AN URBAN PLOT

The CHICKENS are coming!

2011-04-15T11:02:00.001-04:00

The Chickens are coming!
I did it. Today I purchased six 7 week old Rhode Island Reds for our Urban Plot. Let the next phase of "grow your own" begin.

We now have until Tuesday to get the coop built and the run put up! You know, sometimes you just have to paint yourself into a corner to make the things happen that you want to have happen... otherwise it is easy to keep putting it off. It is the getting started that can be hard to get to! But when I give US a deadline... well, stuff starts happening!
I have been wanting to get chickens for a very long time. But just for your amusement... I am amused.. here is the "timeline" for painting myself (and David) into this corner we are now in!

For many years: Reading about getting chickens, planning and dreaming and wondering where to put the coop in our yard. Looking at coop plans, will it be a tractor or a stationary coop? Etc...
4 months ago: Finally figured out where I want to put the coop and pen! In the shady bottom of the garden where nothing really grows well, but where chickens will be happy.
3 weeks ago: I took a "Getting Started with Chickens" class at Eagledove Greenhouse in our neighborhood. It rocked!
2 weeks ago: I ordered plans for the City Biddy Chicken Coop.
1 weeks ago: I purchased water and feeder units for my theoretical girls.
Today I went in a paid for 6 chickens at Eagledove to pick up on Tuesday... The deadline is set!

Here is an image of the coop we are working towards... although ours will have a front porch for the girls...
Stay tuned for pictures of our progress and of our actual coop.

Sow True Seeds

2011-04-07T20:59:00.001-04:00

We are SO lucky to have the Sow True Seed Company in our town! I wanted to share this piece with you that was published in their most recent mailing. This local seed company ships around the country...so if you are not able to come visit them in Asheville, you can still have their wonderful seeds and support a business that has as their goal the best interests of our planet and our health!

We Step Up to Say NO to GMO

On March 29, 2011, Sow True Seed joined 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations to file suit against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant's patents on genetically modified seed. Once released into the environment, genetically modified seed contaminates and destroys naturally reproducing seed for the same crop. For example, soon after Monsanto introduced genetically modified seed for canola, organic canola became virtually extinct as a result of cross-contamination. Organic corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa now face the same fate, as Monsanto has released genetically modified seed for each of those crops, too. Monsanto is developing genetically modified seed for many other crops, thus putting the future of all food, and indeed all agriculture, at stake.

“It is challenging to find non-hybrid (open-pollinated) corn seed that has not been contaminated by genetically modified pollen,” says Sow True Seed Co-Founder Peter Waskiewicz. “We choose to test our corn seed to ensure it is free of GMOs before we offer it to our customers. In the last decade, it’s become nearly impossible to ensure corn seed is free from contamination.”

“We never planned to become involved in a lawsuit, but morally it has become necessary to stand up and fight for keeping open-pollinated seed safe and available,” says Co-Founder Carol Koury. “Sow True Seed was founded to promote and foster sustainable regional agriculture by helping to preserve our shared botanical heritage and seed a new era of sustainable culture and ecological wisdom. Monsanto not only does not embody this vision, but is actually encroaching on our ability to offer open-pollinated and organic seeds. We are fighting against this injustice.”

Waskiewicz adds, “We recognize that the unlimited production and distribution of open-pollinated seed is primary to the growth and endurance of sustainable, regional farming communities. Sow True Seed endorses the basic right of all the earth’s people to enjoy a safe, ethical and sovereign food production and distribution system.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.pubpat.org/monsanto-seed-patents.htm

To get involved:

Sign the MILLIONS AGAINST MONSANTO petition in support of GMO labeling at: http://organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm
Sign the Food Democracy NOW! letter to the Department of Justice to break up Monsanto at: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/break_up_monsanto/
Support local agriculture - join local groups that advocate for healthy, organic, locally grown and produced products like ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project)

Organic Ag Can Double Food Production in 10 Years

2011-03-11T17:19:00.000-05:00

I just had to share this quote that I got from the latest Organic Consumers Association Newsletter. Read the whole article here.

Eco-Farming Can Double Food Output by Poor

"To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available. Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production where the hungry live - especially in unfavorable environments.
"To date, agroecological projects have shown an average crop yield increase of 80% in 57 developing countries, with an average increase of 116% for all African projects. Recent projects conducted in 20 African countries demonstrated a doubling of crop yields over a period of 3-10 years."
-Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and author of the report "Agro-ecology and the right to food," published March 8, 2011.

Feed Your Roots

2010-12-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share with you a blog that I enjoy. Feed Your Roots is written by Penina Bareket, of Asheville, NC. It is filled with great recipes to help you change the way you eat.

You can follow Penina on Twitter. @PBareket

Enjoy.

The GM genocide

2010-12-09T14:53:00.001-05:00

I read this article today and am so appalled that I just needed to share it with all of you. Farmers committing suicide in India over their crop failure after being persuaded to switch to GM varieties at a cost of 1000% more than traditional seed...told that it would not need pesticides... but we know that GM seed requires more pesticide than regular conventional seed... Crazy...

Read the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html#ixzz17e5PXqrR

Prince Charles is so distressed by the plight of the suicide farmers that he is setting up a charity, the Bhumi Vardaan Foundation, to help those affected and promote organic Indian crops instead of GM.

I did a search to find out more about the work of Prince Charles and his Bhumi Vardaan Foundation. DO check it out for yourself.

The Prince of Wales launched the Bhumi Vardaan Foundation, in March 2006, in Punjab, India, to help small farmers convert to grow certified organic produce (by providing training facilities and marketing support) and to market the produce for them in India and overseas. Based on the Duchy Originals UK model, all profits will be utilised for charitable initiatives which promote sustainable agricultural development in India.

I have made a commitment to purchase and eat only food grown without chemical additives, to use organic and local whenever possible, to ask questions about where something comes from and HOW it is grown or where it was made... This is important. The more we buy into the GM model, knowingly or unknowingly.. we just add to the problem.

Scientist warns of dire consequences

2010-06-22T20:38:00.000-04:00

"Ignoring potential non-target detrimental side effects of any chemical, especially used as heavily as glyphosate (Monsanto's RoundUp herbicide), may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious. To do so might well compromise not only agricultural sustainability, but also the health and well-being of animals and humans."
- Johal, G.S. and D.M. Huber. Glyphosate effects on diseases of plants. 2009. European Journal of Agronomy 31:144-152

Change the World: Go Organic

2010-06-14T16:28:00.001-04:00

"If you do just one thing to change the world, go organic."

"Going organic is the single most critical (and most DOABLE) action we can take right now to stop our climate crisis. Every acre of ground that's farmed organically has the potential to pull thousands of pounds of warming greenhouse gases out of our air."
"Organic farming is a real, attainable solution to our current global climate crisis! Organic farming can actually remove greenhouse gases from the air - helping to reverse the climate crisis!"

"Organic living can stop the climate crisis. When you combine the impact of protecting the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi in the soil (which absorb and neutralize carbon) and eliminating all the toxic chemicals (and their packaging and the energy spent producing them), the carbon problem in our atmosphere is practically solved. We still need more renewable energy, but restoring the earth's ability to sequester carbon is a good place to start. And you'll do it while eating."

-Maria Rodale, Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe

The Seven to Avoid

2010-04-08T20:28:00.002-04:00

Did you know that there are foods that even the farmers who grow them will not eat! I have been reading a great piece about these foods. 7 Foods So Unsafe Even Farmers Won't Eat Them. The following foods are outlined in the article. Check out the article for the details.

1. Canned Tomatoes
2. Corn-Fed Beef
3. Microwave Popcorn
4. Conventionally Grown (Not Organic) Potatoes
5. Farmed Salmon
6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones
7. Conventional Apples

For me it always comes back to grow what you can, buy local from farmers you know, eat in season, buy organic.

HazMat on the Farm

2010-03-28T10:20:00.001-04:00

I found this image along with an article called How to Protect Yourself from 7 Food-System Threats
at Rodale.com. It is a piece that obviously talks about what you can do. It is a great article and I urge you to read it, ask questions and implement their suggestions wherever you can.
I guess what struck me the most, was this image! I just had to share it with you... Look at those hazardous materials suits. At first look, does it say farming to you? Does it say food? Does it convey safety of the food grown in this manner? Not to me! IF this is conventional farming, I don't want anything to do with food produced in this manner.
Buying organic may cost more at the grocery store, but the cost we pay in health care and the environment is so much greater with the cheaper alternative. I choose to grow my own, know my farmer, or buy organic. It really does matter!

No one Can Really Know the Price We Will Pay

2010-02-19T11:11:00.002-05:00

Over the last few posts, I have focused on reasons to avoid genetically modified food. The reasons are many and I for one am convinced that the path we are on with GMOs in our food supply and environment is the wrong path. I believe that they are harmful in more ways than we can ever imagine.
I encourage you to continue to inform yourself and to speak out and take action. Check out the website for GM Watch for even more reasons to avoid this stuff and for links to keep informing yourself about GMOs.
No one really knows the price we will pay for messing with Mother Nature but what I have been reading compels me to keep GMOs out of my family's food supply. I will continue to avoid genetic modification whenever I can, I will continue to inform myself, I will grow as much of our food as possible, I will buy local food, I will buy organic food, or I will do without. That is my pledge to this planet and to my family.

Part 3: Reasons to Avoid GM Food

2010-02-16T19:16:00.002-05:00

Genetically Modified Crops increase the use of pesticides.

“The promise was that you could use less chemicals and produce a greater yield. But let me tell you none of this is true.” – Bill Christison, President of the US National Family Farm Coalition

From an article in the Cooperative Grocer, I found this information:

About 70% of the genetically engineered crops grown in the U.S. are herbicide resistant and are supposed to lessen pesticide use, even though the majority of these are “Roundup Ready” crops bred to withstand frequent herbicide applications from one of America’s favorite herbicides. Often touted as environmentally friendly, Roundup has been shown to contaminate ground water supplies and is now under review as a carcinogen. But do GMOs lessen pesticide use? Not according to a study entitled “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Eight Years,” which was released in November 2003. This report studied the levels of pesticide use on genetically engineered crops. The study reports that GE corn, soybeans, and cotton have resulted in the application of more pesticides, not less. Herbicide tolerant crops or HT are responsible for nearly 70 million additional pounds of pesticides being applied in U.S. agriculture.

I also encourage you to check out this interview:

Scientists finding many negative impacts of Roundup Ready GM crops

For me, the more I read about "Round-up Ready" Crops.. the less appetizing corn or soy look to me. We either buy organic corn and soy products, we grow our own, or we do without.

Part 2:Reasons to Avoid GM Foods

2010-02-13T09:39:00.002-05:00

“At the present time there is a massive disconnect between the sometimes lofty rhetoric from those championing biotechnology as the proven path toward global food security and what is actually happening on farms in the US that have grown dependent on GM seeds and are now dealing with the consequences.” ~The Magnitude and Impacts of the Biotech and Organic Seed Price Premium. Dr Charles Benbrook, The Organic Center, December 2009

The practice of growing GM Foods is touted as an economic helper to farmers. However, the cost of GM seed has dramatically increased each year as well as an increased need for pesticides. These two elements alone increase the financial load on farmers. Couple that will the promise of lower food costs and the need to deliver at lower prices and the farmers exist on the perpetual verge of economic ruin.

Today's link: Check out The Truth about GMOs to continue the process of informing yourself about what they are feeding us. IF the whole idea of even thinking about GM Food is new to you, I encourage you to do some research of your own and become informed...
Remember, unless we are each informed about the choices that we make, "they" can feed us anything they want and get away with it!
Be INFORMED! Take Action.

Reasons to Avoid Genetically Modified Foods (Part 1)

2010-02-12T08:50:00.000-05:00

There are so many reasons to make a concerted effort to avoid foods made with genetically modified ingredients. But the average person, has little to no idea of the consequences of extensive use of genetic modifications.. heck, even the scientists, who know that there are consequences, are not even sure what the far reaching long term consequences may be.

My plan here is to outline some really good reasons for you to avoid GM foods and ultimately why we all need to raise our voices against the widespread use of genetic modification...Part 1.

GM Foods will not solve a food shortage, in fact, they may well cause massive food shortages if the use of GM crops are allowed to continue. One element of the food shortage is said to be the increased production and use of biofuels.. fuels made of food crops.

“The climate crisis was used to boost biofuels, helping to create the food crisis; and now the food crisis is being used to revive the fortunes of the GM industry.” — Daniel Howden, Africa correspondent of The Independent

“The cynic in me thinks that they’re just using the current food crisis and the fuel crisis as a springboard to push GM crops back on to the public agenda. I understand why they’re doing it, but the danger is that if they’re making these claims about GM crops solving the problem of drought or feeding the world, that’s bullshit.” – Prof Denis Murphy, head of biotechnology at the University of Glamorgan in Wales

Did you know that Monsanto has been a major player in lobbying for biofuels? They also make huge profits in the production of biofuels and in finding "solutions" to the resultant food shortages... it is all good for them... but what about the planet and humankind?

