Using Soil Temperature to Gauge Planting Times

Okay, I know it's only January and I'm already obsessing about gardening. But seriously, it's only a few more weeks before I can get started again, at least with seedlings in the house. And if I'm really on the ball I'll be able to get some plants in the ground soon too.

John Jeavons includes a chart in How to Grow More Vegetables that shows the optimal soil temperatures for germination of various vegetables. The earliest, most cold-hardy plants will germinate at soil temperatures as low as 35 degrees F. They certainly prefer somewhat warmer temperatures, but if your goal is to get things started as soon as possible it's good to know which plants don't mind the cold. You're taking a chance, obviously, by planting ultra early, but if it doesn't work out you simply plant more seed a bit later and if it does work out--terrific!

Here are some minimums for you (remember this is soil temperature, not air temperature):

35 degrees F: lettuce, onion, parsnip, and spinach seeds

40 degrees F: beet, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, chard, parsley, pea, radish, and turnip seeds

50 degrees F: asparagus, corn, and tomato seeds

60 degrees F: bean, cucumber, eggplant, okra, pepper, squash, and melon seeds

Where I live (in Colorado) soil temperatures are hovering somewhere around 32 degrees F. right now. I don't yet own a soil thermometer but luckily the local water conservancy district posts soil temperatures daily. The closest testing site to me is about 4 or 5 miles away, so it's only a rough estimate but good enough until I get my own thermometer. If you check with your area cooperative extension they may have this sort of data for your area or may be able to point you to an organization which does. Our water conservancy district compiles a lot of really useful data--soil and air temperatures, wind, humidity, solar radiation, precipitation, and more (if only I knew how to interpret all of that!).

Last year our soil temperatures started consistently hitting 35 degrees in mid-February, and 40 degrees in mid-March. I've never tried planting that early but I might experiment this year just to see what happens. I haven't decided if I will take the lazy approach, just planting some seeds and forgetting about them (except to water) or if I'll be more involved and offer them some protection, keeping an eye out for hard freezes, covering and uncovering and otherwise coddling them.

I've never been good about getting anything planted early, but it would be so nice to have those early greens and peas and radishes this year.

Reducing Our Recyclables

We're told to reduce, reuse and recycle, but it seems to me that when recycling becomes too easy people forget the first two principles almost entirely. Recycling becomes automatic, especially in places where curbside recycling is the norm and little thought is required other than remembering to drag the bin to the curb every week. When it's that easy people get complacent. They're doing the right thing, and the right thing is easy, so why bother to think about it?

The problem is that recycling isn't enough. Have you ever driven through neighborhoods on recycling day and seen the mountains of stuff set out? It's appalling. When recycling is that easy there's absolutely no impetus for reducing our use of resources. If those resources come in recyclable packaging, and dealing with that packaging is as simple as kicking it to the curb, why even give it any thought? It all gets recycled. It's not as if we're creating waste now is it?

But we are creating waste, mountains of it, but because it's hidden from view (in the factories and slag heaps and poisoned waters) it's not real to us or relevant. Recycling, of course, is important, but it should be an action of last resort. We should be working towards not only zero waste in our homes, but also zero recyclables. Reducing and reusing are the strategies that matter most and have the greatest environmental impact.

One of my goals this year is to reduce my recyclables to as close to zero as possible. That means not buying anything in cans or plastic, and saving glass for reuse (which I already do). Paper is actually the bigger problem for me, which seems a bit ridiculous since it biodegrades. I could simply shred it and add it to the compost pile. My concern there is the bleach, ink, and possible heavy metal contaminants. Instead, I 'm working to reduce my use of paper. I've gone paperless for all of my bills, I get very, very little junk mail, and no newspapers or magazines, but I'm a hopeless note-taker, scribbler, doodler, and disorganized jotter-downer. I have ideas, instructions, mathematical equations, website links and a million other bits of information scattered about on fifty million pieces of paper around the house. Breaking that habit is going to be a tough one.

In most families though a great place to start reducing the amount of recyclables would be with beverage containers. That seems to be the bulk of what gets placed out on the curbs. Instead of buying cans of soda, buy two liter bottles, or better yet kick the habit entirely. Making your own beverages at home makes the most sense both financially and environmentally, since you eliminate the need for packaging and you're not paying to have water shipped all over the country. What can you make at home, using your own filtered tap water? Coffee, teas (regular and herbal), ginger ale, root beer, beers, wines and other alcoholic beverages, yogurt and kefir-based drinks, and fruit and vegetable juices. In other words, what beverage can't you make at home?

School Lunches Getting Healthier Here

At the end of the holiday break I got an email from my son's school saying that all of the fresh fruits and veggies on the lunch menu, including the salad bar, are now organic. This is awesome news in itself, but then last week I got an email from the district listing all the changes they've made district-wide and together it adds up to some really positive change.

