kit, our customers would not be able to find us.

Caroline: How are your seeds packaged? How long a shelf life do the seeds have?
They have a double waterproof package. The individual seed types are sealed in poly bags. All of the individual seeds are then heat sealed in a heavy gauge Mylar bag., which ensures a dark environment that is moisture proof. The shelf life is a minimum of 5 years at room temperature, but the cooler the better. If you freeze them, you can double the shelf life.

Caroline: Are these seeds considered GMO? What does that mean?
All of our seeds are 100% GMO free. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) seeds have a lot of unknown consequences and we feel more research should have been done before they were made commercially available. This is the reason we don’t carry GMO seeds.

Caroline: Why do non-GMO seeds cost more than conventional seed?
We provide a better value. If you compare our seeds to what you buy in a big box store, you will see the difference in the results. Our customers won’t be in the position of having poor seed germination and miss their planting window for the year. This isn’t a value. If you buy the right seeds your return is enormous. For every dollar you spend on seed, the average return is $20 of produce. This illustrates the value of good seeds. We believe we are correct in our slogan, more garden for your dollar.
As far as the survival pack, we are one of the most affordable products on the market. This is a great value for the larger quantities of open pollinated varieties. Some of the varieties such as the corn and cucumbers are in short supply this year. The pack contains enough seed to plant ¾ acre!

Caroline: How do you determine what seeds go into a survival bundle?
We considered the worst case of a family living only on these vegetables. With that in mind, we picked items that would have varying tastes, textures, and nutritional value. This was done with a lot of input from colleagues and our supplier. It had to meet our criteria and also be available in pretty substantial quantities.

Caroline: I notice you also have fun seed, like popcorn, and gourds. Will you be adding others?
We are always interested in the unusual. I like to plant something I’ve never tried each year in the garden. We are always open to ideas for new products.

Caroline: There’s a link for Discount Coupons on your site. How does one get a discount coupon? Would you like to offer a discount for people who visit you from my site?
This is a very new feature we are still working on. We will be offering a code for just these reasons, just need to work out our glitch. I will follow up with you on this.

Caroline: Is your company connected to any charity work?
We currently aren’t on a company level. Jared and I spend a lot of time working with our respective church groups but we have not yet implemented charity work into our company.

Hometown Seeds can be found at http://www.hometownseeds.com/. They have promised me the emergency survival seeds package that is worth $34.99 +shipping. Check it out at http://hometownseeds.com/survival-seeds-c-213/emergency-food-storage-seeds-p-35 . I’ll report several times on the seed kit, letting you know how the seed are shipped, how I used them, photos of all stages of my survival seed garden, and finally, my personal gardener’s opinion about the seed kit.

Thanks to the folks at Home town Seeds for contacting me. I’m always so glad to hear from people who have read my blog.

Holiday Gift Wrap

2009-12-11T11:49:00.003-06:00

Here's a cute idea for holiday gift wrap. Use brown paper bags. You can see here how my mother decorated the bags using computer-generated decorative labels and a few sheets of tissue paper. Cute idea, and the bags can be reused in everyday life. Save the tissue paper to use again.

Nashville Through Other Eyes

2009-10-29T16:13:00.001-05:00

Recently a friend from England visited, and her photos came back as a surprise to me. It is wonderful to see Nashville through her eyes.

2009-10-29T16:11:00.000-05:00

Doing Things The Old Way

2009-10-25T08:55:00.002-05:00

Early last spring we took our first steps in the direction of creating some sustainability on our Golden Acre. We created garden beds for vegetables, flowers and herbs; preserved the produce;

and kept a journal of the process. We put in a water catch for roof runoff that we use frequently. When our old large appliances began to fail, we replaced them with energy-star upgrades. You can see the writing and photos on this blog dated 2008. In keeping with the old format, I wanted to post to the journal here.

Planted – Red leaf lettuce, crunchy butter lettuce, kale
Harvested – the last of the tomatoes, cantaloupe and okra. Greek oregano.
Prepared – the gardens for planting greens. We began planning garden strategy for next year, preparing to plant more varieties in higher quantity for canning and preserving.
Stored – Jelly jars for next year, flower seed, herbs, canned tomatoes.
Recycled – made two trips last week to take the recycling to the center.
Contribute to local food systems – made seed packets to distribute in the spring.

At one time, making the above list consumed all my time. Now a different way of life has taken hold for us. These are the good old days.

What Do Facebook Quizzes Know about You? ACLU Cautions.

2009-09-23T17:35:00.000-05:00

Are you on Facebook? Are any of your friends or family part of one of the largest online communities in the world? If so, you may have seen or heard about the quizzes that are so popular on the site. But do you know just how much of your information these quizzes can access?

Even if your Facebook profile is “private,” when you take a quiz, an unknown quiz developer could be getting access to almost everything in your profile: your religious views, sexual orientation, political affiliation, pictures, and groups. Facebook quizzes also have access to most of the information on your friends’ profiles. This means that if your friend takes a quiz, they could be giving away your personal information, too.

Don’t just take our word for it: take our quiz and see for yourself! (You’ll need to have a Facebook account to take this quiz at Facebook. If you don’t have one, be sure to review Facebook's privacy policy before signing up.) Learn how to change your own privacy settings and then take the next step and tell Facebook that you want stronger privacy protections.

And, yes, we know it’s a little weird to warn you about Facebook quizzes by asking you to take a Facebook quiz but at least you know who we are and that we are committed to living up to our privacy policy, unlike many quiz authors who haven’t posted a privacy policy at all!

End of the Season

2009-09-07T07:51:00.004-05:00

It's the end of another growing season, and still my garden keeps giving.

Logan Phillips in South America

2009-08-21T08:51:00.003-05:00

Logan is traveling in South America and sent us these wonderful photos.

Tennessee State Prison- The Walls

2009-08-19T14:55:00.005-05:00

Dead Line at the Walls

Many years ago I was allowed inside the prison walls to photograph the prison. In keeping with the somberness of the event, rain poured down on me the entire time. I had to shoot from under an umbrella.

Most compelling for me was this photo of the "dead line" at the prison. Prisoners entered and exited the prison to/from the visitor's picnic area through this garage-like building. The door opened slowly like a drawbridge. The sign on the doors reads "Dead Line - Do Not Come Within 10 feet of These Doors." The entire prison was creepy and hadn't been revamped for its movie career yet. My husband, Alan Ross, visited a man named Charles who was in The Walls for 25 yrs. During those 25 years Alan visited at least every couple of months, sometimes more often. Shortly after Charles' release, he died and was buried in a pauper's grave.

How to Make Granola

2009-08-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

You will need:
1 stick of butter melted in ¾ cup honey
4-5 cups of rolled oats
Nuts, dried coconut, raisins, flax seed, sunflower seeds

Melt the butter in the honey. Set aside. Mix oats and additional ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the honey butter over the mixture and stir until coated. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Stir and bake five minutes more if needed. Cool and store in a tightly closed container.

Fogs of August

2009-08-03T07:38:00.002-05:00

Tomato Artichoke Soup

2009-07-26T14:16:00.003-05:00

Today's tomato fest, soup with fresh tomatoes and artichokes! Plus fresh bread. Call for dinner invitations.

Canning Tomatoes

2009-07-26T10:15:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I picked 15 lbs of ripe tomatoes from our garden. So I spent yesterday afternoon canning tomatoes. Be sure to use lemon juice and not lime juice when canning tomatoes. Lime juice doesn't have acidity as high as lemon juice.

Canning and Pickling

2009-07-26T06:49:00.005-05:00

My mom came to visit to show me how to finish my two-week pickles. I carefully sliced each cuke with my veggie knife...and my mom whipped out her small electric knife and had those cukes sliced in seconds flat. Notice the sugar on the bottom of the jar (left). When the sugar is dissolved, the pickles are ready.

Here they are: All Finished!

Logan Phillips, el Poeta Gonzo

2009-07-10T17:02:00.008-05:00

Meet my friend, Logan Phillips, gonzo poet.
I’ve mentioned Logan on this blog before, and I’ll mention him again. Why? Because he’s a gritty, vigorous wordsmith with something to say. Logan was a big hit here in Nashville, doing an in-house performance, a show at Bongo Java in Nashville, and a private session. We’re hoping to have him visit Nashville again and do some of the poetry from his new book, Arroyo Ink.

Arroyo Ink contains, among its treasures, a trilogy of Logan’s work that I especially like: a heartbreak story of missing the last train in Mexico City; a wonderful fun poem called I Live Alone; and a piece about new love called One Night and Your Hair. Lest you think Logan is the average lumbering elephant of a poet, let me tell you that in a performance by Logan you’re likely to see giant walking creatures, Logan with a loudspeaker strapped to his back, half naked men (see photo), video that will put your eyes out.

To read more about Logan and his work, go here: http://www.dirtyverbs.com/.
His new book is an economy friendly $12, which includes all shipping. Tell ’im Caroline sent ya.

Conozca a mi amigo Logan Phillips, el poeta gonzo.
He hecho mención de Logan en este blog antes, y ahora lo hago de nuevo. ¿Por qué? Porque es un valiente esculptor de palabras y tiene algo que decir. Tuvo mucho éxito durante su visita a Nashville, hizo un performance privado y luego una presentación en el café Bongo Java. Esperamos que nos visite de nuevo para estrenar obra de su nuevo libro, Arroyo Ink.

Arroyo Ink contiene, entre sus tesoros, una trilogía de poemas que me gustan mucho: una historia de corazón roto en el metro de la Ciudad de México, un poema divertido que se hace llamar Yo Vivo Solito, y una pieza acerca de amor nuevo que se llama Una Noche y tu Cabello. Y para que no pienses que Logan es otro poeta normal, dejame decirte que en un performance de Logan se suele ver criaturas gigantes andando, Logan con una altavoz atorado a su espalda, hombres medio encuerados (ve la foto), y video que sorprenderá los ojos.

Para leer más acerca de Logan y su obra, checa su sitio: http://www.dirtyverbs.com/
Su nuevo libro es económico, solo $12 dolaritos que incluye envío. Dile que te enteraste gracias a Caroline.

Mama's Sweet Pickles

2009-07-03T13:26:00.004-05:00

Recipe
2 gal cukes, scrubbed
1st day--Boil 1 gal H2O with 2 cups salt & pour over cukes. Loosely cover. Aluminum foil OK.
2nd day--Drain cukes. Sprinkle 2 oz Alum over cukes & pour 1 gal boiling H2O.
3rd day--Drain cukes. Pour 1 gal clear,boiling H2O.
4th day--Boil 1 gal white vinegar with 2 oz pickling spice. Pour over cukes.
LEAVE THROUGH 14th DAY.