Check out The Center for Food Safety to learn more about what you can do to take action. IF the whole idea of even thinking about GM Food is new to you, I encourage you to do some research of your own and become informed... unless we are each informed about the choices we make, "they" can feed us anything they want and get away with it!

Solutions from Within

2010-02-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

I stumbled on this quote today and in light of our recent discussions here about the importance of Local Food, I share it with you. It illustrates perfectly that the answer to all Global Issues begins within each and every one of us!

"If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world." - Chinese Proverb

Let us look first to solutions from within!

Food 101

2010-01-30T08:43:00.003-05:00

I SO enjoy listening to Michael Pollan speak. This video is from an appearance that he made on the Oprah Winfrey Show recently. I am particularly struck by Oprah's reaction to Michael speaking about buying sustainable, quality meat!
At the end Oprah invites everyone to form their own opinion about FOOD. What is your opinion?

Why I garden/Why Everyone Should Garden

2010-01-21T14:10:00.000-05:00

The garden is the perfect example of how we as humans can learn to occupy the planet in a more thoughtful way. The garden is what humans make to feed ourselves; it's like some reconciliation between what humans need to survive and what the planet needs to sustain that. Where we grow food, it's scary, industrial, there's chemicals and machinery - it's problematic. But when you eat out of your garden, you don't dump things in it that you don't want to eat. It's very direct: you understand the connection. And the more disconnected we become from the garden, the more reckless we become with the way we occupy the planet. ~Fritz Haeg

I love this quote from an interview with Fritz Haeg, architect and project director for Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.

A Chance to Make a Difference!

2010-01-17T09:08:00.001-05:00

My friends it is time to TAKE ACTION.

Breaking News: Monsanto Takes Center for Food Safety Legal Victory to Highest Court
(January 15, 2010) Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a first-time case about the risks of genetically engineered crops. Named Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the case before the high court will be yet another step in an ongoing battle waged by the Center for Food Safety to protect consumers and the environment from potentially harmful effects of genetically engineered (GE) crops.
“This is truly a ‘David versus Goliath’ struggle, between public interest non-profits and a corporation bent on nothing less than domination of our food system,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. “That Monsanto has pushed this case all the way to the Supreme Court, even though USDA’s court-ordered analysis is now complete, and the U.S. government actively opposed further litigation in this matter, underscores the great lengths that Monsanto will go to further its mission of patent control of our food system and selling more pesticides.”

I encourage you to TAKE ACTION. Let the USDA know that it matters to you and your family that GMO's be controlled and labeled and that measures are taken to protect Organics from contamination.

USDA also claims that consumers will not reject GE contamination of organic alfalfa if the contamination is unintentional or if the transgenic material is not transmitted to the end milk or meat product, despite the fact that more than 75% of consumers believe that they are purchasing products without GE ingredients when they buy organic.

TAKE ACTION. Tell the USDA that you DO indeed care about contamination even if it is UNINTENTIONAL... Tell them that any amount of contamination is UNACCEPTABLE ! TAKE ACTION today and SPREAD THE WORD. Our voices cannot be heard if we don't SPEAK UP! So TAKE ACTION and be heard.
We can make a difference together.

Chilling News

2010-01-12T08:58:00.002-05:00

(NaturalNews) According to a recent Associated Press investigation, agri-giant Monsanto regularly employs business practices that not only aim to eliminate all competition, but essentially position the company as the sole proprietor of all things related to food. While old news to many in the natural health community, the mainstream press is beginning to recognize the world domination tactics being employed by Monsanto that are slowly destroying the integrity of the global food supply.

Reading this article just gave me the chills. Really, this is the stuff of a scary sci-fi movie. But the really scary part is that it is real and happening in our world and that this company is so advanced in it's take-over that it will take a lot to stop them.

According to Neil Harl, an agricultural economist from Iowa State University, Monsanto now has patented control over 90 percent of seeds and seed genetics, a chilling notion that has far-reaching consequences. Since the company regularly buys up independent seed companies, its competition is dwindling and the prices for its patented seeds continue to rise.

I am not exactly certain what we can do. Write to whoever you can think of that has connection to this issue. Write to the Justice Department. Tell them that this is not good for anyone and that the ramifications of this way of doing business are beyond comprehension. In my post, Noxiousness to the Organism, I told you about the consequences of ingesting these GMO crops on our liver and kidneys and this control of seed crops is serious stuff!

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and at least two state attorneys general are probing Monsanto's contracts and agreements that many are alleging violate antitrust laws. Everything from exerting unreasonable control on farmers who purchase its seeds to flat out lying about their benefits is under investigation.

What else can we do?
Not buy what they are selling... and I admit, with control over 90 % of seed patents that can be a bit tricky.. But if we demand that GMOs be labeled and if we seek out foods that are non-GMO, it will be a start. Tell others what you are doing and how you feel about this issue. While it affects all of us, many people are unaware of the problems associated with GMOs or with the business practices of this company. Spread the word! And when you purchase seed for your garden, consider heirloom varieties and open-pollinated seed. Also look to the small or local seed companies.

Many seed growers and crop farmers feel cornered by Monsanto as it solidifies its control over the entire seed and crop industry. Most have no other option but to continue using Monsanto products or else face ruin. Unless the DOJ steps in and clamps down on Monsanto's quest for total control, the world's food supply may eventually be controlled by a single biotechnology corporation.

We need to take control now before it is too late. We need to raise up our voices, vote with our dollars, spread the word and make personal choices that will make a difference.

Local Food Rules!

2010-01-10T11:29:00.001-05:00

Yes indeed local food is better for so many reasons and this morning I read about another at Natural News. Experts believe regional foodsheds would reverse obesity epidemic.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collected data from a myriad of sources to help them analyze the obesity problem and its causes. They concluded that the large-scale food system of today has resulted in a glut of readily-available, highly-processed foods that are rich in refined flours, sugars, and fats, and devoid of necessary nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

Well, I knew that! But what excited me the most is that the MIT researchers also concluded that Local Food is the answer.

Fresh produce, meats, and other whole foods often travel long distances from farm to market, often coming from other continents. When processing is involved, food travels even further as commodities are shipped in from around the globe, processed, shipped out to distribution centers, and distributed to local retailers. The total distance a single processed item's ingredients have traveled is mind-boggling.

The MIT team is advocating for integrated, regional foodsheds that they believe would make healthier fare more readily available. One idea includes encouraging the conversion of urban and suburban yards and lawns into small-scale farms. Lawn maintenance actually costs more than maintaining a small garden plot, making the idea highly plausible.

Local Food is the answer to so many of our food security issues and provides better nutrition, taste, and biodiversity as well as a smaller carbon footprint for you and the farmer/seller promising better air quality, less pollution, and minimal environmental impact.

My favorite local food, of course, is food grown in my own yard. How about you?

Getting Back to the Basics

2010-01-09T14:12:00.005-05:00

I have been thinking lately about the importance of getting back to the basics for everyone. For me the "back to the basics" mentality has been a part of my life since childhood. It was just how I was raised. But when economic resources dip, this way of thinking bubbles up to the surface of the collective consciousness as a necessary mode of operation. I invite you to consider the value of this way of thinking as an everyday way of life, no matter what your financial resources.

Recently Rebecca has become enamored with the idea of becoming a journalist. She is all about it! Pencil behind her ear, asking questions and taking notes, always looking for a scoop. And for Christmas do you know what she wanted the most? A real old-fashioned typewriter! Yep... we could not convince her that her computer could do more stuff and better, than an old typewriter. She had decided that in order to BE a journalist, she had to be able to smell the ink and feel the letters as they streamed from her mind onto the paper. Funny! But the more I thought about it, I realized that it was her need to get back to the basics.

Well, she got her typewriter and she is totally inspired to write now and absolutely loves the smell of ink on her fingertips after a good writing session. I have read about novelists who use old typewriters to create their work. It is funny to me that at the age of 8, Rebecca just knew on some level that it was important to be connected to the process.
Getting back to the basics can connect us with "stuff" and "process" in ways that we never knew possible. Think about it. Grow your own tomato and eating it becomes a spiritual experience that is unlike the experience of eating a tomato that grew in a field some 1500 miles from your plate, grown by a generic "taste doesn't matter" method! The experience extends beyond just the eating. It becomes about the sunlight and the earth in your yard. It is about the nutrition and the color and the vine ripening and your very own self-reliance. It is life itself and you grew it. You KNOW it. And that my friends is just the beginning of connecting to the process. When we connect to one life process, we awaken to other life processes that we never before thought about and the whole world begins to unfold in layers and layers of goodness. The depth of these layers is awesome. Welcome to the beauty of the basics.

Frequently, we are drawn to a "back to the basics' way of thinking when our personal economics are stretched to the limit. Back to the basics can be thought of as FRUGALITY. The word, Frugal, has so many negative connotations, but I invite you to think of it as being smart and resourceful. The dictionary defines FRUGAL as "sparing or economical, as in the expenditure of money or the use of material resources." Frugality is really a return to the basics:

Considering the true cost of "stuff" and "convenience".
Do I really need this?
What happens to it after I am done with it?
Can I re-purpose it, recycle it?
How much waste is involved? Zero waste?

It is getting clear about what is really important to you and your family. It is about time, awareness, and conserving resources. This way of thinking is not only good for your personal finances, but also good for the planet! Now think about how much you would have if you had been thinking this way all along! Yikes..

This way of living should not just be something to "fall back on" in hard times, but rather a lifelong philosophy of awareness and connection. For me the gist of "Getting Back to the Basics" is to materially participate in as much of my life as possible. Every year when I fill out my business taxes the IRS asks "Did you materially participate in this business?" For the IRS that means that an individual materially participates in business activities if he or she participates on a "regular, continuous and substantial basis." Think about it in terms of your life. Think about how you participate in a regular, continuous and substantial basis in your own life. For my LIFE that includes:

growing as much of our food as possible
preparing meals from scratch
buying local food
practicing Jin Shin Jyutsu as self-help to heal and keep my body in balance
participating in do-it-yourself entertainment (Contra and Square dancing, playing music, hiking, gardening)
making and repairing clothes
shopping in thrift stores, yard sales, etc
using Freecycle to get "stuff"and to pass "stuff" on to others
knowing where "stuff" is made
considering the impact of a purchase
borrowing books and movies from the library
making responsible choices for the environment
living light

David recently read a great book by Studs Terkel called Hard Times. In this book Mr. Terkel interviews people who lived through the Great Depression and it is filled with valuable insights. I haven't gotten to read it yet myself, but have been enlightened through David's enlightenment. The quote that most got David was from a woman who said "Security is knowing what I can do without." Now isn't that the truth! Amazing what you find you can do without...

Another favorite book of mine is Extreme Simplicity, by Christopher and Dolores Lynn Nyerges. In this book they offer some suggestions to improve your financial situation... they understand about getting back to the basics, frugality, and self-reliance!

MAGIC WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION
Once, during a period of homelessness before we were married, Christopher was engulfed in thoughts of "poor me" and "I'm destitute," and he could scarcely see a way out of the darkness. Dolores provided him with a simple set of practical tools that anyone can use if only they choose to do so. Here are four "magic" ways to improve your financial situation:
1. Never waste anything.
2. Continually improve your personal honesty.
3. Leave every situation or circumstance better than you found it.
4. Tithe to the church (or organization) of your choice.
We know that these are genuine practical solutions. We have heard people say that they cannot make these efforts - such as tithing, or improving the environment - because "we are poor." Our perspective is that they have their reasoning backwards. They are poor because they do not engage themselves in the world in these ways. Logical thinking leads to erroneous conclusions when the premise is false.

So how do you begin to connect to the basics, to find your own simplicity? Perhaps begin by making a list of your daily or weekly activities. Then with awareness, figure out how you can start to materially participate in as many of those activities as possible. Take one step at a time and you'll be surprised. Get clear about what is really important to you. Access how you want to spend your time and your money. The gift you get when you participate materially in your life, is the gift of connection and awareness. It is the gift of security, a philosophy for life and your own personal path to freedom. Enjoy the journey.

More Reasons to Grow Your Own, Eat Local and Organic

2010-01-08T16:19:00.001-05:00

Seems these days that every time I log on to the internet, I find more reasons to grow my own food, eat local food or choose organic.

I told you about the nasty "pink slime" that is added to ground beef earlier this week. And I must say, that nasty stuff really made me realize the importance of not buying just any meat! I have been aware of this importance for a while now but a story like this really makes you think! We had hamburgers last night made from ground beef that came from "our cow". They were fabulous on organic buns with non-rBGH cheese and home made tomato jam. Yum... I knew where this cow came from, where and how it was butchered and still I could not help thinking about the pink slime... yuck...

Yesterday I read an article in the Huffington Post about the contamination of 48% of all soda fountain machines with coliform bacteria... Do you know what coliform bacteria comes from? Feces... That's right... When I first started reading about this issue, I thought to myself.. well, I rarely drink soda fountain sodas because I avoid HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)... but every once in a while, I succumb to the icy cold temptation... But more often I get an ice water instead, but this water and ice is dispensed from the same machines! So from now on, I bring my own!