Here's part of the email from the district:

Now on to our other exciting changes and successes!
We've been doing tastings, working with students, changing recipes, meeting with parents and working hard to serve the best possible food.
In January we are surveying all of the middle and high school students, as well as parents and caregivers.
We have eliminated all high fructose corn syrup from the food that is served to students in BVSD schools. We have also eliminated all added trans-fats (hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils) from our food.
We have reduced or eliminated highly processed foods, refined sugars, refined flours, chemicals, additives and dyes.
All schools now have full salad bars that include meat and vegetable protein and fresh produce.
We are serving bulk organic Colorado milk at lunch and hormone and antibiotic-free milk at breakfast.
We instituted Universal Breakfast in the classroom at five schools and are in the process of adding breakfast service to all schools in the district.
We now serve fresh fruits and vegetables every day at lunch.
We also serve at least one vegetarian entrée everyday at lunch.
All of our bread and bakery products are whole grain.

I'm impressed!

Homemade Yogurt is Easy

I started my first batch of homemade yogurt last night before I went to bed. I followed Sally Fallon's super easy directions in Nourishing Traditions.Instead of obsessing about keeping the temperate at an even 110 degrees Fahrenheit, you just leave it comfortably warm and forget about it. It worked. I left it overnight in the oven (I had initially preheated it to warm, then turned the oven off before adding the yogurt mixture). By morning it was fairly well set but still a little too watery so I turned the oven back on for about five minutes (I didn't even bother to take the yogurt out), then off again, and in a few more hours the yogurt was ready.

Lately I've been eating tons of yogurt, in the form of yogurt cheese drizzled with a little honey and topped with some crumbled walnuts. It's my latest favorite snack, but I've been going through a lot of yogurt. This is great now to know how easily I can make my own. And all the whey left over from turning the yogurt into yogurt cheese can be used for more experiments with lacto-fermentation. Another win-win situation.

To make homemade yogurt:

Heat a quart of whole milk slowly on the stove until it reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from the heat and cool to 110 degrees. Stir in 1/2 cup live-culture yogurt. Preheat your oven to warm, then turn off. Pour yogurt mixture into a shallow baking dish, cover, place in oven and leave over night. In the morning you should have yogurt (or, in my case, in a few more hours with a little more heat added).

To make yogurt cheese:

Line a strainer with dampened cheesecloth, and place over a bowl. Add yogurt. Fold excess cheesecloth over the top of the yogurt, then place a weight on top (I usually just stick the quart-sized honey jar on top, precariously balanced). Wait about an hour for the whey to drip out, then fold the yogurt cheese into a bowl and eat. I add honey and walnuts, but it can be used for savory things as well (i.e., adding minced garlic to create a soft cheese spread for veggies or crackers). Save the whey for other uses--it should keep in the fridge for about 6 months.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

This post has nothing whatsoever to do with food (although it does involve some cooking), but I wanted to share it with you anyway. Making your own laundry detergent is a great way to save money and it lets you be in control of what goes into the final product.

This is the recipe I've been using for nearly two years now. One batch makes a 5-gallon bucket, which in my small household lasts for 6-months and costs just a penny per load.

I need to note that the Fels Naptha soap is, in my opinion, a rather questionable ingredient. The makers of it (the Dial Corporation) seem to go out of their way on the label not to tell you what's really in it. I'm assuming there are some fairly nasty chemicals.

Here's the ingredients list: "Cleaners, soil & stain removers, chelating agents, colorants, perfume. CONTAINS NO NAPHTHALENE."

Reassuring, eh??

That being said, I've used it for all of the batches I've made, except for the very first one. For the first one I had purchased the Fels Naptha soap but was so put-off by the strong chemical scent that I couldn't bring myself to use it. So for that first batch I used a bar of Ivory soap. The problem was that by the end of the first bucket our clothes seemed noticeably dingy and--I wasn't sure--but I thought maybe I detected a very faint sort of funk developing, something oh-so slightly malodorous. In other words, the Ivory soap just wasn't cutting it.

Now I definitely strive to make the most environmentally-sound choices, but in this case I caved and have used the Fels Naptha soap for all the subsequent batches. It does work very well. It gets our clothes clean, and until I can come up with a better substitute, I will continue to use it. I suspect that it contains a fairly high concentration of lye because it is quite harsh on the skin (if you get the detergent on your hands--not from merely wearing clothes washed in it). This probably isn't a good recipe for people with sensitive skin though.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
1 bar Fels Naptha laundry soap
few drops essential oil of your choice (optional)

Supplies

an old cooking pot
an old cheese grater
an old wooden spoon
**Do not use any of the above items for food anymore.**
a 5-gallon bucket
stirring stick of some sort (I use a yardstick)
an empty detergent bottle

Grate the Fels Naptha soap (or other soap of your choice) into your cooking pot.