Drain and slice cukes. Layer sliced cukes and sugar in jars. Stop cukes 1½”from top of jar but cover that space to neck of jar with sugar. Juice should seep from cukes and eventually all sugar will dissolve. Jars do not have to be sealed. Any type of glass jar with a lid may be used.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

2009-06-29T10:29:00.003-05:00

"You men out there who think Ms. Picoult is a chick thing need to get with the program. Her books are an everyone thing, and the current offering — about a little girl whose bones are so brittle that they break almost at a puff of wind — is her best since My Sister's Keeper. It's a legal/medical thriller, but at bottom it's a story about the American heart of darkness: a small-town marriage under stress. Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance and never descends into soap opera.”
—Stephen King

From the time I read my first Picoult book I became a rabid fan. If she wrote it, I’ve read it. And yet I find myself dismayed that a movie has been made of My Sister’s Keeper. What makes Picoult such a fabulous writer is her exploration of the feelings of all people involved in an issue. And the issues she chooses to write about are difficult. Her writing is sheer poetry; her sense of timing is perfect—how does that translate into a movie?

I didn’t come to see [my sister] because it would make me feel better. I came because without her, it’s hard to remember who I am.

I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.

I stare at Kate through the protective glass wall. Gamma rays, leukemia, parenthood. It is the things you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you.

If you've seen My Sister's Keeper, please post your comments, or any comments, about Picoult. Thanks.

Flowers Make Our Day

2009-06-21T16:55:00.004-05:00

And The Beat Goes On...

2009-06-16T08:51:00.004-05:00

Here we are one year later...and the garden's in the ground and doing quite well.

We're enoying herbs and produce from the gardens already. And the flowers are gorgeous.
Stay tuned here for gardening tips, photos, pressure canning information, sewing tips, craft ideas, and updates from all over the world.

Love Your Mother postage stamp

2009-05-19T10:32:00.005-05:00

"This poster is a limited edition of only 11 serigraphs to preserve paper this earth day. The paper is a bit smaller than most of my other work and there is a lot of white space to save ink. I could have not made anything at all and that would have really been more beneficial to the environment, but I thought it would feel good to spread some love to mother earth and all of the mothers out there." Jorge Arrieta

I fell in love with the art on this one, so with Jorge's permission I had the art put on a postage stamp. I'm very proud to show his work on my mailings.

Check Jorge's work out at http://www.popsiclesandgrenades.com/

Hatboxes

2009-05-19T10:13:00.009-05:00

I’ve been working on hatboxes. These started out as cardboard forms and I decorated them with handmade paper and other items. This is a small box, painted bronze on the inside and bottom. I applied the paper with Modge Podge, a wondrous product. Not only does MP act as a glue, it also acts as a sealer.

We call this one "Elvis." The top is layered with canvas paper in pinks & purples, finished with 14k gold dust. The sides are painted with acrylic paint which I mixed as I went along so each stripe would be a unique color.

The inside is painted purple with purple feathers as decoration, and the bottom is covered with purple sateen.

Sunflowers

Each hat sports the red hat logo with my signature.

Don’t Want to Live Like a (Bisbee) Refugee

2009-02-22T16:37:00.005-06:00

It has been 2 ½ years since we left Bisbee, Arizona, to move back to Tennessee where our families live. Still, memories of Bisbee haunt us both, and I sometimes feel I left a big chunk of my spirit there. And the friendships formed in Bisbee live on.

In October of this year we’ve having a Not-in-Bisbee Reunion here in Nashville. Jan B. from London will be here, also Jeff and Bob from Phoenix and Dave McD who still lives in Bisbee. We’re hoping for other Bisbee-ites to attend.

Bisbee has incredible charm, with an old-world air. The smell of roasting coffee is always in the air.

Stairs like these meander all over the village.

Our former Bisbee home.

We miss the town and the people. We miss the magical quality of the air and the feeling of expectation we felt there.

Old Bisbee Coffee Roasters

2009-02-11T10:58:00.003-06:00

I wondered what a coffee “expert” would have to say about storing coffee, so I contacted Old Bisbee Roasters to ask for their advice. Here’s the web page for an article written by Seth Appell the owner, about storing coffees. http://www.oldbisbeeroasters.com/Articles.asp?ID=123 I can certainly vouch for their coffees, and having lived just up the hill in Old Bisbee from the roasters building I can attest to the delicious aroma of their roasting coffee. I could stand on my porch and smell the coffee roasting. That’s something that added an element of romanticism to living in Old Bisbee.

Says Seth: Good evening Caroline, I just ran across your email with Lindsey tonight while I was in the shop roasting. If you like I would love to chat with you about coffee, take a moment to answer your questions over the phone, or perhaps arrange a conference call over the internet for everyone! I'm fairly sure we can use an internet phone called"skype", and we could chat as a group.Or just call my cell phone, easy enough for one person at a time!XXX.XXX.XXXX is my cell phone - and with a little time to set it up,we could have a great conference call too. I'd love to give it a try!

-- Seth Appell, Your Personal Coffee Roaster!"A gentleman is always ready to serve coffee at a moment's notice"

Independence Days Challenge

2009-01-28T13:04:00.001-06:00

Planted: This weekend I’ll plant some cold weather greens. They will grow in the garage prior to transplanting to the fenced yard.

Harvested: Greek Oregano, Rosemary

Prepped: We’ve laid out three gardening beds in the back yard. Each one is edged with wood and covered in three feet of rotting leaves. I covered each bed with landscape cloth so the leaves could continue to decompose. In Spring I’ll turn the leaves under with the roto-tiller. This helps enrich the soil and makes for fantastic produce.

Managed: Pantry/Larder management is a big part of food storage. Many of the women in my group have organized and highly efficient tracking systems for their stored foods. My inventory shows me short on tomato products which I’ll reup on at the next sale.

Recycled/Reused: We still take our recycling to the center. I reuse most plastic containers for painting and crafts.

Stored: Jars of pasta sauce, canned pineapple

Cooked something new: We’ve been cooking from food storage so using dried instead of fresh or canned is a new experience for me. My coop offers free cooking classes, so I'll be taking a class from them on Feb 21st. Also the Whole Foods store in Nashville has a great cooking series that I'll be participating in this semester.

Support Local Food Systems: I’m making up my coop order for March. I ordered two bread baking pans and a pizza pan, a yogurt cheese cookbook, radish and black sunflower sprouting seeds, and tons of spelt pasta in different forms.

Yummy Dinners from Food Storage

2009-01-25T16:55:00.002-06:00

Laughter

2009-01-25T16:45:00.004-06:00

From Holly Conway: New video game research out today, may confirm what you already thought- the more you play video games, the more likely you are to become a pot head. Researchers found that of the 800 college students they talked to, those who played video games on a daily basis smoked twice as much pot as those who only play occasionally, and 3 times more pot than those who don’t play video games at all! And believe it or not the video game stoners also said the same thing when asked if they think smoking pot is bad for you… “what was the question?” http://hollyconway.blogspot.com/

There’s so much to laugh and smile about. The Buddhists believe that one should keep a smile on the face. Witness the Dalai Lama.

My father used to say, “Smile, it makes people wonder what you’ve been doing.”

Keep On Keepin On

2009-01-25T16:39:00.001-06:00

I appreciate the messages I get thanking me for this blog. Yes, times are hard and bound to get harder, but you know what? We are still alive. We can enjoy food and each other and art and nature. Every day when I wake up and see light in my room I have the greatest feeling of peace and happiness. That kind of happiness isn’t dependent on who is president (though it helps) or whether or not I’m broke. I’m just glad to keep on keepin’ on.

As a reminder that life is a hoot and there’s a laugh around every corner, check out this statue of Nathan Bedford Forest. Putting this blurb about the statue doesn’t mean I support Forest or the Klan or their ilk. But I do laugh when I pass the statue surrounded by Confederate flags. The flags are tattered and almost nonexistent, raised on about a dozen flag poles surrounding the statue.

Brentwood - Nashville, Tennessee - Nathan Bedford Forrest tribute
“Very ugly, large fiberglass statue of General Nathaniel Bedford Forrest on his horse, former Confederate general AND founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Statue is surrounded by a large display of Confederate flags. The entire thing stands on a strip of privately held land right next to Interstate 65-S in Nashville, Tenn. This statue has been shot at and repaired—a real politically incorrect eyesore for the city. Owner is a wealthy elderly attorney in Nashville who proudly defends the statue and his right to have it there. It really looks like a cartoon statue. [Sue, 02/10/2001]”
[RA: Yes, it's as if the colorful Civil War general tumbled out of some horrific, injection mold nightmare. Here's a 2004 photo by Justin Bird.] http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/3289

Meeting of the Minds

2009-01-16T16:18:00.004-06:00

Last night I had dinner with a group of friends…well, mostly they’re my husband’s friends that he’s come to know and love through the music industry. Now they’re my friends too. We gathered at Sol Restaurant in Franklin, TN. Our first question was how do you pronounce Sol in Spanish?

Pictured here are Bryan Cumming, Barbara Hart, Beejee Hampton, Holly Cumming.

At table with us were Barbara Hart and her business partner Cheryl Gimbel. They are working on Barbara’s play titled Rose Bowl Queens.
Studio 23 owner Bryan Cumming was present. He is involved in the project as the women endeavor to record the musical play soundtrack to CD.
Bryan’s wife was present, just a few days after her double knee replacement surgery; and her cute stepmom was at her side. We made a great crew of seven. And Sol Restaurant in Franklin was more than accommodating, even though we didn’t have a reservation, couldn’t take an upstairs table, and were a party of seven. The food was outstanding and the service was great. We were served by a member of Pistol. Visit them on myspace at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID =232973589

Pictured here are Alan Ross and Cheryl Gimbel.

Ever present was my partner Alan Ross (www.rossmusic.net) who is singing on the Rose Bowl Queens CD. Alan is working on a three-song country demo for a country-music-star-to-be-named later. Songs include Dance With My Wife, Number One Song, and Arizona Highways. As most of us know, Alan held onto his music through the years. Now, with a probe from a recording star in our own hometown, Alan agrees the time is right to let go. I’m sure he wants to keep me in the style to which I wish to become accustomed: that is, giving away everything we have to people who need it.

Sunset on Randolph

2009-01-14T17:37:00.000-06:00

Two reasons to live in our neighborhood...