I am a big fan of the work of the Organic Consumers Association. Check out their website and sign up for weekly newsletters. In the last year, the OCA has broadened my awareness and opened my eyes to issues that I had never even thought about!

Here is a list of questions to ask yourself from the folks at OCA:

Before You Pull out Your Wallet
Who profits from this sale?
Are you buying this product from a national chain, or buying locally from an independent business, coop, or family farm?
Where was this item grown or made?
How far did it travel?
Were farmers' or workers' rights protected?
Did the producer receive a living wage?
Is it certified organic or Fair Trade?
Is the company making or selling
this item socially responsible?
Is this product genuinely ecological & healthy?
What would be an organic, local,
and Fair Trade or Fair Made alternative?

I invite you to think about where your food comes from and who handles it. This questioning takes extra effort and time, but isn't your health and the health of your family worth it?

Think Again about Your Meat Choices

2010-01-04T20:58:00.000-05:00

No, this is not a post about vegetarianism but after reading this piece you may want to think again about grabbing just any burger! I just have to share this with you.

Yummy! Ammonia-Treated Pink Slime Now in Most U.S. Ground Beef By Jennifer Poole, Daily Kos. Posted January 1, 2010.

Here are some quotes from the article.. but I encourage you to read the whole thing!

According to today's New York Times, The "majority of hamburger" now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings "the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil," "typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass" that contains "larger microbiological populations."

and another:

This "nasty pink slime," as one FDA microbiologist called it, is now wrung in a centrifuge to remove the fat, and then treated with AMMONIA to "retard spoilage," and turned into "a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips".
Thus saving THREE CENTS a pound off production costs. And making the company, Beef Products Inc., a fortune. $440 million/year in revenue. Ain't that something?

Are you as totally disgusted by this as I am? Do you want to eat this stuff? Is it really food? Yikes...
What is a momma to do?!

Here's what Jennifer Poole suggests in the article:

I've been thinking about an action item on this issue, and I've got three ideas: a. write Michelle Obama through this web form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/... or snail mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500; 2. print out the NY Times article and give it to the manager of your local supermarket, and ask them if they sell any kind of ground beef that doesn't contain this "pink slime" or if their butchers will grind meat fresh for you; 3. just stop buying the damned stuff altogether.

I know that I will NOT be buying this stuff at the grocery store or when I go out to eat! And I am so glad to send my daughter to school with a healthy homemade lunch! This stuff is in the school lunch program... do you believe it?!
Please bring yourself to a place where you make conscious choices about the food you eat and the food you feed your family...
If you are what you eat, the last thing I want to be is an ammonia laden hamburger patty!

An Old-timey Christmas at our House

2009-12-26T10:11:00.006-05:00

Christmas morning dawned and our excited 8 year old could barely contain herself. What did Santa bring and where do we start? Stockings, always the place to begin while Mom and Dad drink their coffee! 3 years ago, I made us all matching stockings from an old knitting pattern. I kept some of the graphics but created new designs to suit each of us. The stockings each had an orange and Rebecca got a pomegranate, which she SO wanted. There were other little goodies in the stockings too. What a festive bunch of paper tearing and ohs and ahs.. Even before the stockings were done, Rebecca declared this "The Best Christmas Ever!"
This year most of the presents I gave were hand-crafted. I made Rebecca a pair of knitted fingerless mittens, knitted and felted wool and mohair slipper boots and a kitchen apron made of muslin and printed fabric trim with a pocket. I made David a new pair of wool socks and fingerless mittens designed to keep his hands warm while playing the fiddle in cold weather at outdoor festivals. There is something really special about making a gift for someone. The energy that is knitted in with every stitch, the love that is incorporated in the design and the good wishes that are wrapped in for eternity make the gift a lasting reminder of your feelings. I like that.
It was a morning spent opening presents and playing with our new treasures and enjoying each other's company.

Once the meal preparations were well underway, David made us a Christmas Day Bonfire in the yard. It served as a gathering place as our guests arrived for dinner, bits of snow remaining after our big storm last week..and Rebecca's snowman slowly disappearing....

Our Christmas meal was most amazing. It took all day to prepare.. well, the preparations began the day before, got the turkey in brine and assembled the ingredients for our feast, planning and all that...
We had a beautiful, moist and tender turkey complete with all the trimmings: stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, divine gravy, spinach salad, cranberry relish, cranberry sauce, wild rice with shitake mushrooms, pumpkin soup, homemade sourdough bread...YUM! Not as many of the ingredients were from the garden as I would have liked.. but we used onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sage, and apples from the garden.
For Christmas Dessert, I made the Sweet Potato Pie again and it was fabulous. I forgot to put the sugar in the filling.. so it was not as sweet as last time.. but really nice. The sweet potatoes have plenty of sweetness in them and the recipe does not call for very much sugar, so it all worked out. We also made some homemade whipped cream for the top. WOW. As you can see from the photo, I decorated the pie with dried apple rings and raisins. It was a lovely and impressive presentation.
All in all it was a fabulous day, simple and joyful, filled with love and laughter and friends, and a minimal amount of commercialism.

Snowy Weekend in the Mountains

2009-12-21T08:48:00.003-05:00

We've had a big snow event over the weekend. More snow than I have sen around here for a long time! We were lucky enough to keep power the entire time and we were happy to have a good excuse to be still for a few days. David got out and took some photos of the garden blanketed in snow. Then he stitched several photos together to make this panoramic view of the main garden from the front porch. Pretty cool.

It looks like the snow will be around for a while, which is unusual around here. Usually after a day or two it is all gone and just a chilly memory.
I am wondering how my covered rows of salad are doing.. but the row cover material is pretty delicate in the snow so I don't want to mess with them at all... time will tell.
Happy Solstice.

Noxiousness to the Organism

2009-12-20T09:32:00.005-05:00

Genetically modified Corn was in the news this week, Big Time! A study in the International Journal of Biological Sciences proves the toxicity of three varieties of genetically modified corn to mammalian health. Yikes! This study is a comparative analysis of blood and organ system data from trials with rats fed three main commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize (NK 603, MON 810, MON 863), which are present in food and feed in the world.
I first read about this yesterday in an article published by Truthout and then I went on to read the actual research paper.

"For the first time in the world, we've proven that GMO are neither sufficiently healthy nor proper to be commercialized. [...] Each time, for all three GMOs, the kidneys and liver, which are the main organs that react to a chemical food poisoning, had problems," indicated Gilles-Eric Séralini, an expert member of the Commission for Biotechnology Reevaluation, created by the EU in 2008.

Liver and Kidneys! These are our detox organs. Their primary function is to expel toxins that result from the body's metabolism of food and drink. In this way they support the overall health of the body. When the liver and kidney are compromised, we have major problems.
This research looks at the Monsanto research which was only conducted for 90 days.

Caen and Rouen University researchers, as well as Criigen researchers, based their analyses on the data supplied by Monsanto to health authorities to obtain the green light for commercialization, but they draw different conclusions after new statistical calculations. According to Professor Séralini, the health authorities based themselves on a reading of the conclusions Monsanto has presented and not on conclusions drawn from the totality of the data. The researchers were able to obtain complete documentation following a legal decision.

Our family has been concerned about these genetically modified foods for quite some time. I was troubled and started asking questions when I learned that one of the "benefits" of GMO's is that the genetic modification makes the crop "Round-up Ready" (resistant to Round-up, a serious pesticide). So the crop can be sprayed with Round-up to kill competing weeds while leaving the corn "un-harmed". I find this alarming! The amount of pesticide residue in these crops must be monumental.
Organic is not allowed to be genetically modified. So we buy organic. Corn is in so much processed food. Read Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, for many reasons but the "Story of Corn" will change your life! or at least the way you look at corn.

The researchers conclusion:

These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown. Furthermore, any side effect linked to the GM event will be unique in each case as the site of transgene insertion and the spectrum of genome wide mutations will differ between the three modified maize types. In conclusion, our data presented here strongly recommend that additional long-term (up to 2 years) animal feeding studies be performed in at least three species, preferably also multi-generational, to provide true scientifically valid data on the acute and chronic toxic effects of GM crops, feed and foods. Our analysis highlights that the kidneys and liver as particularly important on which to focus such research as there was a clear negative impact on the function of these organs in rats consuming GM maize varieties for just 90 days.

These substances are currently approved for consumption. My advice: ask questions, read labels, eat local, grow your own and don't believe that something is safe just because it has been approved.

Inspired Sweet Potato Pie

2009-12-14T09:14:00.001-05:00

Wow! I think I have managed to invent the world's best ever Sweet Potato Pie. A while ago I posted my Coconut Pumpkin Pie Recipe. I used it to create this new pie.
Imagine Candied Sweet Potatoes with dried Apples and Raisins. We had that for Thanksgiving Dinner. Sweet Potatoes from the garden and dried apples from my neighbor's tree with butter, brown sugar, raisins, and orange peel. They were fabulous but I made a lot and we had left-overs for a while.
When we tired of the Thanksgiving left-overs, I made a "Thanksgiving Left-over Soup". First step was to make bone broth with the bones. Then I added Turkey, pureed sweet potatoes, mushroom gravy, broccoli, and mushrooms. The soup was served over the left-over stuffing. It was like Thanksgiving dinner all over again in a soup. Oh yeah and we had homemade cranberry sauce with it too!
Anyway, when I pureed the sweet potatoes it got me to thinking about how I could substitute them for the pumpkin puree in my Coconut Pumpkin Pie Recipe... Inspiration!

Inspired Sweet Potato Pie

~Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

~Cover the following with water in a pot on the stovetop and cook until tender.
4 medium Sweet Potatoes skin on, scrubbed and cut onto chunks
1/4 cup Raisins
1/4 cup chopped Dried Apples

~Drain Sweet Potatoes and allow to cool. Puree in food processor with
2 Tablespoons Butter
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Orange Peel
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/4 teaspoon Cloves
1 can Coconut Milk
2 eggs

~Pour into Pie Shell. I used my recipe for Coconut Almond Pie Crust. And I decorated the top with a dried apple and raisins in a sunburst pattern. Pretty!

~Bake pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

~Serve at room temperature. YUM!

We went to a Christmas Party/Potluck/Music Jam this weekend and brought this beautiful pie as our potluck contribution. IT was a big success. Give it a try. I am looking forward to making it aan for Christmas Dinner! YUM.

Connecting to the Life Cycle

2009-12-12T09:51:00.005-05:00

It has been three years now that I was having lunch with an activist friend who's current fight was the battle over the proposed path of I-26 through our town. I had told him all about my garden project but after listening to his activist stories, I said that I wished that I had time to be more active like he was. His response pushed me into new ways of thinking about my garden. He said, "You are growing food in the city. You are already doing a radical and activist thing."

Up until that day, I hadn't thought that was I was up to could be considered "activism". But that day opened my mind to the bigger picture of the world and where I fit into it. And so began my Urban Plot to set an example for my neighbors and community on just what can be done with a city lot.

When I bought my house I was overwhelmed by the size of the front lawn. This photo, a great before shot, shows the lawn as it was when we first moved here. The lot is the better part of a half acre and the house is set back on the back third of the lot. It is in a little neighborhood just 4 miles from the middle of downtown. This neighborhood was farmland until the 1920's when the land started to be broken into lots with little houses.

The front of the house faces West, so I have great South and West sunlight all day long. I started small four years ago with a 20' X 20' area... it has grown! The areas planted in edibles now exceed 4000 square feet.... more than 4 times the size of the house.

I work with "Low Work" methods so that I still have time for other things in my life. No tilling, lots of mulch, minimal watering. It works for me and we are eating well.

Here is a photo that show the bones of the garden in early Spring this year. I love photos of the verdant, abundant summer growth, but in the winter and spring it is easier to see the skeletal structure of the garden.

I talk with lots of people who think that they cannot possibly grow food. I have the advantage of having grown up with parents who always had a garden and canned and put up food. I grew up thinking that this was the norm. But you too can grow food. Do you have houseplants? Add a vegetable plant to your menagerie of house plants, maybe a tomato plant or pepper plant, and some herbs. Start somewhere and see where it will take you. Every little bit helps and will help you see the big picture. I think that anything that connects us to the life cycle and adds a degree of self-reliance, affords us a fuller life experience.

My own Urban Plot has become a journey of awakening. A growing awareness of the food security issues that our country and the world are facing including the invasion of pesticide and drug residue in so much of our food supply, not to mention the consequences of modifying the genetics of seed and animals. The beginning impetus of my garden project was simply to find a way to feed my daughter healthy food that I could not afford at the grocery store and to teach her about where food comes from. It has become SO much more.