Cover with water and cook over low heat, stirring to dissolve, until completely melted and blended.

Pour the melted soap mixture into your five gallon bucket, add the washing soda and borax, and fill the bucket with warm water. Add essential oil if you're using it. Stir thoroughly and allow to cool. (Notice how the detergent has washed the numbers off of my yardstick.)

Fill your empty detergent bottle with detergent (rubber gloves recommended if you're dunking the bottle into the bucket like I do). Use 1/2 cup of detergent per load (the cap on the bottle I use holds a half-cup, but I'm not sure if that's how all detergent bottles are sized).

Once the detergent cools it will become a thick gel. You will have to stir it up very well each time you need to fill your bottle, and you'll need to shake up the bottle before each use.

If you have a lot of whites to wash you probably want to buy some liquid bluing (like Mrs. Stewarts) since homemade detergent doesn't contain any optical whiteners.

**If anyone out there has an effective detergent recipe which they know to be environmentally friendly, please post it in the comment section below. Also, if anyone knows the real ingredients in Fels Naptha soap, please share that with us as well.**

Food Goals 2010

My goals for the new year:

• Expand the intensive garden from 500 to 800 square feet.
• Get the soil tested and amended.
• Grow 100 square feet of oats.
• Get 3 or 4 hens.
• Get meat rabbits.
• Eat only home-cooked meals--no restaurants or convenience foods at all.
• Start ordering bulk grains and beans.
• Get a pressure canner, oat roller, and grain mill.
• Build a multi-purpose warming box for: food dehydrating, seed starting, yogurt incubating, and bread rising.
• Finally clean out the storm cellar to use as a root cellar.
• Get more experience fermenting foods.
• Make sure to pass along my new skills to Collin.
• Get better acquainted with the other gardeners in town.
• Sell excess produce at the farmer's market.
• Expand the herb garden.
• Finally build a cold frame and create some hoop tunnels.

What I accomplished in 2009:

• Expanded the garden from 100 to 500 square feet.
• Grew 241 pounds of tomatoes.
• Got a tomato strainer.
• Canned 3 kinds of pickles, 2 kinds of ketchup, 2 kinds of tomato sauce, tomato juice, tomato paste, beet preserves, salsa, and hot sauce.
• Fermented beet juice, salsa, chard stalks, and a tiny batch of sauerkraut.
• Froze green beans, zucchini, chard, butternut squash soup, and tons of pesto.
• Sun-dried a batch of tomatoes.
• Went into the winter with plenty of garlic, winter squash, and beets, plus a few potatoes and some (pathetically small) onions.
• Grew 34 different kinds of fruits, veggies and herbs.

A Cool Coincidence

There's a great book, Gardening for Maximum Nutrition,that was written in the early '80's. I have taken it out of the library several times in the past few years and this fall I needed to refer to it again for some articles I was working on. But when I went back to the library I discovered it was no longer in their collection. I guess it was just too old. The library I go to has a fantastic collection of materials and is constantly adding to it, but the drawback is that they have to purge the older books (even the high quality ones) to make way for the new.

I checked on the sale shelf down it the lobby, hoping it would still be there, but had no luck. Eventually I decided I would have to order my own copy from Amazon. I found the bookseller who was closest to me, Atheneum in Denver, and ordered a used copy for $1.70 plus shipping. The description stated it was a used library copy, and I just had a funny feeling it was going to be the copy from my library. When it got here, that was the first thing I checked. Sure enough it was! I guess that book was just destined to be mine.

The thing I really love about the book is that the author, Jerry Minnich, evaluates the nutritional qualities of foods in a number of different ways. He has a list of the the most calcium-rich crops, protein-rich crops, Vitamin C-rich crops, and so on. And then a list of the top ten most nutritious crops and a list of the top twelve most versatile crops (those that contain the greatest number of different vitamins and minerals, plus protein). To gather his data, Minnich analyzed the USDA's Agriculture Handbook No. 456, Nutritive Value of American Foods in Common Units. In order to make the data most useful, he compared foods by typical serving sizes rather than by an equal weight of food. This makes a great deal of sense to me, since we will commonly eat a half-pound potato, but not a half a pound of asparagus in one sitting. Other studies list asparagus to be more nutritious on a pound-for-pound basis, but that is simply not the way we eat. When compared in terms of typical serving sizes, the potato wins.