Premio Dardos Award

2009-01-06T14:20:00.002-06:00

We would like to give a big thanks to Gracie for presenting us with the Premio Dardos award! This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

Blogging Without Obligation

2009-01-06T14:01:00.000-06:00

Because you shouldn't have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.
Because it’s okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.
Because it’s okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.
Because sometimes less is more.
Because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.
Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone.
Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be "bloggable."
Because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won't be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time...

The Gift of A Smile

2009-01-04T15:12:00.002-06:00

A month ago I had my top teeth replaced. I didn’t have much choice; my teeth were badly damaged by medications and TMJ, with a little heredity thrown in. So we bit the bullet as we forked over way too much money for replacement teeth. It would be easy to regret the expense in today’s woeful financial market if it weren’t for one thing: the gift of a smile.

What I mean by that is that I’ve been given the gift of a smile. Knowing my teeth are very white and very pretty, I smile at everybody. I grin, I say “hey.” And the change that comes over peoples’ faces is amazing. That positive change in other people is the gift I’m getting every day.

Along those lines, Mark Stibich, Ph.D. tells us there are many reasons to smile. “Smiling is a great way to make yourself stand out while helping your body to function better.” Dr. Stibich gives the following advice in his column on About.com: (http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongbeauty/tp/smiling.htm).

Smiling Changes Your Mood
Next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. There's a good chance you mood will change for the better. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mood.

Smiling is Contagious
When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others, and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.

Smiling Boosts Your Immune System
Smiling helps the immune system to work better. When you smile, immune function improves possibly because you are more relaxed. Prevent the flu and colds by smiling.

Smiling Lowers Your Blood Pressure
When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Give it a try if you have a blood pressure monitor at home. Sit for a few minutes, take a reading. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?

Smiling Releases Endorphins, Natural Pain Killers and Serotonin
Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling is a natural drug.

Smiling Makes You Seem Successful
Smiling people appear more confident, are more likely to be promoted, and more likely to be approached. Put on a smile at meetings and appointments and people will react to you differently.

Smiling Makes You Attractive.
We are drawn to people who smile. There is an attraction factor. We want to know a smiling person and figure out what is so good. Frowns, scowls and grimaces all push people away -- but a smile draws them in.

Smiling Helps You Stay Positive
Try this test: Smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It's hard. When we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that "Life is Good!" Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling.

I can personally attest to all of the above comments. Since I’ve acquired a beautiful smile, my life has changed. My health has improved and I’m more socially confident. I’m not sure how many smiles I’ll have to smile in order to amortize the cost, but I’ve made a good start by keeping a smile on my face.

So I’m issuing a 14-day challenge: For the next two weeks, smile constantly. Smile at the postman, the sales clerk, your waitress. Smile at your family. Smile till your face hurts. Smile when you’re alone. Improve your health, your social life, maybe even your bowling score. Give yourself the gift of a smile.

It's A Wonderful Life

2008-12-21T22:06:00.004-06:00

Happy Holidays to one and all. I don't care if you decide to shop or not. Give gifts or not. Buy a real tree or a fake tree or no tree at all. Celebrate or not. Just be safe out there.

Hats off to football's Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh, who died today.

Excerpt from A Country Rag (http://www.acountryrag.org/mainfram.html): "I first met Logan when I lived in Arizona, at a poetry gathering on the Arizona/Mexico border. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him perform on several occasions. Logan is a passionate, intelligent, and well-educated man who graduated Northern Arizona University where he majored in Spanglish Linguistics. After college he lived in LA where he competed in the slam poetry movement. Recently he toured the world with his three-man group, Verbobala. More recently he spent the last few months in Costa Rico where he ran a youth hostel for the season. Prior to his hostel work he taught 4th graders in Mexico City, MX. An interesting guy."

What does a country girl living in the 'burbs do in the winter?
1. Stare longingly at the garden.
2. Play with the cats more.
3. Begin sewing projects.
4. Decant tinctures made this past summer.
5. Makes soaps, candles and potpourri from stored summer herbs.
6. Ride the stationary bike.
7. Read more.
8. Work on the annual taxes.
9. Paint.
10. Scrapbook.

With Christmas roaring up toward me, I've realized I still have work to do. A ham to buy. We have fireworks to set off on Christmas Eve. The kids and their kids will be here. We'll sing and dance to Holiday music we hear Sirrius Radio.

With the year closing out, I start thinking about what I want to accomplish next year...and what I've managed to accomplish this past year. I'm always surprised at how much I did in one year. So next year I'm setting my sights higher. Whatever I did this year that made me feel good about myself ~ that's what I'm going to do more of. More work to help other people, more work to increase my knowledge base, more painting and design, more writing, more encouragement to other artists. More.

And what do I want back out of 2009?

More.

Nectar of Life

2008-10-15T17:05:00.002-05:00

· A person can live a month without food but only a few days without water.· The average person uses over 140 gallons of water each day for drinking, bathing, laundry, dishes and watering lawns.· According to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), in case of an emergency you should store at least one gallon of water per person per day and have at least a three-day supply. However, individual water needs vary per person, depending on age, physical condition, activity and climate. Children, nursing mothers and ill people need more water and very hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed.· If you have pets, allow a minimum of gallon per day for each dog or cat.· Contaminated water can cause such diseases as dysentery, typhoid and hepatitis.· The Center for Disease Control receives over 4,000 cases each year of illness due to drinking contaminated water. If unsure about water, bringing it to a rolling boil for 1 minute will kill most organisms.These stats come from Waterbob. Check them out for a cool way to save water in case of emergency.

Do The Right Thing!

2008-10-15T15:55:00.001-05:00

Anyway http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/2007/01/do-right-thing.html
“…95% of what is needed to resolve the coming crisis in energy depletion, or climate change, or whatever is what we should do anyway, and when in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing anyway. Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels. That they also have the potential to save our lives is merely a side benefit (a big one, though).”

2008-10-13T16:09:00.001-05:00

Check out this book for stories about NFL heroes who have done some GOOD things, unlike many players who are featured in the media.

Going Green: What can one person do?

2008-10-12T16:59:00.001-05:00

1. Recycling is probably the easiest thing you can do to go green! It even cuts up to 1,000 pounds of annual carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. Even though you do recycle, you can be even “greener” by choosing products with the least amount of packaging possible and by choosing easily recyclable packaging, like paper or glass; very few municipal recycling programs accept plastics other than those labeled #1 and #2. You can help reduce pollution just by putting that soda can in a different bin. If you're trying to choose between two products, pick the one with the least packaging. If an office building of 7,000 workers recycled all of its office paper waste for a year, it would be the equivalent of taking almost 400 cars off the road. The energy saved by recycling a can of Coke could run a TV for three hours.

2. Replacing just one 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 19-watt CFL cuts 75 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year and up to 750 for the life of the bulb, not to mention the money savings on your energy bill. (Yes, these bulbs contain mercury and must be recycled as do ALL fluorescent bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) last 10 times longer than a standard bulb and use at least two-thirds less energy.

3. Take your own bags to the grocery store.

4. Set you’re a/c thermostat on 77 degrees F or higher. Or set the heat on 68 degrees—and wear a sweater. Lowering your thermostat one degree can save you 5% on your energy bill. Change the air filters so your system doesn't have to work overtime.

5. Underinflated tires decrease fuel economy by up to three percent and lead to increased pollution and higher greenhouse gas emissions. Low tire Pressure is no joke. Not only is it safer to regularly check your tire pressure, but if 11,973 people kept their tires properly inflated, we’d save enough gasoline to drive a hybrid car around the entire Earth!

6. Drink from reusable containers. Single-use plastic juice and water bottles add to the growing stream of solid waste and should be recycled. But a reusable #2, #4 or #5 plastic or stainless steel water bottle is a worthy, earth-easy replacement.

7. Hand washing dishes can actually use up to 50 percent more water than a water-saving, energy-efficient dishwasher. But before you celebrate, check the date on your dishwasher. Those made before 1994 use more water than current models, so it may be time for an upgrade to an Energy Star-rated model, which is 41% more efficient than the federal standard. Even if you have a brand-new, hyper-efficient model, you can still conserve water and energy. Only run full loads, and don’t waste time and water pre-rinsing dishes; new models are equipped to handle even the most stubborn gunk.

8. Using green cleaners all the time cuts down on your environmental impact, since conventional cleaners are filled with a host of chemicals that produce harmful byproducts during production and harm aquatic life when they wash down the drain. Green cleaners are also healthier; they have fewer volatile organic compounds that can trigger asthma and other respiratory problems, and rarely do they contain chemicals that can poison you or your children or cause serious skin reactions if spilled.

9. Compost. Think about how much trash you make in a year. Reducing the amount of solid waste you produce in a year means taking up less space in landfills, so your tax dollars can work somewhere else. Plus, compost makes a great natural fertilizer.

10. Turn off lights when you're not in the room.

11. Pay attention to how you use water. The little things can make a big difference. Every time you turn off the water while you're brushing your teeth, you're doing something good. Got a leaky toilet? You might be wasting 200 gallons of water a day. Try drinking tap water instead of bottled water, so you aren't wasting all that packaging as well. Wash your clothes in cold water when you can. When gardening instead of using the water that comes from your local city plant, use rain water. Faucet aerators in the sinks are inexpensive ways to save lots of money, because they cost little and cut water consumption by up to 6 percent.

12. Drive 55. Slow down — driving 60 miles per hour instead of 70 mph on the highway will save you up 4 miles per gallon. Accelerating and braking too hard can actually reduce your fuel economy, so take it easy on the brakes and gas pedal.

Resources:

National Geographic website
Forbes Magazine
Tennessee Valley Authority
Body and Soul magazine
EPA
Consumer Guide Automotive

Butchart Gardens, Victoria, Canada

2008-10-12T15:01:00.001-05:00

2008-10-12T14:48:00.001-05:00

Computer Careers in Today’s Market by someone who wishes to be anonymous
Today most programming jobs, probably most computer-related jobs, can be (and many are) performed remotely, overseas. I don't see this trend stopping unless/until the USA passes legislation against it. And I cannot see that happening. The Indians have done very well with programming and computer-related jobs stemming from the USA, partly because they are educated in English from a very early age, and therefore have good English-language skills.When people can do these jobs, when they are happy to do these jobs, for $5/hour (as millions of Chinese would be ecstatic about, for example, or Vietnamese, although I don't think the Indians work for that low a rate now), it's really tough competition for Americans. The Chinese andVietnamese aren't that good in English yet, on the whole, but they will be, they will be, you can bank on it. (The Indians still work for lower than Americans at comparable jobs, however.) An American usually CANNOT work for $5/hour. His mortgage payments are too high, his gasoline costs are too high, his utility costs are too high, food costs are too high, etc. It is not that Americans are lazy; it's the cost of living here.Then there are also the H-1B workers (admitted on a visa called 'H-1B) who come to America, many of whom are programmers or work in other computer-related jobs. There are several hundred thousand H-1B workers admitted each year. I think it's safe to say that they too work for considerably lower salaries than Americans; mostly they are men who must leave their families behind, they are here for a year or so, many share apartments and so on. They are exploited by their employers.