The Story of a Meal

2009-12-11T17:28:00.001-05:00

Last night we enjoyed a fabulous mostly local meal. IT was a pleasure! For me, the meals that mean the most come equipped with a story. Too much of our food is without story, just food. But when food has a history, some story that you connect with, I think that it has the ability to not only nourish our bodies, but our souls as well. And our souls could use all the nourishment that they can get these days.
So, how do you connect with your food and it's story? How do you find a way to make food more than "just food"?
I imagine that we each do this in our own way. For me, it begins with growing as much of our food as possible. Putting up the harvest by drying, canning, pickling and root cellaring as much as possible. It does not always last us all through the winter, but it is a start. It also means cooking from scratch with wholesome nutritious ingredients that are without artificial color, artificial flavor, food additives, pesticide residue, genetic modification, hormones or drugs. It is about being aware of where food comes from and what is in season.
The food we supplement our own produce with is bought, whenever possible, at the local farmer's market. At the Farmer's Market you get to talk with the farmer and ask questions about how the food was grown and where and even find out what variety of tomato it is. The varieties of produce available at the Farmer's Market are so diverse, especially when compared to what you can find in a conventional grocery store.
When we buy produce at the grocery store, we make sure to get organic. It does cost more and the regulations leave much to be desired.. but I know that I am NOT buying genetically modified produce and this is important to me. If I can talk to the farmer and find out how the food is grown, I don't need the certified organic label... but without the farmer, I want the certified label.
This fall we got a share in a cow that was raised locally and humanely. No feedlot meat for my family. Several folks went in on it and we have a great supply of wonderful beef. It has the flavor of life.
Another great source of local meat for us is Hickory Nut Gap Farms. It is the family farm of Amy and Jamie Ager. They raise wonderful meat. Last year we got a pork tenderloin from them at the Farmer's Market. The first bite brought memories flooding back to me, " This is what meat is supposed to taste like," I exclaimed. I had forgotten, I had actually forgotten what meat is supposed to taste like. As a child, we raised most of our own meat: each year a pig or two, a calf, and chickens. But it has been so long, that I had forgotten that taste of "Life" that is inherent in fresh meat. That one bite brought it all back to me and nothing else would ever be good enough again.
Now we get our meat from Hickory Nut Gap and have a great time going out to the country (all of a 15 minute drive) to do our shopping, talk with the farmer and see the baby animals.
I will be honest with you, it does cost more. But the flavor is such that you don't need as much because it actually is satisfying on so many levels. Most of this country's food supply travels many, many miles to get to us, and average of 150o miles. This food is breed to have long shelf-life and to look good. Taste is not even a consideration. No wonder so many of us simply eat to live...
Buying local should not cost more that food brought 1500 miles and imbibed with petroleum in so many ways. But for now, it does. The more we can support the local growers, the better it will be for all of us: economically, environmentally, nutritionally. In time, our support will make a big difference in so many lives!

I recently read the book, "Kitchen Literacy" by Ann Vileisis. This book rocked my world. It tells the fascinating story of "How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back". Check it out. It will change your relationship to food and the stories we attach to our food.

I am fond of recounting our food's story as we sit down to eat. We hold hands around the table and Rebecca says thank you for the yummy food. I love that she is always so sure that it will indeed be yummy before the first bite! Then I tell the story of our meal.
Here was last night's story:

Yum! Hamburgers made from our cow with homegrown onions and home grown garlic and fresh picked arugula. Yum. Sweet Potato fries made from the sweet potatoes that we grew in our front yard this summer. And my favorite, Tomato Jam made this summer from our tomatoes, basil and cayenne pepper instead of catsup. Yum. Maybe next time I will make the buns from scratch and someday maybe we'll get a goat and make our own cheese, but for now we know that the bread is organic and the cheese has no bovine growth hormone or antibiotics. Thank you for good food! Yum!

Does your meal tell a story? Is it telling the story that you want to hear?

A Zero Waste Goal

2009-12-10T17:22:00.003-05:00

When Rebecca started the first grade at our local neighborhood public elementary school, I sent her to school with a home-made lunch, it seemed the right thing to do. She had her lunch box filled with wholesome, largely home-grown and local food. Out of 20 kids in the classroom, only 2 other kids occasionally brought their own lunch. Everyone else ate whatever processed food menu was presented by the cafeteria. Rebecca felt a bit out of place but seemed happy to have a good lunch!
By second grade, she managed to get a spot at Evergreen Community Charter School. What a difference. I remember when we were at the Information Night for potential new families that she was SO excited to find the EVERYONE at Evergreen brings their own lunch!
And not only does everyone bring their own lunches but the school, being an environmental ed based program, encourages everyone to have a "zero waste" lunch.
Have you ever seen the trash can in a regular cafeteria? Overflowing with trash.. uneaten food, cartons and wrappers and more! At a recent potluck at the school, I was amazed to see the lack of trash at the end of the meal! Each family brought their own utensils and cups and plates. Because "bring your own" is the school way, I have a picnic basket that has a set of dishes, utensils, cups and cloth napkins for our family. Each classroom has their own compost container that is emptied into the school compost bin at the end of the day. Recycle bins are in each room as well.
Rebecca has a lunch bag made out of a re-usable grocery bag that I re-purposed into a cool custom lunch bag. She has a series of re-usable plastic BFA-free containers that come home each day along with a cloth napkin and spoon or fork. Classy and NO Waste!
Today I got my weekly copy of Organic Consumers Association Newsletter. The article that really caught my attention is on Zero Waste for Zero Warming. It takes on the concerns that Evergreen Community Charter School addresses through all of their school functions in a big scale way. And the only way for it to make a difference, is for all of us to participate in our own everyday lives!

Here is a quote from the article...

Zero Waste aims to close the loop on all material used in the economy. Under Zero Waste, each element of a source-separated waste stream is subjected to minimal treatment so that it can be reused. Clean, source-separated organics (including kitchen discards) are composted or subject to anaerobic digestion; usable goods are repaired and re-used; other materials are recycled.

I want to encourage you to become aware of the stuff that we throw away and where it will go and how long it will take to decompose, if ever! For many of us, once our trash is picked up at the curb, we don't think about it anymore... Think about it!

Watch this video from Zero Waste to learn more.

Never Stop Fighting

2009-12-10T07:45:00.000-05:00

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings, 1955

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

2009-12-07T18:43:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the BIG day. The day we got our Christmas tree! My friend Richard has a tree farm out in Transylvania County and it has become our tradition to go out to Richard's and get one of his trees. He grows Frasier Firs and they are beautiful. We go out there before Thanksgiving and pick out our tree in the field and tag it. Then we go back to get it later-fresh cut and longlasting.
Last year was the first year that we did this.. we were so excited to get our tree. I think that Rebecca expected a big fanfare with lots of drama when the tree was cut. Much to her dismay, one slice of the chainsaw and it was done. Last year we brought the camera but didn't take a picture.. it was simply over too fast.. this year, prepared for the moment, I thought we'd get a picture.. but forgot the camera.. Three is a charm.. maybe next year we'll get an actual picture to document the event.
What I really like about this new family tradition is that we get to stay connected with where our tree comes from. We are so focused in our family about were our food comes from, and our clothes and other stuff... being more connected to our Christmas/Solstice Traditions is a good thing. It makes for a fuller experience all around.
As we gather around our tree though the holidays, we remember the hunt, walking through the field of trees, out in nature, chatting with Richard about how he plants and cares for these trees, listening to his stories of trees long forgotten and Indians who once camped on his land. We remember the excitement of discovering that perfect tree and staking our claim. Rebecca loves to be the one to tag the tree with that bright red tag with her name on it. We remember arriving to get that tree weeks later... will we be able to find it again.. where was it, and then awe when we realize how much the field has changed in the last few weeks as others have been chosen and taken away.
We gather that tree up and take it home and David works his magic with lights and ornaments from Christmases past. We are each of us filled with that child-like awe, inspired by the magic of the season once more.
And as in other things that we bring home, I wonder about what we will do with this tree when it has served it's high purpose as our Yule tree.
I have plans for that tree. The branches will be pruned off and placed around my blueberry bushes as the blueberries like acid soil and the pine boughs will add acid to the patch.
I plan to use the thick part of the trunk to create an edging at the downhill edge of the blueberries to establish a border and help to retain the mulch.
The remainder of the trunk, I will put into my compost fence where it will slowly decompose and eventually become part of the soil.
There are many great ideas of how to use your tree after the holidays. Start now to think about what you will do with your tree.

“The Christmas spirit that goes out with the dried-up Christmas tree is just as worthless”

I suggest that we find ways to keep the Spirit AND the tree!

Another Wendell Berry Quote

2009-12-05T09:50:00.005-05:00

“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do”. ~Wendell Berry

Using My Bounty of Homegrown Pumpkins

2009-12-04T10:43:00.001-05:00

For our Thanksgiving Feast, I made a most wonderful Pumpkin Pie using my homegrown pumpkins. It was a big hit at both of our dinners! These pumpkins were volunteers this year. After removing the seeds and other "waste" from the pumpkins, I spread it on the garden bed destined for next year's Volunteer pumpkin patch. The seeds are covered with a layer of soil and mulched with straw. When the weather is right in the Spring, the process will begin again. I love the circular pattern of nature. When we allow it to, Nature provides all we need...
Here are the recipes for both the Coconut Almond Crust and the Coconut Pumpkin Pie Filling. Enjoy!

Coconut Almond Pie Crust
Makes 1 pie crust

3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
3/4 cup almond meal
~Dry mix coconut and almond meal together.

3 tablespoons butter
~Cut in the butter with a pastry blender.
~Press mixture into an 8 or 9-inch pie plate.
~Bake at 325*F (160*C) for 15 minutes or until golden.
~Allow to cool before adding filling.

Coconut Pumpkin Pie Filling
~Preheat oven to 425°F.  
~Makes 1 pie.
1 1/2-2 cups pumpkin puree
1 can Coconut Milk
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup sugar 
1/2 tsp. salt 
1 tsp. cinnamon 
1/2 tsp. ground ginger 
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
~In a large bowl, mix pumpkin puree, Coconut Milk  and eggs.
~Add salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves and mix well. 
~Pour mixture into unbaked regular pie shell or use Coconut Almond Pie Crust. YUM!
~Bake pie at 425°F for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350°F and continue to bake for 30-40 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

Revisiting the Pearson Community Garden

2009-12-03T08:41:00.001-05:00

This summer I checkout the the Pearson Community Garden. I had heard about it for years, but did not even know where it was.. knew it was on Pearson Drive.. but never found it... well I took a workshop there in August and was pleased and delighted to see what they were up to there!
Meander down Pearson Drive farther than you thought that it could possibly go until you are near the end of it.. and there on your left is the garden. It is like a well kept secret and the end of the road!

Rows and rows of all sorts of goodies. Tomatoes, pumpkins, herbs, greens and more. Interesting trellises and supports for plants, a hoop house, a lean-to greenhouse on the tool shed, and cob structures: a composting toilet and a bread oven.

The Pearson Community Garden is one of the gardens in the Bountiful Cities Project. Bountiful Cities Project is an amazing organization. Here is an excerpt from their website:

Our Mission
To create, on urban land, beautiful community spaces that produce food in abundance and foster a learning environment for social justice and sustainability.
Our Vision
The vision of Bountiful Cities Project is to enliven and empower self-reliance, cooperation, and a stronger sense of community through providing an opportunity
to grow, harvest and eat fresh, local produce. We envision community spaces that serve as models for sustainability through organic food production, water conservation, ecological building, community celebration, and cooperative economics.

This vision is becoming a reality at our two flagship gardens: a permaculture-based vegetable garden on Pearson Drive in Montford and the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park at Stevens Lee Community Center which is home to over 30 varieties of fruit trees and an under story of berries and medicinal herbs.

408 Pearson Drive, Asheville, NC
The Pearson Drive Garden is the Bountiful Cities Project's model garden. It is over an acre of land that produces edibles for the community. We grow a diverse selection of vegetables, including a wide range of greens and peas in the spring, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, and pumpkins in the summer. There is some vegetable production throughout the year, as we grow cold tolerant vegetables under row covers.In addition to the traditional garden vegetables, we grow wild greens, culinary and medicinal herbs, and some perennial vegetables, like the Jerusalem artichoke. Fruits grown at the Pearson Drive Garden include strawberries, raspberries, and apples.

When the Garden was first conceived, the garden beds were arranged in pie-shaped wedges around a central area devoted to medicinal herbs. In 2005, this circular layout was converted to a square layout with linear beds. The linear beds allow for a higher level of food production, and also make it easier for volunteer gardeners to move through the garden.

Community Gardens and organizations like the Bountiful Cities Project are great ways for would-be gardeners to get started and learn from others in a safe and supportive manner. These gardens also offer gardeners a chance to see ideas at work. I am always inspired to see what other people are doing.
Winter is a great time to be thinking about what you want to do in your home garden, how you might re-organize beds to make them more efficient, what to plant, what seeds to get started, etc. Check out a community garden where you live and support organizations like Bountiful Cities Project, they are there to provide both a model for you and inspiration.

Lusting for this Garden Fence.. or one like it!

2009-12-02T15:16:00.001-05:00

Traveling over the holiday we passed this most amazing suburban garden in Annapolis, MD in my sister's neighborhood. The entire front yard was taken up with the most wonderful rustic fence and garden...obviously a gardener after my own heart! There are some winter crops covered with a low row cover, herbs, swiss chard and more.
But I was particularly taken by the rustic fence. I want one! It was beautiful and was so nicely integrated that it really looked like it grew there along with the garden. My camera gave out and I only got this one shot.. I hope it will give you an idea of the magnificence of this garden container!