So, what were his findings? The top ten most nutritious foods he listed were: leaf amaranth, sunflower seeds, broccoli, soybeans, almonds, collards, navy beans, cowpeas, potatoes, dandelion greens, and peanuts. His twelve most versatile foods were: broccoli, leaf amaranth, lima beans, cowpeas, watermelons, almonds, collards, peas, potatoes, soybeans, sunflower seeds and the twelfth spot was a tie among five items, which he unfortunately didn't list.

I love these sorts of lists, but of course they're only useful up to a point. Minnich's lists evaluate the 89 most common fruits and veggies, but certainly there are highly nutritious crops that were excluded simply because they weren't part of the typical American diet. Also grains weren't included, nor were herbs and most seed crops (sunflower seeds notwithstanding).

Again, when it comes to growing foods for maximum nutrition, I believe that variety is key. The more diverse our diets are, the more likely we will be getting the full range of nutrients necessary for optimal health. If you're planning next year's garden, certainly focus on the nutritional powerhouses, but also plant a diverse range of fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, seeds, grains and herbs, as space allows.

Humanure in the Mainstream Media

Time magazine ran an article on Friday on humanure (in case the topic is new to you, that's the composting of human waste). I think that's awesome.

Humanure: Goodbye, Toilets. Hello, Extreme Composting.

The best source for information on humanure is Joseph Jenkins book, The Humanure Handbook, which he has been making available for free on the Internet for years. You'll find it an amazing resource (unless you're pathologically squeamish).

As I've mentioned before, I intend to use a composting toilet when I eventually build my cabin. My only issue with humanure is that humanure is only as healthy as the people who produce it. So, if people are eating the standard American diet full of chemicals and preservatives and devoid of minerals, taking their 11.2 prescription drugs per year, with their mouths full of mercury amalgam fillings and their bodies shot full of mercury, aluminum, and God knows what other toxic metals from such things as unnecessary and dangerous vaccines--well, they're going to produce some pretty crappy crap, if you don't mind me saying so.

Before people start composting their wastes, it would behoove them to attend to their own health first. In order to create organic poop you have to create organic humans. Anything short of organic compost isn't worth doing for the earth. Composting human wastes is a deep, deep commitment in my opinion, and one that shouldn't be undertaken unless you've put your own internal house in order first.

I'm very careful about where I source the cow and horse manure for my garden. I would want to be even more certain about the provenance of any human manures.

Junk Food

At the library recently I overheard the woman who runs the little coffee shop talking to a patron. She was talking about her kids and in a totally exasperated voice said, "Every night as soon as the dishes are put away, OUT come the chips, AND the cookies, AND the pretzels...!" And I thought to myself, But who is buying all of that? If you're so exasperated, just quit buying that junk. Seriously. We can't control what our kids are eating when they're out with friends, but at home we certainly can. If there are no chips and cookies and pretzels to be found at home, guess what? You're kids aren't going to be eating them. It's amazing how that works.

Now I can't totally sit on a high-horse here and lecture. I don't buy junk food, but I do bake sweets. So there's junk in the house. It's free of chemicals and artificial ingredients but still loaded with too much sugar and refined flour. So yes, I'm feeling all superior to this woman because I don't have store-bought junk in my house, but I can't ignore what I do have here.

At least with savory snacks we're in good shape. We've always got nuts, seeds and fruit for snacks (okay, so fruit isn't savory), sometimes popcorn, and I personally like to cook a big batch of chickpeas and snack on those at times. Collin has never complained that we don't buy junk food. And frankly, we don't do all that much snacking. When you eat nutrient-dense foods at mealtimes you just don't get very hungry between meals.

There was a time, back when Collin was small, when I did buy junk food--Goldfish and Cheez-Its and pretzels and so on. I'm not sure how we made the transition. We just shifted slowly away from that habit. And that's the thing, it is a habit. If you try to give it up suddenly, you're going to miss it and have cravings. You'd probably have better luck making gradual changes, slipping in a few substitutions here and there, and working up to a total change of habits over time.

As I've said before, Collin is allowed to buy junk food with his own money. Mostly he buys soda, the cheap two-liter bottles at the dollar store. Recently he made an interesting discovery. For awhile he'd been having issues when he was at my house. Intestinal issues, shall we say, after mealtimes. We kept trying to figure out what food might be causing it, but could never come up with one ingredient that was common to every meal. Plus he wasn't having any issues at his dad's house. For awhile I was getting paranoid that it might be my cooking! But then he figured it out--it was the cola. Every time he had a glass of cola he would have problems. I think it's awesome that he worked this out on his own. He's at that age now where kids seem to start having a degree of body-awareness and health-consciousness (he's thirteen) and have enough self-discipline to make positive changes. I'm so impressed that he figured this out. In order for change to be lasting it has to come from within. He's now planning to have a finite soda budget for 2010--once it's used up, no more soda, even if it's only May. I'd rather he just give up soda entirely, but at least he's moving in the right direction.