The Necessary List

2008-10-08T10:57:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is my list of recommendations for Temporary Worst-Case Scenario compiled from FEMA and other emergency sites:

Antibacterial Hand Sanitizer
Army knife
Baby wipes for personal bathing (so you don't have to store water for bathing)
Can Opener
Candles
CASH
Duck tape
Dust masks
Emergency food bars or food rations
First-aid kit
Hand Tools
Lightsticks
Matches
Plastic in sheets
Plastic Ziploc bags and trash bags
Silver thermal blankets
Solar, wind-up flashlight, radio and cell phone charger
Tarp
Toilet Paper
Vinyl gloves
Vinyl poncho with hood
Water purification tablets
Water: A gallon of water per day per person for drinking only. You can use the water in the toilet tank or hot water heater also. Learn how.

It’s important to have a bolt bag…meaning if you have to bolt for safety, you have your necessities. A few changes of clothes, meds, toothbrushes, baby wipes…chocolate. And put in a pair of walking shoes, like hiking boots. You can change into them when you get somewhere, just have them handy (with extra socks), in case you are suddenly evacuated.
Bottled water
CASH and/or gold
Phone numbers and addresses
Identification/Proof of citizenship
Spare eyeglasses
Something to read
Note paper and pens
Knitting (the needles might come in handy)
Personal Hygiene Kits - toothbrushes/pastes, combs, bio-hazard bags, wet-wipes, razors, tissue packs, dental floss. Shaving cream, soap, deodorant, body/foot powder,
Sanitary Napkins
Spray Bottle Insect Repellent - With DEET
Sunscreen Lotion Packets - SPF 30+ protects skin

Adapting in Place

2008-10-07T11:27:00.001-05:00

Register to vote: http://www.rockthevote.com/

Adapting in Place
We’ve been living a new lifestyle for six months, so much so that the new lifestyle seems natural. We automatically buy foods on sale, we buy in bulk, we compost, we recycle, we garden, we preserve by canning foods, we learned to make butter, yogurt, candles, soap; we learned to dehydrate foods, how to store foods properly, how to prepare for hard times. And perfect timing, too, to finish storing foods just as the financial crisis hit. There are so many great blogs and sites with guidance for a new lifestyle. Rather than repeat what they are saying, I’m going to give you links to check out.

Sharon Astyk, a writer, started the group course that got us started: http://sharonastyk.com/

Check out this great blog for canning butter!
http://greenappleorchard.blogspot.com/2008/09/bottled-butter.html

Gas shortages and prices. Hurricane Ike brought with its destruction a deficit gas supply in Tennessee and parts of Georgia. Not since the 1970s have I seen regular gas lines and “out of gas” signs. We’ve saved a lot of gas with the new vehicle—better gas mileage and careful driving. Guess I’ll have to learn to Drive 55 again. Gas here in Columbia is 3.89/gal.

I made six pillar candles in different colors. I plan to use the beeswax I purchased to make the next batch. I’m also making glycerine soaps. Great printable instructions here: http://www.cajuncandles.com/containerguideprint.html

For an excellent source on storing foods: http://lds.about.com/od/preparednessfoodstorage/a/foodstoragewhat.htm

From West Wind Farms:
It's said that history repeats itself. Nearly a century after heat pasteurization of milk began, pasteurization by irradiation began for meat. Several years ago, the food safety division of USDA approved the euphemistic "cold pasteurization" of uncooked meat and poultry "to reduce levels of food-borne pathogens, as well as extending shelf-life". Sound familiar?
Attempting to stem the tide of consumer reaction to food-borne illness from contaminated meat and poultry, the meat industry has found in cold pasteurization by radiation a way to continue pushing tons of meat through their systems each hour without changing the procedures that actually cause the contamination. Irradiation provides a perk for the industry too - meat that would normally have to be moved to the quick-sale cooler compartment now stays unnaturally fresh for weeks, just like ultra-pasteurized milk!
Consumers have been concerned about irradiation of meat and have not accepted it. Currently irradiated meat must be labeled with the "radura" symbol so consumers have the information necessary to make their choice at the supermarket. However, on September 18, the American Meat Institute, an industry group representing meat packers and processors, petitioned USDA for approval to irradiate beef carcasses as a "processing aid". Because processing aids are not required to be labeled on products, no label would be required for meat from irradiated beef carcasses.
As usual, big industry lobbies for the regulations that put band-aids on their problems. Once implemented, those regulations apply to all members of the industry, including small meat processors who generally produce safe meat products. It is likely that mandatory irradiation is only a few years away, and clean meat from small, family-owned meat processors will have to be irradiated just as contaminated meat from large mega-packers will. Without any doubt, this will put small butcher houses out of business. Irradiation is not an affordable option. And worst of all, it's not needed.
Consumer outrage at the incidence of contaminated foods from the industry is justified. However, we, as consumers, can unintentionally fuel the passage of irresponsible and unnecessary regulation when we are not specific about the type of solution we want. Do we want the meat industry to continue practices that contaminate meat and then allow them to kill all the bacteria (both healthful and pathogenic bacteria) before it hits our table, or, do we want clean, healthy meat that is not contaminated to start with? Do we want meat irradiation to apply industry-wide, or just to those businesses that have indicated through testing that they have a problem? Should they be allowed to use it indefinitely or only temporarily until they can fix the source of their problem? Do we want a sterile food system, devoid of all the healthful bacteria that we need to thrive?

2008-09-18T10:29:00.002-05:00

Golden Acre September

2008-09-18T10:29:00.001-05:00

Golden Acre Update
Thanks, Verde, for the label (pictured above). To see all labels, visit Justice Desserts, my all-time fave blog.

Planted: Transplanted Thai and opal basil into big pots for wintering-over indoors.

Harvested: Tomatoes, okra, rainwater, grass cuttings for compost

Prepped: Continued to prep beds for next spring. My son Jacob brought us a frame for composting that I had sketched. I appreciate all he does for us.

Managed: Completely reorganized my kitchen. Cleaned out the garage. Put together a load for Goodwill. Sorted fabrics and craft items. Made bedroom drapes and kitchen curtains.

Stored: Canned tuna and chicken salad, shrimp boil, canned cream soups, Alfredo sauce, tomato paste

Cooked something new: Sicilian meatballs using the recipe of my friend’s grandmother. We fed three family meals off the batch then froze the other six batches.

Local Food Systems: Continue to purchase produce and milk from local suppliers.

Herbs: Purchased 100 empty tea bags to bag herbs for foot soaks. I’m making potpourri from this summer’s fragrant herbs. I decanted the gingko biloba, saw palmetto, ginseng, and lavender oil. My husband was very happy with the Saw Palmetto and its effects. I love the foot soaks. I also started making holiday gifts out of herbs, oils and salves.

Photos of Paradise

2008-08-04T14:53:00.001-05:00

These gorgeous photos were sent to me by my friend Jan Barker from Birmingham, England, UK. She took the pictures in Devon.

Golden Acre Update

2008-08-04T11:35:00.004-05:00

After checking my blog, I see that I’ve only been at this challenge for eight weeks. Eight weeks that changed our lives. The difference between our early photos and NOW is amazing. Our courtyard garden is a paradise full of colorful birds, busy bees, noisy hummers and lots of flowers, herbs and greenery. We took down the two art-glass hummingbird feeders and hung up the old Big Lots version, and as quick as that we have non-stop hummers in the yard.
Harvested: The garden is producing, there are no weeds, so all there is to do is water, water, water. And harvest tomatoes, squash, cukes, okra, black beans.
Coop orders/ Storing: We picked up our Breadbeckers coop order. The Beckers are an excellent source for some bulk products, especially bread baking supplies. Since we had prepared the pantry ahead of time, putting up our Becker’s booty didn’t take long.

Local Food Systems: I arranged to meet a local beekeeper at the Columbia Farmer’s Market who sold me a pound of beeswax for $5. I’ll use the wax for many purposes, including salves and balms for the feet.
Managing: We put in some time tying up the tomatoes again. Staking tomatoes can work wonders and yield higher production. Our plants are huge; prolific producers. We’re enjoying lots of fresh blood-red tomatoes. We also put out strings for the peas to grow on, and used my recovered lumber to build a sort of arbor in the courtyard. On Thursday I took all the veggies and broths out of the freezer and made killer soup.
Herbals: I’m working on more tinctures, and also foot teas. Since the bottom of the foot is very absorbent, using teas in a foot soak is a way to ingest herbs. One of my favorite simple soaks is dried lavender flowers in warm water, a very relaxing practice. If you don’t know how absorbent your feet are, try soaking your feet in warm water into which you’ve put with a mashed garlic clove. After ten minutes, ask somebody to smell your breath.
Harvested: This week I harvested and dried a bushel of lime mint. My mint tinctures will be a refreshing addition to the foot soaks I’m making. As for the remaining mint in the yard, I’m going to allow it to flower, then I’ll cut the flowers to add to potpourri.
Cook something new: I cooked Carmela’s Eggplant Parm using the recipe from the official Sopranos cookbook. I used heirloom eggplant. Outstanding dish! Recipe available. Also, I made bread using a new recipe from Breadbecker’s cookbook. The recipe calls for flax seed and gluten as added ingredients. Very good bread.

I also sprouted organic alfalfa seed this past week. The spouts are so fresh, they’re hard to beat. I mentioned before that I’d bought two sprouting jar lids. The lids fit a wide-mouth canning jar. And last, I made jalapeno and garlic jelly with honey. We use this jelly on just about all meat or fish we grill. Recipe available.

Golden Acre Update

2008-07-26T17:11:00.004-05:00

That's an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail...female...which have lots of blue on the hind wings. Some are black, but the yellow is more common. Only the females come in both yellow and black forms...the black is similar to, but bigger than the Black Swallowtail. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars are dark green with two large eyespots. They eat various trees and shrubs especially Yellow Poplar, Wild Cherry, and Sweet Bay.