Today's Food for Thought

2009-12-01T09:45:00.003-05:00

I love Wendell Berry. He has a way of geting right to the heart of things. Thank you to my friend Heather for reminding me of this piece by Wendell Berry that I will in turn share with you.

“Questionnaire” a poem by Wendell Berry

1. How much poison are you willing to eat for the success of the free market and global trade? Please name your preferred poisons.

2. For the sake of goodness, how much evil are you willing to do? Fill in the following blanks with the names of your favorite evils and acts of hatred.

3. What sacrifices are you prepared to make for culture and civilization? Please list the monuments, shrines, and works of art you would most willingly destroy.

4. In the name of patriotism and the flag, how much of our beloved land are you willing to desecrate? List in the following spaces the mountains, rivers, towns, farms you could most readily do without.

5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes, the energy sources, the kinds of security, for which you would kill a child. Name, please, the children whom you would be willing to kill.

----Wendell Berry

Dreaming of Fresh Tomatoes Already!

2009-11-30T11:49:00.000-05:00

The seed catalogs are beginning to show up in the mailbox. When David brings them in, he calls them my "garden porn". Funny man! For me, I am reminded of the arrival of the "Christmas Wish Book" when I was a kid.. think about it.. the photos are bright and colorful and sunny and oh so tempting.. I spend time dreaming and planning and dog-earing the pages. I make lists, lots of lists. I do love the planning and dream-time of the winter months.

I canned and dried lots of tomatoes this summer so this winter we are enjoying our pasta with yummy homegrown, home-made tomato sauce and soups made with a handful of dried cherry tomatoes dropped in and bursting with concentrated goodness, yet I find myself dreaming of those fresh tomatoes straight off the vine, warm from the sun, popping them into my mouth.. like a burst of sunshine! WOW.. dreaming of good things to look forward to in the summer.

WE eat in season NOW, so no grocery store tomatoes for our family. During our first winter together, David and I would disagree about buying tomatoes from the store.. he'd WANT them.. and I would argue that they were simply "tomato shaped objects" with no real food value or taste... by the following winter he "got it" and now.. we just spend the winter dreaming of the real thing and making plans! When you eat in-season, you develop a different kind of relationship with your food, a healthy relationship! Eating in-season also supports your local food growers because eating in-season and eating local go hand-in-hand with each other!

This summer I planted lots of varieties of tomatoes... what to plant for next year?? I adore the many shapes and sizes and colors of the heirloom varieties.

My favorite tomato is an old Italian Heirloom. The seed for this variety came to me 17 years ago from an Italian friend in WV. Jimmy got the seed from Joe Bova who was 90 back then. The story is that Joe came to WV as a young man from Italy. When he left Italy for his new life in America, he brought the seed for this tomato with him. I have no idea what the variety is called... but I call it the Bova. It is a large paste-like tomato that makes great sauce but also make a great salad and eating tomato... SO much flavor! If I could only grow one tomato variety.. it would be this one!

Then there is the Purple Cherokee, and the orange cherry tomato and the weird green tomato that stays green, the Old German that is both yellow and red at the same time... dreaming... and planning... Yum!

Planning for a healthy garden

2009-11-28T00:47:00.002-05:00

The ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, is credited with saying "Nothing endures but change." Nowhere is this concept more evident than in the garden where change is constant. Growth implies change and movement. My garden is in a constant state of flux. This season the peas are in the southeastern quadrant of the garden and next time they will grace the northwestern quadrant... always changing where your crops are planted ensures better growth and less pest and disease issues.

This winter take some time while you peruse the seed catalogs and make your lists... take time to plan where you will locate your plantings this year.. graph paper and a map of last year's plan will help to get organized. Consider ideal companions for your beds and what was there last year.. for instance, nightshade plants do not like to be where nightshades were last year.. think it through and make a plan!

And consider the following garden quote....

A garden should be in a constant state of fluid change, expansion, experiment, adventure;
above all it should be an inquisitive, loving, but self-critical journey on the part of its owner.
- H. E. Bates

You Can Use The Land You Have!

2009-11-25T20:13:00.001-05:00

The destiny of countries depends on the way they feed themselves.
~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 18th century French gastronome-philosopher

Last year, USDA Chief Economist Joseph Glauber forecast that "overall retail food prices for 2008 to 2010 are expected to rise faster than the general inflation rate."

We continue to see both food and gas prices rise and the quality and safety of the food we are offered by the "Food Industry" decline.

It is these very trends that intensify for me the importance of my garden project. If we all produced some of our own foods in our own yards for our own families, the impact from rising gas prices and food prices would not affect us in the same ways that they do when we are totally dependent on someone else to grow all of the food for our families! Growing our own along with choosing to buy locally produced meat, vegetables, and staples will minimize the impact we will each feel and support our local economies and be better for our environment and our health!

A Favorite Garden Quote

2009-11-24T20:59:00.002-05:00

Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden.
~Orson Scott Card

Ginger Pecan Scones

2009-11-23T11:18:00.000-05:00

Ginger Pecan Scones

Pre-heat oven 425 degrees.

Mix together the following...

1 1/2 cups flour (for GF-I used 1/2 cup Buckweat Flour and 1 cup GF flour mix)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking powder

Cut in butter until the texture of coarse meal.

1/4 cup butter

Add in the following...

1/3 cup chopped crystalized ginger

1/3 cup chopped pecans

In a separate bowl beat together...

1 egg

2 Tablespoons of milk

NOTE: When doing Gluten-Free Baking, it is important to wait to mix wet and dry ingredients together until the oven is ready and the pan is prepped. Once the wet and dry are mixed together you want to get it in the oven as quickly as possible.

Mix wet and dry together until a soft dough forms.

Turn out onto lightly floured board and shape into a flat round about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into wedges and bake on greased sheet for 12-15 minutes.

I like to put the finished scones in a basket lined with a dishtowel or cloth napkin. Nothing like reaching in for a warm scone. YUM!

Time to make from start to finish.. about 20 minutes. Actual hands on time.. about 5 minutes. You can find 5 minutes for fresh scones!

"Everyone loves a home-cooked meal, but who has the time?"

2009-11-23T10:51:00.000-05:00

To be honest.. I think we all have the time.. but the media and the makers of processed foods want us to believe that we don't have the time and that there are more important things for us to do with our time than to cook nutritious foods for our families made from scratch with real ingredients..

With Thanksgiving coming up, we have been watching the Food Channel thinking that we may get some new ideas for our feast. What has surprised us is how much of the dishes prepared on these food shows are made up of processed foods mixed together.... like everyone's classic favorite that has been around for quite a while.. the Green bean casserole... (can of cream of mushroom soup, can of green beans, can of fried onions... mix together.. bake). But so many of these dishes are made with store bought, processed foods filled with preservatives, HFCS, artificial flavor, pesticide residue, etc.

One night we were watching a Thanksgiving Cooking Special on TV... it was already underway when we tuned in.. IT seemed to be even more a show about using processed food to make a gourmet Thanksgiving meal for your family... The message really was.. Open these cans and add some other processed stuff to them and turn them into something new and exciting..... At the end of the show the woman said something like.. "now you can cook a fabulous semi-homemade Thanksgiving Feast."

Semi-Homemade... have you ever heard such a thing?? It made my mouth drop open and stay that way for a long while! When did homemade become something that could be done in a "semi" sort of way?

Before I started writing today, I googled "semi-homemade" and was amazed to find that Google returned 719,000 instances of "semi-homemade" on the internet... guess I am adding to the numbers by posting this....

Semi-homemade is a movement for sure... designed to make us think that we don't have the time.. and to get us to buy products, and ready made food. I could go off on a big rant here against this movement but I really want to focus on the answer, another way.

Just how much time does it take to make real food for your family??

Our friend Sara celebrated her 23rd Birthday this weekend and yesterday morning we had her over for a Birthday Brunch. I spent about an hour cooking this special meal and I want to take you through the process to illustrate just what can be done in an hour in the kitchen.

~I started off with Ginger Pecan Scones. Gluten-free so that David could enjoy them too... I started with the scones because scones are best warm, not hot out of the oven.. so I wanted them to have time to cook and cool just a bit before the meal. Measured and mixed dry ingredients, cut in butter, added chopped crystalized ginger and pecans.. added egg and milk, mix together, shape and cut.. bake for 15 minutes...
~While the scones were in the oven, I went out the the garden and picked some fresh arugula and celery for the fritatta, and some calendula flowers for the table. I also began cutting the veggies...sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes, onions and garlic from this summer's garden along with the celery and arugula fresh picked. I cut up some mushrooms and grated the cheese from the store.

~ Scones out of the oven, I got the potatoes, onions, garlic and mushrooms going in the skillet. Added the celery after a while and put a lid on the skillet to soften the potatoes.

~Meanwhile I cracked the eggs, added some milk and beat them together with the chopped arugula to add to the skillet. Poured in the egg mixture and stirred it around, sprinkled the grated cheese on top and popped the skillet into the already heated oven from the scones, 350 degrees.

~ While the fritatta was cooking in the oven, I got some bacon going on the stove-top. By the time the bacon was done, the fritatta was ready to come out and be served.

~ Between steps, I did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen so that at the end of the meal, there was very little clean-up left.

This meal was more of a production than usual as it was a Special Celebratory Meal. But in the end it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Filling and satisfying and healthy. I take great pride in serving food that has history, a story. These stories shared around the table help to remind us where food comes from and how much our health depends on this wholesome food made with love.
Because I take the time to care where our food comes from and to share that story, it is especially important to me to share these meals sitting around the dining table. Too much of our food is eaten in a hurry, at our desks, or in the car.. running.. when food is simply eaten to relieve hunger, we are left wanting. Food is life and our food should have a story and a life that does not include a factory or assembly line. FAST food is the fast path to dis-ease and dis-comfort in our physical bodies as well as a detriment to our spirit.

I know I am preaching to the choir here.. but REALLY... In my experience, cooking from scratch does not take that much more time.. maybe more thinking ahead... not that much more time!

Up-date on Evergreen Cob Project

2009-11-21T09:06:00.000-05:00

The building continues and here are some photos to show you how far we have gotten. The cob bench is mostly finished and the strawbale playhouse is coming along.

The playhouse has an urbanite foundation with a cob layer. Then the bales are stacked and "sculpted" to form window and door openings. There is a stick-built skeletal structure with a deep overhang on the roof to protect the cob and strawbales. The straw will eventually be covered with an earthen plaster.

Close-up of foundation layers.

Cob Bench. I know it looks like a little oven... but it is NOT... Cubby is for the "Observation Journal".

Close-up of Door on Cob Bench. There is a piece of wood with nails embedded in the cob structure that the door is tied into.

The brick patio between the cob bench and the strawbale playhouse.

Side-view of the new playarea. Roof space between the two structures is open as a pergola. It will be fun to see what we eventually plant in the space after the construction is complete!

Winter Garden Shots-November

2009-11-20T09:11:00.005-05:00

Under plastic is carrot and beet seedbed planted last week. Patch of green is arugula planted in September. We are eating lots of Arugula. It will be fine throughout the winter without cover.

Another view of carrot/beet bed and arugula. Further down the row is plastic covered bed of Broccoli. I got the broccoli starts in late and am hoping that the plastic cover will give them a jump start. We'll see. So much of gardening is an experiment.

These covered beds are more late starts. Broccoli, red cabbage and brussel sprouts. Again.. hoping for a jump start. By now these plants should be much bigger. If they don't get some growth going soon, I am guessing that come spring, they will take off!

Lettuces with open chenille row covers. These covers are awesome. I read about them in Elliot's "Four Season Harvest". The idea comes from France. These covers are SO easy to use and will keep the lettuce growing all winter. This photo shows the cover open. I'll need to take a photo of them closed. Watch for another post on how to build this row covers.

Baking Bread on a Rainy Day

2009-11-19T08:39:00.004-05:00

I simply adore homemade bread.. who would not! Fresh out of the oven, hot and steamy, butter melting into the airy spaces. Yum! To me homemade bread is an expression of HOME...that warm, cozy place that lives inside each of us, filled with love.

As a child my Mom made bread for our family. I remember helping her knead and shape. What Fun! She let us kids each make our own loaf. We got to do the kneading of our own bread and shaping too... So exciting to watch it grow, punching it down and growing again! These little loaves where baked in custard cups. That evening, we would have our own loaf for dinner, hot with butter melting. Oh so proud to be eating something we had made ourselves!

When I went to college, I think that what I missed most was hot, homemade bread. The dining hall just couldn't even come close! After my first year, I moved off campus into a house with a kitchen and began the process of learning to make bread on my own. Mom always made it look easy.. but it took years to really get it right.. over the years housemates and friends have enjoyed my endeavors...