P.S.--If drinking soda causes the same troubles for you as it does for my son, check out my post on Corn Syrup. It covers fructose malabsorption syndrome, which is most likely what you're suffering from (scroll about a third of the way down the post to reach the part about fructose malabsorption).

Whew, the Garlic's in the Ground

I've been saying for the past month and a half, "Gotta get the garlic planted, gotta get the garlic planted," and it kept not happening. Today was a gorgeous day, sunny and in the low sixties, and the first day since battling this respiratory thing that I felt up to doing anything physical. It's best to plant garlic at least a few weeks before the ground freezes so the roots can get a bit of a start--last year I planted at the end of October--but even planting this late I think they'll make it through the winter. I piled a ton of straw on top of the bed and can pile more on if we end up with a particularly cold winter.

I would have been so mad at myself if I hadn't gotten them in the ground. The bulbs I bought last year for planting were expensive and I would have had to start all over again next fall (and miss out on a whole season of garlic). Now I can keep my two varieties going.

The added benefit of getting out in the garden today was that I made a wonderful salad for my early dinner. I picked the last of the spinach and beets, plus a little bit of chard and a small rosette of red baby lettuce, then once inside made a salad of them plus some carrots, onions, sunflower seeds, hardboiled eggs, and grated cheese. All of the veggies came from the garden--pretty good for late November! Now the only things left out there are: the chard, a patch of parsley, a small mound of chives, and the frost-nipped oregano.

What's In Your Fridge?

Check out "You Are What You Eat", a great series of photos by Mark Menjivar, showing the contents of people's refrigerators.

Here's my fridge:

Setback for Genetically Modified Sugar Beets

A federal judge has ruled that the government illegally approved "Roundup Ready" sugar beets in 2005, without adequately addressing the likelihood that wind-borne pollen would contaminate non-GM crops.

The full story is covered in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle.

What this means is unclear. The USDA will now have to conduct a review, including public input. In the meantime, sales of GM sugar beets have not been prohibited, but the plaintiffs in the case may yet seek an injunction prohibiting such sales.

Could it be the tide is beginning to turn against Monsanto's irresponsible and greedy practices? Let's hope so. This is at least a step forward.

Last year, I had to switch back to cane sugar after they introduced the Roundup Ready sugar beets. Sugar beets are a major crop in my county and it would be nice to support my local farmers. But I see the trucks going past town, all mounded up with sugar beets, heading to the sugar mill in Fort Morgan. And I know once they get there they get dumped into gigantic piles --and no one is sorting the GM beets from the non-GM beets. So even if pollen from the GM sugar beets isn't contaminating the non-GM crops (unlikely), it wouldn't matter because all the beets get mingled in the end anyway.

Hopefully GM sugar beets will eventually be outlawed. If the plaintiffs in this case seek an injunction the damage could be limited to just these first two seasons of use, while the case proceeds. And once the proper review has been done let's hope it will be glaringly obvious there's no place in agriculture for GM sugar beets.

Lazy Woman's Guide to Composting

To compost:

Throw stuff in bin.

Keep throwing stuff in bin.

Dump used cooking water on top here and there, rinse compost bucket (aka sludge bucket) out and dump water on top here and there.

Allow strange and fantastic things to sprout out of the top. See how many strange and fantastic things show up. (That's a tomato plant sprouting out of the pile in the picture.)

Next spring sift the whole pile through 1/2-inch hardware cloth sifter, throw chunks back in bin, spread sifted compost on garden.

Tah-da. Composting made easy.

Maggots and Vinegar--My Learning Curve With Fermented Foods

Hew Boy, have I been having some fun learning how to ferment things! It seemed to be going well for quite awhile, but then I hit a few bumps in the road. I guess there are too many biological processes involved when you're not sterilizing your food to death. Things can go awry, horribly awry.

The beet juice thing was awesome for a few weeks. I kept brewing new batches and drinking a small glassful every morning. Note that in the recipe I've been using, it calls for placing a piece of sourdough bread on top of the beets. This introduces beneficial beasties as well as keeps the beets under the liquid, which is critical. So, there were the beets and the liquid, topped by a piece of sourdough bread (it was the top half of a sourdough bun, which fit perfectly into the jar), then the jar was covered with four layers of cheesecloth tied snugly around the rim.

I will never forget the morning I took the cheesecloth off my most recent batch of fermented beet juice. I had eagerly been anticipating the newest batch, but when I looked in--OH MY GOD!! (I've had a lifelong aversion to wormy things of all sorts)--the sourdough was crawling with maggots! Just crawling with them. I have NO idea how that could have happened. Four layers of cheesecloth! The cheesecloth was suspended at least an inch above the bread. Maybe the bread needed to be fully submerged in the brine (it wasn't) but still, how could a fly have gotten to it to lay eggs? And we haven't even had many flies this year. That week was the first time I had noticed any in the house at all.