Herbs
I spent the past two weeks studying and being tutored about herbs and herbal remedies. During this time I carefully made oils, vinegars and tinctures.

Here’s how I made the tinctures: I used dried herbs (flowers or roots according to use). I put about two cups of herb into a quart jar. Then I poured just enough very hot water (not boiling) on the herbs, just enough to soak them. Then I added different 80-proof alcohols, depending on what I already had on hand. So I ended up with tasty-sounding tinctures. These tinctures have to be shaken twice daily.
English plantain in Rum
Red Clover in vodka
Gingko Leaf in citron vodka
Cinnamon sticks in bourbon
Siberian Ginseng root in bourbon
Siberian Ginseng root in vodka

Infusion Oils:
Lavender
I filled a small jar with dried lavender flowers and covered the flowers with sunflower oil. After removing the bubbles I floated two tablespoons of vodka on top. The alcohol helps to keep the oil from getting rancid and also aids in extracting the oils from the herbs. I covered the jar of oil with thick cheesecloth so the alcohol could escape and placed the jar in a sunny window. I check the jar every day for signs of spoilage then gently shake it.

Supplies: Small mortar and pestle, alcohol (vodka), bottles and jars, oils, beeswax for salves. I’m using different base oils according to how I’ll use the oil later on. Some oils are absorbed into the skin and some are not.

Golden Acre Update

2008-07-15T12:14:00.003-05:00

BIRDS AND BEES

I talked to the Tennessee Bee Inspector in our area yesterday. He is a veritable fount of information. He assures me there are bees in my area. He inquired about the kinds of flowers, herbs and veggies I was growing, whether I used pesticides (no), whether there was a tree line, all kinds of questions. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to keep bees here on our land because of the potential danger to my grandkids. He suggested I put hives on a friend’s farmland.

Among other things, we talked about colony collapse disorder. Not only are there mites to contend with, drought and warmer temps to withstand, but millions of bees are transported to different locations all over the U.S. to pollinate large crops. Recently in the news there was a story about a Canadian truck that overturned and released x million bees. The generation that comes after these transported bees are unable to find their way back to the hive.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/bees/colony-collapse-disorder-55063001

The Beekeeper’s Society meeting is once a month so I’ve got that on my schedule for August. The first of the month a bee expert instructs on what a beekeeper should do for the bees that month. They offer mentors, so although I can’t have a hive in my neighborhood, I can still learn from somebody who keeps bees in the area.

In the “bird” category, I called the city manager’s office and found that a chicken coop has to be 1000 yards from any dwelling. Our home is within the city limits, and our lots aren’t big enough to make that happen.

Planted: Blackberry brambles along the back property line. Successive plantings of okra, Alaska No-Wilt peas, lima beans, peppers, zinnias, marigolds, cockscomb, Black Magic elephant ears, and more cukes, zukes and squash in case this group fails.

Harvested: I dug up several blackberry brambles on the nearby construction site [with the builder’s permission]. Some are a little worse for wear; they bear the imprint of heavy machinery tires on their backs. I read that wild blackberries are more soil and drought tolerant, and they produce more and better-tasting berries. We’ll cover them with bird net next year when the berries come in.
We harvested tomatoes and beans for Monday night dinner. Spotted cat’s eye for salad. Our water catch system is working well. In the past week we harvested more than 110 gallons of rainwater. Picked green beans and steamed them.

Prepped: Pre-ordered Sharo n’s book! Cleaned out a crock to use for blackberry brandy. Hub built some a garden bed with lumber we got from the construction site. I ordered heirloom seed from Southern Seed Exchange: long-standing spinach, Buttercrunch lettuce, Deer Tongue lettuce, Yugoslavian Red Butterhead lettuce, Red Russian kale, Georgia Green collards, Red Giant mustard greens. The names alone sound good enough to eat. We’re going to plant tiny amounts of each for fall greens and save the remaining seeds for spring. I read that you keep the seeds in a jar or airtight container with an oxygen absorber out of light. Not in the refrigerator!

Stored: Scavenged more lumber from the construction site before they took the rest away to the landfill. Stored various canned goods, shelf stable milk, and more water. I was disappointed that my coop order from Breakbeckers isn’t coming in until July 30th. Still, lots of veggies are in season, and our own plants are beginning to put out.
I started a brandied fruit crock. When we got the gorgeous blackberries from Delvin Farms, I put them in the crock, covered the fruit with sugar, and about an hour later I covered the whole thing with brandy.

Managed: I started pollinating the pumpkins, squash, cantaloupe and cukes. I used a tiny artist’s brush. I’m finding that most of the blooms on the pumpkin are male, which explains why all the blooms drop. The high heat is also a factor. The following link gives a brief explanation and instructions on pollinating plants yourself. http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/cornucop/2000073258013975.html
This week we turned out the compost bin into a larger space, added string for beans to grow up to reach the lattice on our deck, started digging a hole for the apple tree. Cut and raked grass for the compost heap.

Recycled/Reused: We composted and recycled as usual. Shredded lots of white paper to use in the composter. Scavenged the construction site. We bought grapes and they went bad fast, so I spread them out for the butterflies.

Learn Something New: Bees get up earlier than I do. After the recent rainfall here we had a crop of sunflowers that bloomed. Suddenly our yard is filled with honey bees.

Local: Our collective neighbors tell us they have NO desire to garden. They want nice smooth lawns, every house uniform.
We bought produce from Delvin Farms, a local organic farm. The blackberries were huge…only half of them made it into the brandy crock.

Golden Acre Week 10 Update

2008-07-07T17:19:00.007-05:00

Prepped: We’re still working on garden beds for the fall planting. I filled the compost bin full of dirt in anticipation of dumping it out soon. This time I won’t use beer! (see post below) Cleaned garage.

Planted: I’m doing successive plantings of lima beans, hot salsa peppers, sugar snaps, mammoth dill, mammoth sunflowers. While the garden percolates I’m going to turn my attention to herbs.

Harvested: Tons of plantain, basil, green beans, green tomato to use as a side dish.

Managed:
No weeding necessary for the veggies so far, which is an incredible time saver. Not so lucky on the flower beds. We have horse nettle, nutgrass, and Johnson grass. I cleaned out the filter on the 110-gallon capacity water catch. We used control-top panty hose as a top filter on the water barrel and we put a knee-high stocking over the end of the downspout to filter it. After I struggled and sweated to get the permanent downspout to the cache Hub finally had mercy on me and fixed it up. In addition to the aforementioned panty hose, we used the other leg of the filter pair as a kind of gasket between the gutter opening and the downspout.

I have Pokeweed in my front flower bed. In the past I’ve eaten poke salat in early spring but it's highly toxic if you aren't careful. Now that I have grandkids running around I want to dump it, which will be a challenge.

We did a layout for the backyard homestead. We’re adding a fence, prepping garden space, planting fruit trees. With all the lumber I’m gathering we should be able to build a chicken coop for next to nothing. I’m planning to build a Dr Seuss type house that looks like a playhouse. No rooster.

Stored:
More water. Canned mandarin oranges. I dried a lot of wild grass for fall décor. I’ve been waiting on a Walton Feed order for eight weeks. That seems nuts.

Reduced, Reused, Recycled:
Handed off a 4 ft. stack of magazines.
Took recycling to the center.
Went to see the construction foreman where the houses are being built near us. He let me go through and keep a massive pile of lumber in all shapes and sizes. I can go back every day to get discards. Not only can we build an arbor on the deck, but we can frame three more garden beds. And now I have giant beanpoles. I was amazed at the total waste of materials on the site.

I hit the Goodwill store this morning determined to find crocks. I found two good ones with lids, and a water-bath canner.

Cooked something new:

I cut back the basil plants so they’d keep putting out. Then I made pesto with basil, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, and Romano cheese. I froze the pesto in little capers jars, olive bottles, etc. Best pesto we ever tasted! Then I made basil vinegar. Next I’ll be making ba

sil oil, but I’d don’t know about using oils for eating. They go rancid so fast in the heat.

I made two tinctures. One is Red Clover flowers and citron Vodka. The other concoction is plantain leaves in rum. I put the tinctures in dark brown- glass vitamin bottles. I’ll use the plantain tincture to make salves. I’m using three books for identification, instructions, etc. Since so many plants look alike, I want to be cautious in gathering edibles and h

erbs in the wild. In the past we’ve relied on the state park head ranger to confirm the identity of herbs and edibles.

Learned: I’m using three books for identification purposes. I’ve learned how to recognize the wild thangs in my yard.
The Herbal Home Remedy Book by Joyce Wardwell
Wildflowers of Tennessee and the Southern Appalachians (Native Plant Society)
The Complete Medicinal Herbal by Penelope Ody

Local:
Drink Hatcher milk! We eat local produce.

The “Other” Book

The Fun Book is a glue-and-scissors project that I use to relieve stress and trigger my imagination. I took a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise and used it for a collage book. I used Modge Podge to affix handmade paper, tissue paper—all those little bits and scraps I saved—to the pages as background. After the paper dries, I glue “things” on the pages.
There are no photos of family and friends; I use pictures and clippings and do-dads. Each two-page spread makes a statement. The topics deal with what is happening in our culture today—politics, the news media, disaster, icons of North American culture. There is poetry, and pages I sponge painted around the page gutters. I transferred images to scotch tape. That step creates a ghostly slightly transparent picture. When each page is finished, I Modge Podge over the whole thing and let it dry for a few days. That process creates thick pages with texture and weight. It also means I’ll have to cut some pages out of the book so the binding doesn’t burst. I’m experimenting with preserving wild edibles with silica gel or in some form that will kept them from wilting or changing color. I’d like to use them in the fun book.

Leave a comment! Take a minute to chat.
Caroline

2008-07-01T11:12:00.008-05:00

Planted: Mammoth Dill, Mammoth Sunflowers. Black Magic elephant ears, hostas and ferns in a shaded bed by the front door. Wisteria along the fence.
Harvested: Sugar Snap peas, chives, rosemary, basil for pesto
Prepped: Enlarged vegetable beds along the deck. Time to order more compost.
Managed: Added a soupcon of hot compost to the sides of the tomato plant. Weeded flower beds. Laid cardboard for paths then covered with shredded bark mulch. Shredded more white paper for use in compost #1 (the rawest compost).