Between working and raising a kid, I got out of the habit of making bread. Too busy... but craving that homemade taste, I found bakery breads that came close.. our local healthy grocer bakes a Whole Wheat Walnut Bread that I LOVE! But the price is now well over $5/loaf. Well worth it but money is tight and I can make alot of bread with $5 worth of Organic Flours!

I made my first loaf 3 weeks ago and have make a loaf each week since. I pulled out an old recipe and have been working with it.. refining it to make a good loaf for sandwiches for Rebecca's lunch box.
Once you get a routine going.. it really is not time consuming to make your own bread. NO machine necessary. Last night I got the dough started just before I put dinner on the table. It did the first rise while we ate dinner. After the kitchen was cleaned up from dinner, I did the next step-shaping the loaf. Set the timer for 15 minutes, put my feet up and relaxed. When the timer went off, I started the pre-heat for the oven and put my feet up again. When the oven signaled that it was at temperature, I put the loaf in and set the timer again... Relaxed some more, listened to the rain... and waited until the timer went off. Took the bread out and could not wait until it cooled... so I cut off a slab and spread it with butter... Yum, the best yet!
Last night's flour mix included wheat, flax meal, corn meal and millet flours with pecans.

Here is the recipe:

One Single Loaf

Mix the following in a bowl.

2 cups hot water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

Sprinkle over the top of above mixture
1 package of yeast

Wait a few minutes to let the yeast proof. When the yeast is bubbly, add the following half a cup at a time and mix well.
4 cups flour (mix of wheat, white and others)
1/3-2/3 cup of nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Mix in each half cup until most of the flour is in. It will become harder to mix with a spoon, time to knead in the last flour. Turn it out on a lightly floured board, or knead in your bowl until the dough is smooth and elastic and even a bit sticky. Do not work it until it is dry or you will have a very dense and crumbly loaf.
Work the dough into a ball, put back in the bowl and oil the ball. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until double (about 35 minutes). Punch down and knead again adding as little flour as possible. Place dough in greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise again for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, start to pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. When the oven is ready, remove the plastic wrap from your pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Give it a try... be amazed by your own homemade bread! Enjoy.

Garlic and Onions in the Ground

2009-11-18T13:11:00.002-05:00

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth

I love knowing that throughout the winter the onions and the garlic are gathering strength underground. I love to see the green tops pushing out through the snow, bright green on a field of white.
I planted a few weeks ago now. Last year I tried a number of varieties of garlic and picked the most successful variety to plant this year. My choice was Music, a hard-neck variety. I have planted 5 pounds of it. This year's crop was beautiful, large and tasty cloves!
I have also planted another variety.. a later maturing California White, a soft-neck variety. This one is an experiment. I planted one pound.
Onion sets went in about the same time, yellow and red varieties, about 5 pounds worth.
My family uses lots of garlic and onions. Growing our own is easy and saves dollars at the grocery store! Freedom and Yum!

GF Ravioli Trials

2009-11-17T08:58:00.002-05:00

My guy is gluten intolerant along with many other food allergies, so cooking around our house can be a bit of a challenge! Although, I've got to say that any cook loves a good challenge and I enjoy the constraints that David's diet put on my meal plans. His allergies narrow down the endless possibilities and keep me in thinking mode.
I am Italian and David spent a year studying in Italy when he was in college... we LOVE Italian food in our house. Buying pasta can be tricky when one is gluten-free! We have found one that we all like, Bionaturae.. it is potato, soy and rice and comes pretty close to regular pasta... but they only make the most common shapes: spaghetti, elbows, fusilli, and penne... so if you want anything else, you are on your own!
I have been experimenting for a while with pasta.. without too much success. The ravioli came out pretty good... a bit dense and not at all like a gluten dough, but tasty nevertheless.

I used an all-purpose mix of GF flours with some extra rice flour, eggs, and water. I mixed the dough in the food processor. Then rolled the dough out on a rice floured board until it was as thin as I dared.
The filling was made of fresh pesto from the garden, walnuts and Manchego Cheese (sheep milk cheese from Spain.. David is also allergic to cow dairy).

The tops were added after a thin film of water was painted around the edge to help make to two pieces of dough stick to each other when pressed gently together.
After the ravioli was cooked in boiling water briefly... we topped them with fresh from the garden tomato sauce with fresh herbs straight out of the garden (oregano, basil, garlic). A simple sauce to compliment the flavors of the filling which was very rich.

The finished product was a bit heavy, definitely filling, but really tasty.

After this ravioli project, I bought a pasta maker. It did NOT make this GF pasta maker happy at all. It was SO much trouble, not at all helpful so I brought it back to the store the next day. Next time, I'll just do it myself!

I love that our garden provides us with such wonderful healthful food and as the economy continues to slide, I know that my family will be well-fed, both with produce straight out of the garden and with the foods that I have put up (canned, frozen and dried) for the winter. Knowing where our food comes from is important to me. Healthy food that comes with a story, our story. Life really IS good!

Brasstown Gardens

2009-11-16T08:01:00.006-05:00

We took a trip to Brasstown, NC in early October. I was calling the evening contra dance at the John C Campbell Folk School during their Fall Festival. It was a beautiful day and we got there early enough to see lots of great crafts and listen to a big variety of folk music.
We had some time after the daytime festival and before the evening dance to kill... so before our picnic dinner on the porch at the Keith House Dance Hall, we checked out the Kitchen Garden at the Folk School. This garden provides food for the kitchen classes and dining hall at the school.
It was fun to see all the winter veggies in their long rows as well as the remnants of the summer crops... Beautiful handmade trellises.... and a living fence in the works... The fence is made of live trees woven and trained together to create a living growing fence that curves around a wooden rocking chair near the entrance to the garden.. Beautiful!

Next Installment on the Cob Bench Project

2009-11-15T18:20:00.029-05:00

It has been a busy few weeks and these photos spent a long time in the camera! But here they are. Back in October, Tony's Cob Building Class at AB Tech did most of the earthen plaster work on our bench. But Tony and I put the final earthen plaster touches on our bench project one sunny afternoon.
The plaster is made of clay, sand and wheat paste. The mixture is smooth and thick and is applied by handfuls and then compressed and smoothed with a piece of plastic cut from a yogurt container. This plastic rib helps to make the edges nice and gives the plaster a smooth surface and a finished look.
The earthen plaster coats the entire bench and gives it a harder, smoother finish than just raw cob.
This bench was designed to have room for lots of kids to sit around it. The backside of the bench overlooks the woods, to one side are the raised garden beds and to the other side are bird feeders and a storm water garden.
The bench has a beehive theme complete with giant sculpted bees on the top surface. It is to be an observation station for wildlife watching at the school. The bench has a built-in place to store a notebook which will be used as a journal to record bird activity.
I love this detail of where the foundation meets the cob.
The opening now has a wooden door fitted for it, hinged to a piece of wood that was built into the cob structure. I'll need to get pictures of it to share.
Sammy the snake guards the opening. Not sure yet what we are doing to finish the snake.. right now, we left it in raw cob. I think Tony was talking about oiling it to preserve it and allow it to have a different look from the smooth plaster finish of the rest of the bench.

The whole project still has a way to go.. The AB Tech class continues the work on the strawbale playhouse that is located opposite of the bench. In this photo you can see the brick courtyard that has been started between the two structures.
More pictures to come. What a great way this has been for me to learn about cob building and help out and my daughter's school. I look forward to the day when I am ready to build something out of cob in my own backyard!

Cob Bench takes shape

2009-09-25T09:45:00.012-04:00

Our Cob Bench project at Evergreen Community Charter is taking form! Rains over the last week or 2 seriously interrupted our progress but little by little is it getting there. This week I worked with Tony on some final shaping. The above picture is the before work started on Thursday picture.
Here a detail of the foundation made of brick and urbanite with the cob seating area and the central "back rest".
Another shot of the bench before we began our final shaping work. Sculpting. The idea is that the bench will be in the shape of a bee hive.. albeit a bit flattened to facilitate it's function as a back rest and to fit a maximum number of sitting kids. Built into the central core is an arched space with a wooden door to hold the garden journal that the kids will, as a community, keep notes on the garden (what's blooming, which birds, bees, animals, etc they see.. and other observations. There is a bird feeder nearby and the raised bed garden too. Pretty cool!
The sculpting consisted of adding and subtracting cob and rubbing and shaping with water. Slowly but surely it took shape as we worked.
The opening is guarded by Sammy the Snake, formed of cob, who is the keeper of the garden journal. After the plastering is done, some elements of the bench will be painted. Sammy will be more defined when he gets a paint job!

Next step is the process of plastering the cob structure. It will be an Earthen Plaster and will put a finishing coat over the entire bench. Stay tuned!

Ritual Mud Face Painting

2009-09-16T17:38:00.015-04:00

Once the cobbing had begun in earnest with Rebecca's Third Grade Class, Tony got out a bucket of clay... Wouldn't you know it, Rebecca was the first in line to get her face painted!
They both look pretty pleased with the painting, I'd say!
It wasn't long before the kids were lining up to be next! They seemed both surprised and delighted that an adult was painting on their faces with mud!
Most of the children left their "cob paint" on for the rest of the day.. A badge of honor of sorts!

There is something magical about about working with the primordial materials of clay, sand and water.. The magic certainly was not lost on these kids as they took their turn to work together to MAKE a special place at their school to share with the whole community. I find myself wondering what impact will this project have on their choices.. what ripples this experience will stir in their lives further down the road...
And then I find myself with the lyrics of a song spinning in my head and heart.. while we are not working with clay as potters (a role I have had in my life...with my BFA in Ceramic Arts) we are working with this magical stuff, this creative force...
The words of the "Potters Wheel" always bring on a huge response from my heart. I was first introduced to this powerful song at a concert by my friend Freyda Epstein. She sang this song on one of her albums... she is gone now.. but her voice, singing this song haunts me still.. it is how I remember her!

Potter's Wheel

Words and Music by Bill Danoff

The world is fast becoming younger;
The news is all they've ever known.
They've seen the wars, the hurt, the hunger.
How will they choose when they are grown?

What do you tell forever's children
When it's their turn to hurt and heal?
Whatever spins a grim tornado
Can also turn a potters wheel.

Take a little clay, Put it on a wheel
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, Listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.

Tell with your life the bloody story,
Teach to their dreams, not burning steel.
It's not in bombs where lies the glory,
But in what's shattered on the field.

The potters wheel takes love and caring,
Skill and patience fast and slow.
The works it makes are easily broken,
Once they survive the potters throw.

Take a little clay, put it on a wheel;
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to it spin;
Make it into the shape you want it in.

Some day some children will be digging
In some long forgotten ground.
And they'll find our civilization
Or what's left of it to be found.

They'll find the weapons of destruction.
But buried deeper in the hole,
They'll find a message and a promise,
In the sand, the potters bowl.

Take a little clay, put it on a wheel,
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.

Earth and fire and wind conspire,
With human hands, and love, and fire.

Take a little clay, put it on a wheel,
Get a little hint how God must feel.
Give a little turn, listen to a spin,
Make it into the shape you want it in.

The children we are growing in our Evergreen Community are amazing beings, they give me hope for our future!

Evergreen Cob - Day 2

2009-09-16T08:58:00.017-04:00

Day two of our Mud Fest was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot.. real nice. We started off the morning with a Third Grade class... my daughter Rebecca's class. They got an introduction from Tony, removed their shoes, rolled up long pants to the knees and were grouped into teams and sent off to a tarp to await further instruction.
Sand and clay were dumped on each tarp and the kids got to work. I had the pleasure of working with a group of girls that included Rebecca... they were SO funny.. all squeamish and giggly and shrieky! But after getting their feet used to the new sensations.. they joined hands and made up a mud dance.. circling left and right while jumping up and down.. I wish I had had my camera handy to capture that moment! We also worked with the two 5th Grade classes that day.

The older kids got to get in the tub of clay and mix it up with water and feet..
No hesitation here! Lots of squeals though! When the sand and clay were mixed it was time to add straw.. "sprinkle the cheese on the pizza"..Says Tony... now make it all dirty! The Cob is flipped in tarp several times to bring the bottom up to the top and facilitate a more through mix.
Now that our cob is mixed and ready, Tony demonstrates how to form a cob ball to carry to the bench.
Everyone joins in the fun of adding cob to the bench structure.. Still hard to tell how it will really look when it is all finished.. I keep telling the kids it is a "work in progress"!

At the end of Day 2... after 5 classes have added their touch... here is what the bench looks like.

Hummm... wonder how it will be in the end! Stay tuned...

Evergreen Cob - Day 1

2009-09-15T23:18:00.009-04:00

Last week we built the foundation for our cob bench project. We dug the shape of the foundation down 8 inches or so, then dug a drainage ditch and filled both with gravel. Then built up 2 courses of "urbanite". Urbanite is recycled scrap concrete.. it is beautiful in it's own way, each piece unique and rugged. The center part is more urbanite and gravel.. The kids will add their cob right onto this form.
We started to working with the kids yesterday at Evergreen on their cob bench project. What excitement! Mud Days are here.
Tarps are laid out and ready for the kids to arrive. Each tarp has a bucket of sand poured out and a bucket of very wet clay measured out and waiting to be dumped.
Straw is added after the clay and sand are mixed by foot. Funny to see how many kids don't want to get dirty.. You would think that they would not need much encouragement to jump in.. and most do.. jump in that is.. but a few were tentative and some would not even touch the stuff... FUNNY!
More pictures to come!