It was so traumatizing I haven't been able to make more beet juice since then. When I get brave enough to try it again, I think I'll use something else to hold the beets under the brine. Something inert like a small cup or plate.

I am so glad I didn't totally freak out and drop the jar on the floor. That would have been great--glass shards, beets, blood red juice, a sloppy piece of bread and MAGGOTS EVERYWHERE. I would have just lost it. Luckily, I maintained control of my faculties enough to get the jar out to the compost bin and dump it before the worst of the willies set in. Bleck!

The next adventure had to do with my sourdough starter. I was making a new batch of ginger ale and had all the ingredients in the bottle except for the yeast. As I mentioned before, I've started using a tablespoon of my sourdough starter in place of commercial yeast, and have really liked the results. So I got the starter out of the fridge, opened it, and held it up to my nose. Instead of the pleasant yeasty aroma of sourdough, my nose was assaulted with the pungent smell of vinegar. My sourdough had turned to vinegar--Oh No! It's true I'd been abusing it lately. I left it out on the counter too long without feeding it one time. I think that's what did it. If you've never worked with sourdough you might not realize the liquid that forms on top of the starter is pure "hooch"--grain alcohol--so, yes, it's possible for your starter to turn to vinegar. In wine-making that's why fermentation is done in narrow-necked containers, to keep the vinegar-making beasties out. But I had left my wide round bowl of starter out on the counter (for a very long time) which was just a big ole' welcome sign for them.

So then I had another problem. Here I was with a three liter bottle of ginger ale all ready to go except for the yeast. And I didn't have any sourdough starter nor any commercial yeast. I decided to see what would happen if I just let it go as is. Would there be enough wild yeasts present on the ginger to get the process going and allow it to ferment? Well, guess what--it worked! It took about two or three days, instead of the usual one day, but it carbonated itself. Yay! I learned something really valuable--adding yeast was never even necessary. It just speeds things up a bit.

Aside from these lessons, my other fermentation projects are going well. I've made fermented chard stalks which are coming along nicely, as well as a fermented salsa that's not half bad.

Live and learn, though. These sure have been some interesting food adventures.

Grassroots Movement to Take Back Our Food A Must

Have you been following the Obama family's adventures (and misadventures) with gardening this year? And now the Farmers' Market they just opened near the White House?

Michelle Obama launches D.C. farmers market, touts White House garden

I love what they're doing, but at the same time I'm really bothered by the disconnect between their personal actions and what the Obama administration is doing to address the economic crisis.

We need to be moving to a steady-state economy. Yet no one in government has the courage to tackle this issue. Instead, all the measures being taken to address our economic problems represent business as usual, a continuation of our unsustainable growth economy.

In contrast to that, there's now a presidential garden and a presidential farmers' market. These are so at-odds with the concept of a growth economy. They perfectly represent the principals of a steady-state economy. I love it, but I just can't stand the contradiction! If everyone were to grow their own food and/or buy locally grown food at a farmer's market, the growth economy would implode. If everyone took back responsibility for their food, we'd be well on our way to having a steady-state economy and true hope for our future.

Do you think Obama realizes he's powerless to change anything through policy, so he's trying to show the public what needs to happen by personal example? Seriously, if we all followed that example, really profound change would happen. There's gridlock in government, but we the people can create a sea of change. So get out there, get busy. Plan next year's garden and start shopping your farmers' markets. It matters.

Zero Waste

How do we get the concept of Zero Waste to catch on with the general public? I've searched Google to see how this movement is catching on and the sad fact is it isn't yet. Not really. Not in the home at least. I see governments and municipalities trying to address the issue, but very few examples of families trying to address it.

As usual, the UK and Australia seem to be miles ahead of the US. Why are we such laggards?

How do we educate people that it's not enough to just recycle, especially if your pattern of consumption changes not one iota? Zero Waste is the concept that needs to be pushed, not mere recycling which can be a feel-good distraction from the real work that needs to be done.

Of course recycling matters. But it's not enough, not by a long shot. We need to be examining our patterns of consumption and making fundamental changes in the way we live.

If you're reading this, I challenge you to take a look in your trash bins, make an inventory of the things you're discarding, and seek ways to eliminate those items. Let me know what you learn. I'll post any tips that you pass along so we all can learn together.

Tomatoes!!

Every available space covered with tomatoes! I can a big batch, then go out and pick some more and the counters are covered again. I'm swimming in these things. Help!!