Ordered these books:
Food Drying Techniques : Carol W. Costenbader
Making Cheese, Butter & Yogurt : Ricki Carroll
Making Natural Milk Soap : Casey Makela

Tomato Plants

Learned: Flowers in Ultra Violet

When I was researching the types of flowers to plant that would attract bees, I found out some interesting info about how flowers look to bees and birds. The ultraviolet rays form a bulls-eye pattern on the flower that not only attracts bees but warns caterpillars not to feed on certain plants. This link shows you photos of the flower in natural light and also in UV light.
http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html
This is an article about flower chemicals
http://www.sciencedaily.com/r eleases/2001/11/011120044731.htm

Local: Hooked up with the local Beekeepers group, found a local source for fresh eggs, bought local farmer’s market peaches. I left messages with two local tree companies asking them to bring dump materials (tree trunks, branches, bark and sawdust) to my house. I heard from somebody in the biz that they’ll do that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Notebooks
The Food Independence Days Challenge is an online class about food storage and self sufficiency. Certainly I’ve learned as much in the last eight weeks as I did in eight weeks of college. As I would with any course, I put together a notebook with suggestions and information about the topic. As I read and researched, I realized that I wanted to preserve some of the best info and pictures for future use, so I did step-by-step instructions with photographs for each of the following topics:

Bees (still working on this one)
Bread -How to make bread
Candles - How to make candles
Canning Guide - Complete USDA guide
Chickens -How to find where your hen lays eggs, keep a clean henhouse, Henhouse designs Dairy - Cheesemaking instructions with how-to photos
How to milk a goat w/ photos
How to pour off cream and make butter w/ photos
(Looking for actual photos of milking a cow)
Gardening Guides
How to compost
How to take care of fruit trees
How to make your own gardening tonics
How to care for house plants
Vegetable gardening
Different gardening methods with drawings and illustrations
Tips
Herbs
Herbal remedies
Buying Bulk herbs
Mushrooms
How to grow mushrooms on a log
Pictures
How to harvest
How to store
Soap
How to make
Solar
How to make a solar generator
How to make a solar dehydrator
Using mirrors to enhance panel performance
Sprouts
Different methods of growing
Storing
Water
How to rig your own rain catch system
How to make a purifier
Water storage guidelines including purification

Fun Stuff:
Beer for Compost
Compost pile #3 is about ready to filter and use. A couple of weeks ago I decided to give compost pile #2’s decomposition process a boost by adding ½ a bottle of beer to the several bushels of composting materials. The beer adds bacteria which speed up the process. It also makes the compost heap smell like what it is—a pile of rot. My neighbors were pretty pissed when they couldn’t use their pools for a couple of days because my compost pile smelled so bad.

Missing Umbrella
One day I had worked in the yard, cleaned everything up, put up the umbrellas including the beach umbrella we use sometimes on the deck. I went in to get Hub so he could check out the beauty, and we couldn’t find the beach umbrella anywhere. We went all over the neighborhood.

Caterpillars Love the Fennel
Every year we grow fennel so we can watch the caterpillars feed and hang…always hoping to see one of them emerge from the cocoon. This season we’ve had three egg-laying episodes on one fennel. By accident I closely planted three important foods for all butterfly stages: sunflowers, tickseed, butterfly bush, fennel.

Golden Acre Food Independence Days Week 8

2008-06-24T15:50:00.004-05:00

Mulch Madness
After some much-needed KP in the yard we turned our eyes to the Big Daddy of gardening: mulch. Mulch is our friend. In the front yard where the flower and herb beds are located we’ve mulched twice a year. However, the side yard hasn’t had that luxury, so I spread thin layers of wet newspaper on the ground and covered every bed with a thick layer of peat moss. Then I mulched with pine straw.

Composting: Compost is one of the essential ingredients of gardening. Here at Golden Acre we compost almost everything. So far so good. When I turned compost pile #2 (the older one), it was steaming. I fenced the area with chicken wire to keep out the neighborhood dogs. That will be garden #2. Then we dumped out the rawer compost #1 (revolting) and covered it with manure and clay and dirt and peat moss and newspapers. I was surprised at how much composting had actually taken place in the garbage can (compost #1). Now we’ve started compost #3, which is going to be a second garden bed in the fall.

Birds at the Feeder: Besides the birds already reported, we have a gorgeous red-winged blackbird that lands on our feeder. Different populations and subspecies of Red-winged Blackbirds vary markedly in size and proportions. An experiment was conducted that moved nestlings between populations and found that the chicks grew up to resemble their foster parents. This study indicated that much of the difference seen between populations is the result of the different environments.
The Red-winged Blackbird is a highly polygynous species, with one male having up to 15 different females making nests in his territory. In some populations 90% of territorial males have more than one female. But, from one quarter to up to half of the young in "his" nests do not belong to the territorial male. Instead they have been sired by neighboring males.
The male Red-winged Blackbird fiercely defends his territory during the breeding season. He may spend more than a quarter of all the daylight hours in territory defense. He vigorously keeps all other males out of the territory and defends the nests from predators. He will attack much larger animals, including horses and people. The Red-winged Blackbird forms roosting congregations in all months of the year. In the summer it will roost in small numbers at night in the wetlands where it forages and breeds. In winter, it can form huge congregations of several million birds, which congregate in the evening and spread out each morning. Some may travel as far as 80 km (50 mi) between the roosting and feeding sites. It commonly shares its winter roost with other blackbird species and European Starlings. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Red-winged_Blackbird.html#conservation

Planted: Beans and flower seeds.

Harvested: Our back ½ acre was (once again) covered in the “hay” from cutting. I raked it up and added it to the compost heap. Also harvested basil, Greek oregano, and fennel.

Prepped: To keep the neighborhood dogs out of the compost #2, I fenced it with chicken wire. That’s our prep area for the next two garden beds.

Managed:
Mulched like a crazy woman.
Staked and tied plants. I use panty hose to tie up plants because they stretch and also are full of static.
Turned out the compost from #1 to #2.
Suckered the tomato plants.
The following two sites offer information and diagrams about suckering your tomatoes. Please refer to both sites, since they offer differing opinions. “Knowing the growth habit of the variety you are growing is critical in determining whether a plant can be pruned and the level of pruning.” Plant Doctorhttp://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pubs/ask/tomato_qa.html
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx

We bought two 9 ft. canvas umbrellas to provide much-needed shade in the garden.

Weeded

Enlarged one of the garden beds.

Stored: Ordered an extra 90-day supply of medications from Canada (at extremely reduced savings). Stored two more gallons of drinking water, 6 quarts of lamp oil, and some canned tomatoes. Froze two quarts of fresh green beans.

Cooked Something New: Ate something new…fiddle head ferns!

Local Food Systems: I checked with the county website and found a recycling center that is very close to our home. I’ve already taken our recycling over there once. Also I located a nearby local farm that sells organic meats, eggs and produce.

Learned Something New: This time of year we’re infested with June bugs. “The beginning of summer is usually marked by the arrival of two noisy and clumsy beetles. Both are called June Bugs but it is easier to give them different names. The June Bug that's familiar to most is the big green kind that can be seen crashing into the side of the house during its uncontrolled flights on hot summer days. The other June Bug is really the May Beetle. This is the smaller brown beetle that is usually crashing into the lights at night during its uncontrolled flights on hot summer nights. They may look different and are active at opposite times but they have similar life cycles and one of them is actually so good to eat that it can "heal what ails ya." And if laughter is the best medicine then the other is useful too.”

Week 7 Food Independence Days

2008-06-16T11:39:00.005-05:00

To hear the song about Golden Acre, winner of the 1945 U.S. Victory Garden of the Year award, please click: http://cdbaby.com/cd/wmalanross3.

This week I caught up on the things I neglected in the past six weeks. I spent the entire day with my 14 yo granddaughter; I cooked food for the week, cleaned house, caught up on laundry and email, read a Jodi Picoult novel. In six fast weeks Hub and I have stored enough food, water and emergency supplies to last six or more months, planted a small vegetable garden, cached enough water to irrigate the garden beds, started a composting system, cleared out space for storing supplies, and brought order to our lives in the process. Hub is interested, involved and engaged in the process—this is his first experience at gardening.
Reports from the field: Gas prices in middle Tennessee are at 3.999/10 for regular gas and up to 4.79 for diesel. We’ve saved receipts that reflect the drastic increases in the cost of gas and food. The liquor store owner tells me our favorite Riesling went up $3 per bottle this week. He’s also paying a new $25 delivery charge per order from his supplier due to gas price increases. [That apple jack is soundin’ mitey good.] Our electric usage was up $20 from last month, due to a/c use during this June hot spell. Our auto gas usage was down because we’re consciously making one trip for all errands and to Nashville.

For Food Independence Days course:
Planted: Cilantro, watermelon, transplanted sickly Early Girl tomatoes and sun-burnt ferns.
Harvested: basil, chives, Greek oregano
Prepped: I ordered three books from http://www.half.com/ on making tinctures, salves and other herbal remedies. Kitchen Witchery: Marilyn F. Daniel, Spagyrics: Manfred M. Junius; and The Herbal Home Remedy Book: Joyce A. Wardwell. I plan to buy Everclear to use for tinctures before the prices skyrocket.
Stored: Sometimes it seems dumb to post the things we buy for food storage. Yet my experience has taught me that I can learn a lot from reading posts from other course members. For instance, isn’t it a great idea to store up a little WD40 and 3-in-1 Oil? Prices on those bubbies are bound to go up.
Beef Bouillon x 10 cans
Chicken Bouillon x 10 cans
Tuna packed in water x 25 cans
Canned pears w/o sugar x 10 cans
Canned peaches w/o sugar x 10 cans
Mandarin oranges x 10 cans
Almonds
Cocoa Mix (commercial size) 5#
Baker’s High Protein Flour
Brownie Mix (commercial size) 6#
Soups for bases (celery, mushroom, consommé)
Buttermilk Pancake Mix (commercial size) 10#
Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup (commercial size) 1-gallon
Baking Soda x 8#
Bleach x 1½ gallons
Apple Juice x 4 gallons
Pinto Beans x 20#
Toothpaste x 4 giant tubes (be sure to buy toothpaste with the ADA symbol!)
As you can see, these supplies include comfort foods. Peggy Layton’s plan calls for storing comfort foods.
Water: Our new water catch did well in the rain we (finally) got this weekend. After one rain shower the 110-gallon container was 3/5 full, even though I lost a lot of rainfall because my setup leaked. I’ve since corrected the leak problem. I hope to gather enough water to carry the gardens through the season.
Recycled, Reused: Washed my plastic bags, Ziplocs, etc. in the small delicates tub I have for my washer. Then I hung the bags on my garage clothesline. [We have a clothesline strung in the garage. The clothes dry quickly in the heat and there’s no danger of bird flyovers.] This method worked better than hand washing or dishwasher washing the plastic bags. We have since strung additional clotheslines in our garage [we don’t store the cars in the garage.] I can hang an entire load of clothes on the garage line, still, not fearing bird flyover.
I also raked up grass cuttings. We purposely let our grass grow tall so we can harvest the grass for composting.
As always we composted everything.
Recycled our bottles and plastic to the recycling center.
Used metal cans for energizing in the garden.
Used milk cartons for short-term dry storage of 20# pinto beans.
Taking a cue from Touch the Earth Farms, I run the vacuum less. This cutback presents a difficult situation since we’re allergic to the Himalayan cats we adopted. We have carpets, and the cats are long-haired…that is an issue we aren’t sure how we’ll deal with in the future.