The Next Chapter on My Cob Building Experiences

2009-09-13T15:45:00.011-04:00

So it seems that I am learning to build a cob oven from the outside in! Funny how opportunity presents itself when you express an interest.
I took that Earthen Plaster Workshop last month and learned about the outer skin of these Earthen Ovens. It really got me excited. So I started searching for more information on the web. I found out that AB Tech is offering a Cob Building class this fall.. but it is on 4 Saturdays, and I have gigs on 3 of them so it would not make any sense to take the class this time around..
Well.. enter happenstance! My daughter's school has gotten a grant to build a cob bench and a straw-bale playhouse. I contacted the teacher in charge of the project and offered to help. They were delighted and put me in touch with Tony Beurskens, the builder.
Back to the oven.. I went out to the Pisgah View Peace Garden to spend a day working with Tony on a project at the garden. It was an Earthen Oven ready for it's outer layer of cob and middle layer of insulating perlite. So as you can see.. from the outside in...
Funny... we see something that we like.. and we see it from the outside.. closer examination brings us to the next layer and then the next and so on until eventually we uncover the "bones" of it. I like that I am getting the chance to work with different builders, at different locations, on different projects.. what a great way to see into this method of building with cob and get a nice well rounded experience!
Last week we built the foundation for the cob bench at Evergreen Community Charter School. It was a bunch of digging, moving gravel, and chunks of urbanite to create the foundation and base for the bench. This week the classes will each get a chance to build the bench. What an exciting experience this will be for the kids! I can't say that we ever did any projects like this when I was in school. I am really looking forward to working with the kids and watching the magic unfold for them.

Been Bitten by the Cob Building Bug!

2009-08-09T09:49:00.016-04:00

I had the opportunity to take an Earthen Plaster Workshop yesterday at the Pearson Community Garden in Montford taught by Doug Sharkey. The object of the workshop was a repair job on the Cob Oven at the site. The surface was cracking and some pieces were falling off. We mixed a batch of sand and clay to fill in the cracks and repair the lost chunks. Then mixed another formula of earthen plaster to resurface the whole thing.. clay, sand, straw and wheat paste. While we worked, we talked about the process of building and using a cob oven as well as cob construction in general.

The Pearson Community Garden has several examples of Cob Building. The Oven is surrounded by a structure made of cob. It is a beautiful curving shelter with a tin roof. Here are some photos...The "window" included a glass bottle worked into the opening. The possibilities are endless for incorporating interesting objects! I am so intrigued by the curves that are not only possible, but easy in this building form.

The other cob structure at the Pearson Community Gardens is the home for the composting toilet. A most beautiful building incorporating all sorts of cool elements. It also has a living roof and the curving walls that just really capture my imagination! It was a fabulous first taste for me and I am totally bitten by the cob bug! I look forward to learing more and building my own oven... Fresh bread anyone?

Bugged!

2009-08-07T11:35:00.003-04:00

Spending the morning pulling up plants that are infested with Harlequin Bugs . I was able to knock them back a bit with a home made insecticide soap solution made with olive oil and peppermint soap mixed with water.. I am wishing that I had hit it right away with the soap solution.. I was trying to do the hand-picking thing but they really got ahead of me and took over...
It breaks my heart to not compost everything from the garden but I do not want to invite these creatures back!

Still here... just SO busy!

2009-08-06T11:10:00.004-04:00

IT has been way too long since I posted! But as you know summer is the busy time. We were away for nearly 2 weeks and playing catch-up with the jungle that my garden has become. Rainy days while I was gone made it easy on the garden sitter.. and encouraged lots of growth. Everything is doing well but I have been battling Harlequin Bugs... yuck.. they do some serious damage! It has been hard to throw the affected plants in the trash.. I just want to compost everything.. but I don't want to invite those dastardly bugs back for a free feast next year... the affected plants are covered with eggs! SO to the dump they go. I know they will compost there and be far away from my garden!
Tomato plants are gargantuan this year.. 6 feet plus. Giant tomatoes... but mostly still green... I have been liking the cool temperatures this year... but a little heat would do all of my heat-loving crops some good!
I am dreaming of getting some chickens for eggs and compost! WE are looking at plans for a manageable chicken tractor and learning about different breeds and other chicken stuff before we take the leap!
So much happening here that it will take weeks to catch you up.. but I wanted to at least make a stab at getting back to regular posts.. Wish me luck!

ASAP Local Food Guide has Sprouted!

2009-05-04T11:33:00.003-04:00

The ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) Local Food Guide is available now in both print and on-line versions. The on-line version is search-able which is a great tool for finding specific things... the print version is good for browsing.

You will find our An Urban Plot listing in both the farm listings and the farms to visit listing! Check it us on-line at http://buyappalachian.org/index.php?view=detail&entityID=1448

As we know, every dollar spent is a vote for the business/agriculture/environmental/human practices that the product we purchase represents. Many areas of the country have their own Local Food Guide version. Check out your sources for local food. If you are not growing your own, support these local sources. Inform your choices. Ask questions.. where did this come from (how many food miles are you paying for), how was it grown (pesticides? organic/natural practices/small farm vs. factory farm?) Make your dollar-vote count where you really want it to count!

Garden Thoughts While on the Road

2009-04-28T21:08:00.004-04:00

I traveled last weekend to Portland OR to call for a dance festival there, The Portland Raindance Weekend. It was fun, a really fabulous time, but kept me from the garden at a time of year that I hate to miss a minute. When I am away, I carry my garden journal along, a sort of portable garden, and I write of growing things. It helps pass the time... and chronicle thoughts and ideas that crop up as I wait for airplanes!
Yesterday, I left Portland on time homeward bound, but got waylaid at my next stop.. Dallas/Ft Worth. Here is something I wrote while waiting 9 hours to get on a plane to complete my trip...

Stuck in Texas and longing to be in my little piece of North Carolina, longing to see my garden, to touch the earth of home, to drink in the changes that are surely waiting for me. To revel in the magic of growth and the accomplishment of my plot while my back is turned..
I know... it has only been since Friday that I was there among the spirits of my ground and today is just Monday.. only a few days, but away I have been, though never far, for in my mind I am ever diggin' in the dirt. Away but ever connected.
I have imagined my homecoming, rushing into the kitchen-first stop, hugging my family, my loves, then a trip out to the front garden to see what those plants have been up to while I have been gone.. I'll be in by 6:30 tonight, still plenty of light, the perfect prelude to dinner, a walk in the waiting garden.....

LATER....
But the weather had other plans for me, hours now sitting, walking, waiting in the airport, plastic, impersonal, I am alone in a sea of humanity stopped by the weather and eating food that smells more like a chemical copy of food than the real thing. I am so grateful for the care package of food that my hosts sent me off with this morning as I am not forced to eat airport food to survive.
Now I will not get in until well past midnight.... We have just celebrated the new moon, there will not be much light.. so I imagine myself, flashlight in hand creeping out to the dew-damp, midnight garden to check in with nature, to touch the ground after this long, long day of waiting... will I dare, right now, waiting until morning seems an impossible task.......

Earth Day

2009-04-23T15:34:00.005-04:00

Thinking about Earth Day and knowing that EVERY DAY is Earth Day... according to my very wise nearly 8 year old!, I thought that it would be good to make a list of what we do everyday to Celebrate and care for our earth... it's the only one we really have!

So here is my list in no particular order of importance:
~Growing a large percentage of our own food.
~Planting primarily heirloom and open pollinated seeds.
~Choosing Local Food first.
~Choosing organically grown products.
~Eating meat that is humanely raised, grass-fed, free-range, etc.
~Avoiding Bovine Growth Hormone, Antibiotics and Genetically Modified Foods.
~Choosing not to eat foods that contain high fructose corn syrup.
~Shopping at the Farmers Market.
~Focusing on Local products and services whenever possible.
~Using the Better World Shopper Guide to choose products and stores.
~Turning our yard into a sanctuary for birds and bees and other wildlife who appreciate our organic ways.
~Composting our kitchen, office and yard waste.
~Teaching our daughter fabulous ways to take care of the planet.
~Sending our daughter to an amazing public charter school, that focuses on Environmental Education and Green Living.
~Harvesting rainwater for use in the garden.
~Using mulch to minimize water usage.
~Reclaiming found objects and giving them new functions.
~Reducing the amount of things that we NEED to buy.
~Making as many meals as possible at home and from scratch.
~Repairing things that break instead of replacing.
~Finding new uses for throwaways.
~Recycling things that we can not compost, reuse, repair or reassign.
~Freecycling. Both to get stuff and get rid of stuff.
~Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
~Filter our own tap water and do not buy bottled water.
~Minimize the use of credit cards.
~Sharing rides and minimizing car trips.
~Always looking for ways to lessen our Carbon Footprint.

I am sure there are more things.. but for now.. this is what comes to mind.

All of this is not only good for the planet but really good for the pocketbook and serves to bring our family and our neighbors and community closer together. Working for the greater good!

Make everyday EARTH DAY!

Busy times in the garden

2009-04-21T11:56:00.004-04:00

What a bountifully busy time of the year. There don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get it all done. I feel like I am choreographing a complicated ballet....getting seeds started ahead of planting time, prepping the garden beds, direct sowing, weeding, rearranging plants from previous plantings, re-designing certain areas of the established garden, creating new beds and doing away with more lawn! There is SO much happening... and even with my best of intentions to keep up with blogging about all of this, it seems to be the blogging that falls by the wayside. Can't eat the blog... spend time on the food.

This is the first garden year.. (year number 4) that I have been working without a bunch of help from friends and co-conspirators.. As much as I liked having the help and company, I am certainly enjoying the solitude that I find out there by myself. My daughter, Rebecca, now nearly 8, helps out when she gets a mind to and my fiancée, David, helps when I need him... but mostly it is me out there keeping up with the ballet which is Spring planting time. I am a busy farmer!

This year I have added a new batch of Asparagus, so I now have 3 plantings of Asparagus. We have been getting a few spears here and there.. generally not enough to have a big asparagus feed.. but rather tastes of asparagus in other things.. YUM! Last night, however, we had asparagus sautéed with garlic and mushrooms as a side dish.. the closest we've come to getting to really eat asparagus.. wow... what a treat! I am looking forward to MORE!

I have also added Jerusalem Artichokes this year.. this is a first for my garden but my parents grew them when I was growing up and I remember really enjoying them. They have a new bed outside the garden fence.

I rearranged the herb bed on Saturday. It was time to give the sage plants more space and to break up the chives. Everything got a little cultivation and mulch. Then Sunday was a day of light rain. What perfect timing. Everything looks fabulous!

There is lots of salad greens for fresh salads and kale that wintered over and is now producing well. Spinach that made it through the winter and snow peas are up and coming soon. Arugula is doing well.. but now that it is warming up.. it is bolting.. but I keep cutting it back to prolong the going to seed process.

Life is good, Full and bountiful and BUSY!

Beautiful Snowy Garden

2009-03-06T08:33:00.005-05:00

We had a big snow storm on Sunday night.. it was the biggest snow we had this winter and we sure enjoyed it.. These photos were taken Monday morning. School was canceled for the day and the whole family had fun out in the white stuff.. Funny thing is that it was mostly gone by Wednesday with temps around 50! and today the projected temp is 70! Seems odd after having a morning temp on Tuesday of 12.. But that is Western North Carolina for you. We get winter... but it rarely stays around for long. Thank you southern exposure.
I had just planted my baby salad starts out in the garden... but I had them covered with row cover... a double layer on one bed and the other bed is under glass...
I peeped into the glass covered bed to check on the babies.. they seem to be doing okay... the row-covered bed looks good too. Today I will open the covers and let the warm air get in.
I'll post some picture of the grand opening later today..
Have a good day. Spring is on the way! YAY!

No Farms No Food

2009-02-17T08:25:00.003-05:00

I've seen this bumper sticker around town and on the road. It's a great slogan. But I wanted to know more about where it came from and just who's slogan it is. I did an on-line search to find out... (I just love the internet for connecting with the things that really matter to me!) and I found out the it belongs to the American Farmland Trust. The mission of American Farmland Trust is to help farmers and ranchers protect their land, produce a healthier environment and build successful communities. To that end, the campaign of No Farms No Food, is all about supporting local food and farms.

The message is simple and couldn't be more clear—America's farms and ranches provide an unparalleled abundance of fresh, healthy and local food, but they are rapidly disappearing.

Eighty-six percent of America’s fruits and vegetables are grown near metro regions, where they are in the path of development. And every hour we lose 125 acres of farm and ranch land. That's why supporting local food and farms is more important than ever!

A few weekends ago, I took a class sponsored by the ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) on Starting a Market Garden Business. One of the many things I was surprised to learn is that 96% of the food that is grown in our Western North Carolina Region goes away, into the global food supply. That fact just amazed me. Add to that the fact that most of the food in our local stores has come 1000's of miles to get to us. No wonder food costs are soaring and much of the produce at the local grocery looks like it's been to the war and back! What is that all about?