What's In My Trash? Moving Towards Zero Waste

I did a little analysis this morning, picking through the trash cans. I don't create much waste, but I still have a way to go to get to zero waste. I wanted to see what was really in there, so I could see if there was any way to reduce my waste even further.

My largest form of waste is used cat litter. I have an elderly cat who goes through two 25-pound bags of clay litter per month. The other cats I care for (spawn of the local feral population) are mainly outdoor cats and do their business outside. For now there's no solution, but since my indoor cat is 17 and in the advanced stages of kidney failure, that will change all too soon.

Next are the cat litter bags and the dry cat food bags. Doing this analysis today I realized the litter bags are probably recyclable, since there's no glossy coating. I bet they can go in the paperboard pile at the recycling center. The cat food bags have a glossy outer and inner layer, but sandwiched in between is a brown paper layer that would be recyclable. So, at least a third of the bag material can be diverted from the waste stream.

The best solution would be to start making all of our cat food, but I don't see that happening with my elderly cat. She won't eat anything that's moist anymore and I don't want to force her to change at this stage. Maybe once she's gone I can switch the others over.

The kitchen trash doesn't build up very quickly, since we don't buy much processed food. It consisted mostly of used plastic wrap, meat wrappers, milk jug lids, cheese wrappers, cracker sleeves, butter wrappers, a brown sugar wrapper and ziplock bags that had held meat.

Here there's room for improvement. I need to buy more glass storage containers, so I can eliminate plastic wrap and ziplocks. I'll also need to buy some butcher paper to wrap the meat in, before placing the meat in the containers. I've been using those nifty ziplocks that allow you to suction the air out. It will be hard to give those up. Are there other ways to guard against freezer burn? Would some sort of oxygen absorber work? (Just thinking out loud here.)


Meat and dairy wrappers are a problem. Next year I hope to get some chickens and meat rabbits, so that will cut down on the problem but won't eliminate it, since we'll still be buying other types of meat. If I could find a meat market that still used butcher paper that would be great, although it's unlikely. Most of them use plastic-lined paper. The dairy issue will remain a problem until I can raise dairy goats. I'd like to get a milk share, but all of the raw milk dairies have waiting lists, and I don't know if any of those use glass containers anyway. But even if they didn't, I could just buy milk and then make all of our other dairy products from that. Then the only waste would be the milk lids.

The brown sugar wrapper. Sigh. I just need to give up sugar.

The cracker sleeves. Need to make homemade crackers--they're the last bread product I'm not making myself.

The bathroom trash was mostly tissues and Q-tips--things that could be composted but might be pretty ewww-y if they don't fully break down. I think I just need to get over that.

Not present at the moment, but still showing up in our trash too frequently, are candy wrappers and fountain drink cups. I don't finance such purchases but neither do I forbid them, so my son uses his own money to buy them from time to time.

Away from home, the only trash I create are used coffee cups. I don't know why I don't take my stainless steel travel mug. I need to fix that.

I'm not doing too badly. This was a useful exercise, though. I learned a few things. We'll see how much further I can take this. I'll keep you posted.

Edited to add:

I forgot about the other things--not in the trash cans--awaiting my next trip to the landfill. There are two lumpy old bed pillows with synthetic fill. I wonder if I could re-fluff the fiberfill enough to make it usable again and then make some new pillows out of that? Then I'd only be tossing the synthetic covers.

I need to make sure in the future only to buy 100% natural pillows.

There's also a bag of meat scraps, fat, and gristle waiting in the freezer. I talked about that issue in an earlier post (Waste Not, Want Not), although I haven't done anything about it yet.

Lessons from Another Year in the Garden

No stack of gardening books could teach me as much as I've learned by simply being out there in the garden working and observing. Here's what I learned this year.

My book-learning had already taught me that cucurbits don't transplant well (cucurbits are all the members of the squash family--cukes, zukes, pumpkins and other winter squashes, gourds and melons), so it's best to direct-seed them into the garden and leave 'em. This year I planted six zucchini seeds in a space that could support three plants, and all six of them sprouted. Since I had an empty spot elsewhere in the garden I thought I would move the three extra plants just to see what would happen.

The first one I sort of mindlessly scooped up and in the process didn't leave very much soil clinging to the roots. I knew it would be traumatized and probably wouldn't make it. I was more careful with the other two plants, scooping each up with a big ball of soil surrounding the roots. All three were very traumatized by the move for about the first week, then all recovered. The first plant however was always sickly and weak and the grasshoppers attacked it severely. Any zukes that formed were small and grotesquely deformed. I was afraid of them.

The other two plants did okay, produced some zucchini, but were never as robust or productive as the three plants in the original bed. In the past week or two, the sickly plant took to its deathbed. I had been leaving it in the ground because I thought it served as a pest decoy, drawing bugs to it and away from the other two somewhat healthier plants. But I finally decided to put it out of its misery. As soon as I did, the other two got sick and I had to pull both of them within a week.