Learned something new: We have carpenter bees in our deck rails, so I researched them. Keep in mind as you read that our deck is made of pre-treated lumber and we sealed it twice last year. “Carpenter bees tunnel into wood to lay their eggs. Bare, unpainted or weathered softwoods are preferred—especially redwood, cedar, cypress and pine. Painted or pressure-treated wood is much less susceptible to attack. Common nesting sites include eaves, window trim, siding, wooden shakes, decks and outdoor furniture. Carpenter bees overwinter as adults in wood within abandoned nest tunnels. They emerge in the spring, usually in April or May. After mating, the fertilized females excavate tunnels in wood and lay their eggs within a series of small cells. The cells are provisioned with a ball of pollen on which the larvae feed, emerging as adults in late summer. The entrance hole and tunnels are perfectly round and about the diameter of your finger. Coarse sawdust the color of fresh cut wood will often be present beneath the entry hole, and burrowing sounds may be heard from within the wood. Female carpenter bees may excavate new tunnels for egglaying, or enlarge and reuse old ones. The extent of damage to wood which has been utilized for nesting year after year may be considerable. Mechanical Measures. A non-insecticidal management approach is to deny carpenter bees access to their galleries by sealing each entrance hole. Thoroughly plug the hole with caulking compound, wood putty, or a wooden dowel affixed with wood glue. If possible, also fill the entire gallery system with a sealant. Carpenter bee galleries are a critical resource, since the bees spend much of their time inside a gallery, and they require its protective conditions to survive the winter. Bees that are trapped inside a caulked gallery typically will not chew out due to behavioral constraints. This barrier approach has promise for reducing future carpenter bee infestations.”
Local Systems: I found a local store that orders and sells bulk foods. I meet with them on Monday. We bought from them last year—their hens laid the greatest eggs—but the night before the county fair a critter got to the chickens and killed them all. Since then the store hasn’t had fresh eggs, so we shopped at Farmer’s Market instead. Also, taking Sharon’s sage advice [to mulch] to heart, I found a local supplier who delivers mulch for a reasonable price. I’m going to lay down heavy mulch on next year’s proposed garden plots. I’m also going to try to borrow my friend’s chickens for the day to grub the garden. If we had the back ½ fenced I’d get a few chickens just so they could prep for next year.
Birds at the feeders: Cardinal, Goldfinch, House finch, one bluebird, hummers, doves, grackles, chickadees.

Food Prices: (This is a good time to have a garden!)
In 2007 and early 2008, prices of wheat, corn, rice and soybeans, among other crops, have escalated along with energy and other natural resources. Since the start of 2007, wheat futures are up 69%, soybeans have risen 92%, corn is up 49% and rice is up 131% on the Chicago Board of Trade. http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2008/06/the_us_government_has_zero_gra.php Freedom Foxfire Notebooks: I have two [so far] three-ring notebooks I started for the Food Independence Days course that includes classes on how to make cheese, candles, grow mushrooms, make soaps, yogurt and salves. I’m now on Book Two of my series. [Verde, thank you for that most excellent cheese course site!] The great thing about internet is the illustrations, so I have compiled an illustrated guide to a simpler life.

Week 6 Golden Acre Update

2008-06-10T10:42:00.011-05:00

This past week has been non-stop work. With temps in the 90s and a blazing sun, I feel I’ve gotten a thorough workout. Most days I spent in the garden and did very little housework or cooking. Hub has been a champ. Although he’s on the IR, he patiently stood at the sink and washed dishes every day. All hail the Hub!

Total Success!I have one itty bitty green tomato. It may never make it to maturity, but I’m happy to see its little face. This is one of four Early Girl tomatoes I rescued from the burnt up and dead plant section.

This week I built a “Square Foot G arden.” Mine is 8'x3'. I covered the ground with thick cardboard, then weed cloth. I layered the bed with compost, vermiculite, peat moss, compost. I put the soaker hose between layers. I’ve used white wooden fence for grids and support. The peas are covered with shade cloth because our temps are still in the 90s. I’ve had to cover several plants, including the pumpkins. We lost a couple of flowers on the pumpkin vines due to the heat.

The clover patch. We don’t have a lot of bees in our area, so this year we let a 5’x5’ section of back yard, formerly a meadow, grow wild and free. We wanted to use the naturally occurring clover to attract honey bees. I read that bee larvae feed on clover. Now that the clover is full of blooms we have bees every day. We’ll let a few more trimmed clover patches grow wild. That will cut down on mowing and provide habitat for insects and food for bees and butterflies. We haven’t mapped out the lower ½ acre yet, and that’s going to have to go high on the list so we end up with a plan.

Harvested: We finally cut the chives. Next time I’ll cut them sooner; some of the stems are tough. I read in Wikipedia that: “Albeit repulsive to insects in general, due to its sulfur compounds, its flowers are attractive to bees, and it is sometimes kept to increase desired insect life.”

Stored:
25 lbs white sugar
2 bottles Excedrin Migraine
6 bottles of propane for the camping equipment
4 gallons of water (I use baking soda and water to clean the bottles and lids, and then pour in filtered water and a few drops of bleach according to instructions. These containers are stored indoors in an air conditioned dark closet for maximum mileage.)
Froze a quart of cherries and two quarts of raspberries.

Water Storage: In an article on the Walton Feed site, Vicki Tate writes, “Fourteen gallons of water per person is the suggested amount to store for a two-week emergency situation.” That’s a gallon a day minimum per person for simple existence. Hub and I have stored, so far, only 11 gallons of water. That’s enough for five days each. We’ve started purifying and storing two or three two-liter bottles of water per week. Our new water catch tank is a 110 gallon capacity recycled container which we had professionally cleaned. The tank is safe for human drinking water; still, our current plan is to use it to water the gardens. If we get sufficient rainfall to fill the tank, this system could also store bath and laundry water for us to use in case of emergency.

Recycled/Reused:
· Cleaned out my bedroom closet and recycled shoes to the mission, made room to store the winter coats. My sister, Kathy, says hang lavender sachets in the closets to repel moths. I’ve found that small #2 cones coffee filters work well as sachets, and that helps me use up the coffee filters I bought in the wrong size.
· Recycled all cardboard by using it to build more square foot beds in the side yard. Recycled juice and soda bottles for water storage.
· Composted almost everything (no kitty litter)
· Took reusable bags with us everywhere
· Saved cans for candle making
· One of my sons moved Hub’s book samples to my bedroom closet so we could have another closet for storage.

Prepped: I used my car to dry the chives. I put parchment paper on a baking tin, put the chives on the paper, and covered them with a cotton tea towel. Then I put the whole contraption in Hub’s car. The chives dried fast, and got to ride around with my husband who had no idea why I had put onions in his car.

Cooked something new: I found a brand new Terra Cotta Baker on ebay for less than half price. I baked two loaves of no-knead bread. The crust is crackly, the crumb is loose and the taste is delicious. Very yeasty smell and flavor. I didn’t get the lift I wanted because I’m using cheap flour, not bread flour. Cheap flour doesn’t have much protein so it doesn’t give good rise. I also could’ve given the yeast another few hours to ferment but the dough looked great. I don’t use the bread machine to make this bread so we’ve cut out another small appliance.
Recipe #1 was 2c white flour, 1 c organic whole wheat flour, 1 ½ c water, ¼ tsp ACTIVE DRY YEAST (I didn’t have any instant yeast), 2 ½ tsp salt.
Recipe #2 was a no-go.
Recipe #3 was 3c white flour, I cup beer, 1/2c water, 1 ¼ Tbl white vinegar, 2 ½ Tbl sugar,1 ¾ tsp salt.

Contribute to local systems: We bought Hatcher Dairy milk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sprouts Jar Method http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/sprout.htm
I ordered two sprouting lids from Wheatgrass Kits.com. http://www.wheatgrasskits.com/sprouting/sprout_lid.htm
Sprout Jar Lids "Jar Method" Sprouting Instructions
· For a quart-sized jar, start with 1 1/2 tablespoons seeds inside the jar, screw on the fine mesh sprouting lid and partially fill the jar through the sprout jar lids with warm water, not hot. Swirl it around to clean the seeds, then pour out. Refill with warm water to cover at about 3 times their depth & let soak overnight, away from light. This gets the germination process started.

· Pour off the soak water. Find a location that is not exposed to direct sunlight. Place drained jar propped at an angle to allow any extra water to drain out. Turn the jar to spread out the seed. Cover the jar with the sprout jar lids and a dishtowel and leave for 3 to 4 hours.

· Rinse sprouts with cool, fresh water 2 or 3 times each day until they are ready to eat or refrigerate. When they begin to throw off the seed hulls, let the jar with sprout jar lids installed overflow with the water and the hulls will float out the top through the sprouting lid screen. Turn the jar to spread out the seed each time you rinse.

· Pour the sprouts into a pan or sink of clean water. Skim off any remaining hulls that float to the surface. Other hulls will fall to the bottom of the container. Pull out the sprouts, gently shake off excess moisture and drain in a colander.

· Clean the jar and sprout jar lid. Place sprouts for greening back into the jar. Place in indirect sunlight. Near a kitchen window is fine. After the sprouts have greened with chlorophyll and carotene for a day or so, rinse, drain with sprouting lids & eat or refrigerate.
· Sprouts will stay fresh & hearty for a week or more when refrigerated, if you rinse them every day or two. You can even give the green sprouts an extra hour of sunlight after rinsing to keep them at their nutritional peak. Caution: Since sprouts are frost sensitive, don't place sprouts near the freezer compartment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bean Recipes
Hoppin John
Ingredients
1 cup small dried beans such as cowpeas or black-eyes5 to 6 cups water1 dried hot pepper (optional) 1 smoked ham hock1 medium onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup) 1 cup long-grain white rice
Preparation
Wash and sort the peas. Place them in a saucepan, add the water, and discard any peas that float. Gently boil the peas with the pepper, ham hock, and onion, uncovered, until tender but not mushy — about 1 1/2 hours — or until 2 cups of liquid remain. Add the rice to the pot, cover, and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, never lifting the lid.
Remove from the heat and allow to steam, still covered, for another 10 minutes. Remove the cover, fluff with a fork, and serve immediately.
In Cuba, this versatile side dish is known as congrí. Louisiana has its own version of red beans and rice, of course, but in that one you won’t find the oregano, cumin or cilantro.
Servings: Makes 6 servings.

Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients
Beans1 cup dried small red kidney beans2 quarts water1/2 small onion1 2-inch square of red bell pepper2 garlic cloves, peeled2 fresh cilantro sprigs1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Rice1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice, rinsed in cold water 5 times
3 tablespoons olive oil2 cups chopped onions1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper2 garlic cloves, minced1/2 teaspoon ground cumin1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Preparation
For beans: Soak kidney beans in large bowl with enough cold water to cover by 3 inches, at least 4 hours or overnight. Drain in a colander and keep wet until the bean hulls crack open (or even sprout). Place 2 quarts water, beans and next 5 ingredients in large pot. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer until beans are tender, stirring occasionally, about 50 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Drain, reserving beans and bean cooking liquid separately. Discard vegetables and cilantro.
For rice: Bring 3 cups bean cooking liquid to boil in heavy medium saucepan. Add rice; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Uncover; fluff with fork.
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, cumin and oregano and sauté until onions are beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in beans and rice; cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Cuban Black Beans and Rice
This is also a great vegetarian entrée.
Servings: Serves 4 to 6.
Ingredients
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed, drained1/2 large red onion, very thinly sliced2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar*
1 tablespoon olive oil1 white onion, finely chopped4 large garlic cloves, chopped1 cup Arborio rice*3 1/2 cups canned unsalted chicken broth1/2 cup dry white wine2 large bay leaves1/2 teaspoon turmeric1/8 teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper
* Balsamic vinegar and Arborio rice are available at specialty foods stores, Italian markets and some supermarkets.
Preparation
Combine first 3 ingredients in medium bowl. Let stand 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over high heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add rice and stir 1 minute to coat with onion mixture. Add broth, wine, bay leaves, turmeric and cayenne pepper and blend well. Bring mixture to boil; stir well. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until rice is tender and mixture is creamy, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper and cayenne.
Spoon rice onto platter. Arrange beans and onion garnish alongside.
Suitable accompaniments to this risotto-like dish are crusty bread, an avocado and orange salad with a cilantro vinaigrette and, to top it off, coconut pie.
Servings: Serves 2.

West Indian Rice and Beans
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups (about) canned vegetable broth1 15- to 16-ounce can kidney beans, drained1 cup canned unsweetened regular or light coconut milk1 tablespoon minced seeded jalapeño chili1 teaspoon dried thyme1/4 teaspoon ground allspice3/4 cup medium-grain white rice
1 cup thinly sliced green onions
Preparation
Combine 2 cups vegetable broth, kidney beans, coconut milk, minced jalapeño chili, thyme and allspice in heavy large saucepan. Bring mixture to boil over medium-high heat. Stir in rice. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer mixture uncovered until most of liquid is absorbed and rice is almost tender, stirring often, about 20 minutes.
Mix 3/4 cup green onions into rice. Continue to simmer until rice is very tender and mixture is creamy, adding more broth by 1/4 cupfuls if mixture seems dry, about 5 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving bowl. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup green onions and serve.

Food Challenge Week 5

2008-06-02T13:57:00.008-05:00

Our Golden Acre Update

Planted:
· Red clay gardening is the pits. While the clay is full of nutrients (and wiggler worms), getting the soil to release the goods is the trick. In our courtyard we dug up the weeds along the path we wanted to create, then we put down a thick layer of coarse sand. After we spent some time walking on it and the rain beat on it, the sand and clay hardened into a nice little woodland path. We’ve tilled and amended the courtyard soil along the ugly fence and planted peas, mammoth sunflowers, morning glories and two hills of pumpkins and zucchini. Most of the peas are weak looking, yet the morning glories seem to thrive in the soil. I planted a bush tomato in a giant tub, along with some purple basil.

“Attraction” Dwarf Butterfly Bush

Harvested:
· The chive blooms are fading and I was going to harvest the chives, but I saw tiny bees on the flowers and thought I might just let them go another few days. Some of the women in my group dry herbs and foods in their cars. I live in the humid south in the US. I’ll give it a shot.

Managed:
· Finished (YEA!) cleaning out, repackaging, bay-leafing, and labeling the pantry. Setting up a place to keep your stored foods is the first step. I composted the old pantry stuff. Then I made a handwritten inventory, and I have to say I was shocked at how little we have. I have two large coop orders placed, but I don’t expect them for another month or more, due to backlog. Still, the pantry space is ready and labeled and waiting…and empty. Although you can’t see the top of the pantry, you get the idea. It’s a big dark closet with the door cut shorter for ventilation. On the right and left sides are deep storage spaces. I’ve mapped the layout, which we’ll post to the inside door. There’s plenty of room for storing food.

Prepped:
· Water storage: We bought a 300-gallon agricultural water tank in a cage. We’ve been waiting all weekend for the guy to deliver it to us. Can’t complain when he’s doing the driving, but it’s been raining all weekend, and I keep thinking of the water I’d be catching if I had the storage in place. Since we live in a drought zone there’s no way can I have a garden without big water catch in place.

· Composting: I added another three buckets of compost to the teeny tiny garden. Since we have red clay soil and our compost is aged well, we can add as much compost as we want without fear of burning the plants. Also we’re planning for a fall garden, and because of the red clay a lot of prep has to happen. We’re prepping two areas for blackberries using the lasagna method in raised beds.

Pumpkin and Cantaloupe Hills

Stored:
· I put everything that passed inspection into the pantry in jars with basil leaves. I finished drying the bushel of mint for winter tea, and I explained how to dry herbs to one of my sons. I stored a 1-1/2 gallons of bleach. Meanwhile I’m been freezing the rice in Pepsi 2-liter bottles. Rice doesn’t keep well, according to Peggy Layton.

Learned:
· It takes a lot more food and water than I expected to feed two people for three months. With my coop order I’ll still be short 3 gallons of fruits and 3 gallons of vegetables. And that’s only for a three-month supply!
· There are so many great videos on YouTube. Here are a few videos on homesteading that I got hints from.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaPFt_ajvU&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mWjCnwbb5yc&feature=related

Cooked Something New: Mixed up a batch of the No Knead bread (recipe below).

Local Systems:
· We got to Farmer’s Market in our small town but the farmers had gone home. They’d sold out. So we plan to drive up to Mamushi Farms to pick some produce. They even have worms…for the soil, not canning.

2008-05-27T10:37:00.000-05:00

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This year, instead of a vacation, Hub and I decided to invest in food. Don’t laugh. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, food prices are skyrocketing. (http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/104914/Load-Up-the-Pantry). With news about Peak Oil/Hubbert’s Peak, climate changes, water shortages and food riots foremost in our minds, we decided to store food and water, plant a garden, compost, “go green.” Sharon’s Food Independence Days Challenge provided the incentive and encouragement we needed to get it in gear. Problem is, we live in a plastic neighborhood with tiny trees and a homeowner’s association. So how does one go green in this setting? How do we recreate our own Golden Acre?
Our first order was to line up additional medications. We increased the size of our first aid kit. Bought a half dozen large boxes of matches and gathered all the candle making supplies together. That was easy enough.

55-gallon water tanks are one of our first priorities. We plan to fill and seal two barrels and place them in the garage as an emergency water supply. Then the other barrels will be stationed at the downspouts from the gutters. With proper screening and a spigot we can provide water for our gardens almost all season. I say “almost” because with climate changes I’m not sure if we’ll catch the usual 10,000 gallons of water.

Learn how to properly store food. Peggy Layton has an excellent book titled Food Storage 101: Where Do I Begin? In the book she outlines a six month plan for stocking up. I’m still in the process of organizing the larder. More on that later.

Recycle. We used old Pepsi bottles (Hub is addicted) to store grains and beans. We use the plastic Tidy Cat containers to store charcoal, seeds, bird food and cat food. My son Jacob suggested we use any glass bottles to create a wind garden. You plant the bottle open end up and when the wind blows across the top, you hear music. We save jars for storage. Other than that, our recycling is all paper, mostly junk mail.

Compost. We have three stages of compost here. The rawest is in a garbage can beside the real garbage can. Scraps go into that, then a layer of dirt, then a layer of dung and so on until the can is full. Then the contents are dumped out on the ground in the back yard and covered with more compost. My son Zach put up a lattice fence and planted morning glories to hide the compost. After that pile has aged it will go into the courtyard corner in a pile. We also sport a 4 ft high pile of gourmet compost in the same yard.

This week for the food challenge I did these things:
Planted peas, limas, bush beans, tomatoes, basil, cukes, okra. We’ve started zucchini, pumpkin, and squash. We’ve kept the gardening loose in style so that from a distance the vegetables look like flower vines and shrubs. We’ve planted herbs in the veggie beds, and marigolds in all the beds as a natural pest repellant.

Harvest: I harvested a bushel of lime mint that I’m drying for tea.

Prep: Bought a pressure cooker and four dozen Ball jars with extra lids and bands for canning. Marked off wildflower patches for bees in preparation of getting a hive next year.

Store: Placed a large coop order for six different kinds of beans, sunflower seed, sprouting seed, a gallon of honey, flax, oats, popcorn and brown rice. These foods come in 6-gallon pails and have been sprayed with nitrogen to kill infestation. I store mine with a few organic bay leaves scattered throughout the bucket as a preventative. I use gamma lids on buckets that I frequently open and the rubber-seal lids for foods that I open every once in a while. From Walton Feed we ordered dehydrated peppers, corn, celery, carrots, mushrooms, as well as 50# baking soda, bouillon, blueberry muffin mix, granola, dry milk, biscuit mix, tomato powder, and potato flakes. We haven’t used dehydrated carrots or celery yet, but thought we’d try using them in soups. Instructions for rehydrating foods can be found in Peggy Layton’s Food Storage 101 book.

Learn Something New. My newest new thing is learning to blog. Bear with me.
Contribute to local food systems. We still shop the local farmer’s market and we’ll buy our produce for canning from local farmers. We spread compost around our neighbor’s tree and gave him some seed.

Independence Days Challenge

2008-05-23T15:46:00.002-05:00