Last year I had six zucchini plants all together in one bed. There was one that was sickly and all of the squash bugs flocked to it while leaving the other plants alone. I left it in the ground all season and the other plants remained healthy (and pest free).

Lessons learned: 1)don't transplant cucurbits and 2)sickly plants may offer pest protection to their neighbors (as long as their sickness isn't contagious, in which case you need to pull the plant immediately and destroy it).

The hail and grasshoppers made it a very interesting year in the garden. We had at least six hailstorms, two with golf-ball sized hail and larger (2.5" diameter). We got lucky though because one of the storms that dropped golfball-sized hail on us dropped grapefruit-sized hail on another town before it got to us.

Lessons learned: Gardens want to grow, life wants to happen. You can't keep life down. If there's any opportunity for it to spring back from adversity, it will. My potatoes were decimated by grasshoppers (and to a lesser extent hail). I'd say at least eighty percent of the leaves were destroyed. The plants never flowered, except for three or four blossoms on one plant before the hoards descended. The vines started dying back on the potatoes but never died completely. Now with the arrival of cooler weather the number of grasshoppers has decreased dramatically and all of a sudden I have tons of lush new growth on my potatoes. These were supposed to be a mid-season potato, but better late than never. We have harvested new potatoes here and there and they seem to be forming just fine, but it's all kind of weird. I suppose the frost will end up killing the vines. The potatoes probably won't store well, but at least we'll get some.

Also with the cooler weather and decreasing number of grasshoppers, my Swiss chard and basil plants are going crazy. The chard was so full of holes all summer I was only using it for making pasta. It was too ugly for anything else. Now I'm eating it almost every day and freezing a bunch for the winter.

Another lesson learned: intensive gardening protects against wind damage. The plants are spaced so closely that they support each other and create a biomass that the wind can't mess with as much. In conventional rows, each plant is out there alone, getting whipped around in every direction by the wind.

Which brings me to:
Lesson learned: very stiff cutworm collars on very tender plants can act just like actual cutworms when a ferocious spring windstorm is added to the mix. Note to self: toilet paper rolls and pepper plants do not mix.

I also learned that John Jeavons' estimate of yields for tomato plants is quite accurate. A hundred square foot bed should produce about 200 pounds of tomatoes for an intermediate gardener (as much as 418 pounds for an advanced gardener). I've got my tomatoes in a 100 square foot bed, but have 20-some basil plants in the middle, taking up some room. So far I've harvested 140 pounds of tomatoes and probably have at least another hundred pounds on the vine. I love that his charts really let me do some accurate planning.

I learned that fall crops come up much faster than spring crops and seem to get off to a much healthier start. (The cool summer probably helped.)

Also:

Tomatoes love soaker hoses and mulch.

Oregano makes a delicious tea (especially with some rosemary thrown in).

Coriander attracts ladybugs.

Clay saucers and wood scraps are very protective when placed under pumpkins, melons, and gourds.

Hail damages horizontally sprawling plants more than vertically growing plants, it damages broad-leafed plants more than narrow-leafed plants, and it damages succulent stems more than woody stems. Therefore, untrellised cucurbits are among the most vulnerable plants in the garden when it comes to hail.

A cool, wet year brings hoards of grasshoppers and mosquitoes, but also hoards of toads (who seemed to have kept the squash bug population in check this year).

Melons and gourds take over the garden, but their shading and biomass seems to be appreciated by the other plants.

Five cucumber plants never produce enough cukes of uniform size at any one time to make a decent batch of pickles. Well, maybe they would if they weren't hail-damaged.

Dill wants to mature long before the cucumbers mature, so plant dill continuously throughout the season.

A 500 square-foot intensive garden produces a lot of food, but bigger would be even better.

And last but not least--the number one lesson of the year-- I learned to always call before you dig.

It's A Jungle Out There

The garden is in its full glory and it's all I can do to keep up. The kitchen looks absurd. Tomatoes everywhere, onions, garlic, today's green beans, cucumbers soaking in ice water, beet juice and salsa lacto-fermenting in their jars, sourdough starter sitting out, and dill and coriander seeds drying. The living room has a braid of garlic, more dill and coriander hanging to dry and some oregano drying.

Today I have to finish the pickles, blanch and freeze the green beans, bake bread and make pasta. Tomorrow morning I'll need to bake zucchini bread and can a batch of tomatoes, probably as spaghetti sauce. The sweet corn may be ripe by this weekend and the potatoes will need to be dug before too long. And I keep forgetting to blanch and freeze the swiss chard so we can have it for winter soups. Gotta add that to the list. I also need to make more pesto this weekend. Whew!