No Food No Farms offers 2 ways to get involved...

1. Get the Free Bumper Sticker and display it. Spread the message in your community that you support local food and local farms by displaying a free No Farms No Food bumper sticker from American Farmland Trust. Request yours today!

2. Take the Keep It Local pledge and stand up for local food and farms! As consumers, we make a difference when we support local food and farmer's markets. Make a commitment to local food, farms and ranches and take the Keep It Local pledge now!

I must say that this excites the local foodie in me! I have ordered my bumper sticker and made the pledge. I invite you to do the same. If you can, make a donation to support the work of the American Farmland Trust.

After you take the pledge you too will get a letter like I did with some more great resource information.

Dear Beth,

Thank you for making a commitment to your local farms and ranches by taking American Farmland Trust’s Keep It Local Pledge. We hope you discover a new favorite food, make new connections with local farmers and ranchers and gain a deeper appreciation for what it takes to get a meal from farm to fork.

Here are some resources to get you started:

Find farms and ranches in your area. Map the distance to your home to find those within your pledge distance. Subscribe to their CSA, find them at a farmers' market or go to the farm if they have pick-your-own operations.

Search for restaurants that buy from local farms and ranches. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about where the food is from. A lot of restaurants take pride in providing fresh ingredients and will be glad you asked!

Learn what’s fresh in your area—and how to cook it. When you start eating local, you might come across new varieties of fruits and vegetables that you’ve never seen before. Your taste buds are in for a treat! Experiment and share recipes with other local food enthusiasts.

American Farmland Trust is committed to protecting farm and ranch land and increasing the availability of fresh, local foods. Support our work by donating today. Your gift will go a long way to help in our work with policy makers, communities and producers to save the land that sustains America.

Sincerely,

Your friends at American Farmland Trust

Every Dollar Spent is a VOTE!

2009-02-08T10:30:00.008-05:00

A few months ago I saw something about The Better World Shopping Guide and went right ahead and ordered my family a copy. Right now I can't even remember where I saw it.. but I tell you that it has changed even more the way that I shop! This little book is a small but mighty weapon! It fits in my purse so that I can always have it with me... but really, that's the only small thing about it. I am so impressed with the work that went into this project that I want to share it with you.

from the website....

The idea: Money is power. And wherever large amounts of money collect, so also new centers of power form. The latest historical manifestation of this is the modern corporation. Make no mistake, these new power centers are not democracies. We don't vote for the CEO's or their policies (unless we are: rich enough to be significant shareholders, informed enough to know what's going one, and compassionate enough to care about more than just personal profit), yet our destinies are increasingly in their hands.
The solution: As these power centers shift, we must shift our own voices if we wish to be heard. As citizens, on average, we might vote once ever 4 years, if at all. As consumers, we vote every single day with the purest form of power...money.
The average American family spends around $18,000 each year on goods and services. Think of it as casting 18,000 votes every year for the kind of world you want to live in. Use this site to take back your power.
The Key issues:
1. HUMAN RIGHTS: sweatshops, 3rd world community exploitation, international health issues, divestment, child labor, code of conduct.

2. THE ENVIRONMENT: global warming, rainforest destruction, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, greenwashing, toxic waste, eco-innovations, illegal dumping, sustainable farming.

3. ANIMAL PROTECTION: factory farming, animal testing, humane treatment, wild animal habitat.

4. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: family farms, local business support, volunteer efforts, sustainable growth, philanthropic donations, nonprofit alliances, establishing foundations.

5. SOCIAL JUSTICE : fair wages, fatalities, union busting efforts, health & safety records, discrimination based on: race, gender, age, ability, religion, sexuality, ethnicity.

So how do we use this weapon? Knowledge is POWER as much as money is. And by arming ourselves with knowledge we can make informed decisions as we wield our POWER. The authors of this book bring us the knowledge we need to make these informed decisions.

My amazing seven-year old LOVES money. She thinks it is really cool to be able to buy herself the stuff that she wants. One of my goals as a parent is to teach her the concept of voting with her dollars! So yesterday we were out buying groceries and she had a few dollars burning a hole in her little purse. I had already used the book that day to make several shopping decisions... like which brand of ice cream, rice and cheese to buy. We were standing in line at the check out and Rebecca decided that she had to have some gum. After setting the example through our entire shopping trip, I handed her the book and said, "Look up Candy and see if you can find any of these products on the list and what grade they get." It was fascinating to watch her face as she realized that not a single candy product on the shelf in this conventional mainstream grocery had even a C or D grade. She decided to pass on the gum here. We did go to a healthy grocery next to pick up a few more things and they had the gum that scored an A.
Let me tell you, the satisfaction this kid has knowing that she supported a company that got an A with her 79 cent purchase was glowing on her face at the check out and every time she pops one of those pieces of gum into her mouth, true satisfaction! Lesson learned. Start'em young, I say!
I encourage you to check out the website, buy yourself a copy, give a few as gifts, share the lesson/solution with friends, co-workers, and family! Know that supporting this project will help get subsequent editions published and spread the teaching of a new way of thinking about dollars spent.
Start revolutionizing the way YOU shop. BE armed with knowledge. And remember that EVERY DOLLAR spent is a VOTE for the practices of the company your dollar supports! Make sure that you are supporting practices that you can believe in.

More on HOPE

2009-01-16T16:39:00.003-05:00

Ohhh this book is good! Here is another piece I must share with you on HOPE.

...bringing food from farmers you can name to real people who eat food, agriculture is recreational hope. It recreates hope. You can recreate hope off the grid or on the grid. Fun hope is the soil in which serious hope can grow. A lot of people are stuck in (legitimate) despair. Gardening and farming--agricultures--can grow them out of it.
~Donna Schaper from Grassroots Gardening

I just love this image of growing hope and curing despair through the garden and the act of recreating (create again, renew) while recreating (activity done for enjoyment)! Yes indeed, good stuff happens in the garden, layers and layers of amazing stuff that one can not even begin to measure by any standardized means.

Garden to Remind Ourselves of Hope

2009-01-15T21:28:00.005-05:00

My Family gave me a bounty of new garden books for Christmas. I am a lucky woman!
Right now I am reading one called GRASSROOTS GARDENING: Rituals for Sustaining Activism by Donna Schaper. I am still in the Preface but here is a great quote.

As a gardener, I have a front-row seat on global warming and the many other idiocies of capitalism untamed. Humanity is headed for a brick wall of inequality and injustice that breeds war and destroys the air. I believe we can change; that is what makes me an activist. I garden to remind myself of my hope.

Newfangled Corn Dodgers WOW Family

2009-01-13T13:52:00.003-05:00

Yes indeed. My family was WOWed by my latest version of the old corn dodger recipe! The new dodgers were a big hit... even if I do say so myself.
I mused in my last post about some additions I might make next time...
Well, next time came and I added...
Minced red onion
Chunks of freshly harvested Shitake Mushrooms
Minced Garlic
All mixed in with the previously posted recipe.
They were SO good that I could have made a meal of them alone!
Give it a try.
YUM!

What are Corn Dodgers??

2009-01-08T08:08:00.006-05:00

Don't you just LOVE the name? I recently posted that I was making Corn Dodgers to go with our stew one night.. and then came the question.. what are corn dodgers..
So here you go...
A corndodger, or just dodger, is a ball of cornmeal (and sometimes flour), water (or milk), oil (or lard) and usually sugar. This is deep fried (like a hushpuppy), or baked. They are also known as Johnny Cakes and seem to come out of the Colonial Era.

"In the book George Washington's Breakfast, author Jean Fritz tells us that George Washington ate Johnny cakes every day."

"Johnny Cakes can be cooked on a hot buttered griddle, baked in the oven, or cooked on a clean, buttered hoe."

“The universal food of the people of Texas, both rich and poor, seems to be corn-dodger and fried bacon.”
Frederick Law Olmstead 'A Journey Through Texas' (1856)

“Her corn-cake, in all its varieties of hoe-cake, dodgers, muffins and other species too numerous to mention, was a sublime mystery to all less practised compounders.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852)

My corn dodger recipe is adapted from the Joy of Cooking. David is allergic to wheat and gluten as well as eggs so this recipe works for him. It is also quick and can be made while dinner is simmering. We first encountered corn dodgers when David and I were invited to dinner at a friend's house. They worked hard to come up with some sort of bread or biscuit to go with the simple soup that they were serving that David would be able to eat. They were fabulous! So we started making them too. Rebecca likes to help form the dodgers. Last weekend she had a sleepover here with a friend and I had both girls helping.. it was fun.
We love them!

Corn Dodgers

Preheat oven to 400. Grease cookie sheet.

Mix together the dry ingredients:
1 cup of corn meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar

Mix together the wet ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
(optional 1 beaten egg...egg is not in the old recipes)
as substitute for egg,
I use 1 Tablespoon Flax meal steeped in 3 Tablespoons boiling water
then pulsed in the food processor.

Mix together wet and dry until blended.
Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

These come out almost crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. We eat them plain though you could be decadent and add butter.. Yum...
Last time I made corn dodgers, I included minced parsley and mushrooms. After dropping them on the cookie sheet, I flattened them a bit with my hand. They looked more like cookies. Flattening them served to up the crispy character and keep the inside soft. They were fritter-like. Oh they were good... next time I will also add a bit of minced onion... I think that will be good! oooh and maybe some garlic!

Road Food.... Yikes!

2009-01-03T13:16:00.006-05:00

Well Rebecca and I spent a week at a dance camp after Christmas and let me tell you.. I just know too much about food.. Usually I relish to opportunity to have a week off from cooking and thinking about what to cook and having someone else deal with all of that and serve me and clean up afterwards... BUT it seems that is not the case anymore!
After reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, I have dramatically changed the way that I shop for food. I pay even closer attention to the labels, what the ingredients are and where the food comes from. I buy less and less processed products... Fresh food plus staples. We make most stuff from scratch. Eat food grown in our garden and buy local whenever possible. Often, I opt out of buying something because it was grown too far way or is too processed or has too many additives. I shop with a list of which vegetables and fruit have lower rates of pesticide residue. I buy organic whenever I can. I also shop with my "The Better World Shopping Guide" and make choices knowing that every dollar I spend is a vote for the business and farming practices followed by the companies that I chose to buy from.
So to spend a week eating food service fare, I had to change my food focus. Usually, I love to eat. I live to eat! I love food and the process of making food, growing food and the stories that the food brings to the table. But for the week at camp, I had to simply eat to live. It was just fuel. But really not the best quality of fuel.
We had lots of noodle dishes sometimes a pasta dish with a side of pasta. Yikes! Very little fresh vegetables (well there was fresh broccoli one day and that was really it). The fruit was fruit salad out of a can with lots of syrup. The first night.. dessert was green jello with large marshmellows. Amazing! I would have given my kingdom for a piece of fresh fruit! I ate what I could... but dreamed of my own cooking!
But I guess the real question is how do you eat well when you are on the road?? As far as I can tell, the best solution is to bring your own food. I find that packing from home for the trip is easy enough... but then the way home is harder to manage...
When packing your own food is not possible what do you do? I say it has to be a matter of picking the lesser of the evils! Choose the fresh vegetables and fruits and stay away from the more processed foods.
Ah... it is good to be home. Tonight's dinner: home made turkey stew with home made corn dodgers on the side! Homemade apple sauce.
Yum!

WooHoo...Catalogs are coming! Make way for the lists!

2008-12-24T09:07:00.005-05:00

Oh what fun to open the mailbox these days... everyday brings at least one new seed catalog if not more... I get so excited... planning, making lists, and more lists, wanting everything heirloom and colorful and exotic and, and, and....
Yesterday I got this full color absolutely fabulous heirloom catalog.... I fell into it with such a feverish enthusiasm... David laughed... said that a good seed catalog must be like "porn for a gardener". That man has a way with words... Me, I usually liken it to going through the Sears Big Wish Book at the start of the Christmas Season when I was a kid... circling wishes and filling the book with dog-eared pages!
I go through each seed catalog with a pen and circle the likely candidates... then make a list with page numbers and prices..
This makes it easier to compare from one catalog to the next...
Of course, the very first step is to go through any seed that is left over from this year or has been saved from the crop this year...... more lists.... A list of what I must order from where, based on what worked well this year or in years past... After all there is my never fail variety of eggplant... and the Sweet Italian Peppers I love so much.. right... more lists of the things I just can't live without...
And now lists of the produce that is much loved by my "Fresh Start" families who I also grow food for now.
The list of lists goes on and on... as the seed catalogs and lists become a mountainous pile by my chair ready to cascade to the floor... a slippery slope of lists, possibilities, the ultimate in local food, color, nutrition and lists and more lists.......
Soon time to make a list of seeds to start....

Silent but Busy!

2008-12-16T17:18:00.006-05:00

Dear Readers,
I have been silent for quite some time... it has been a crazy few weeks full of all sorts of hustle and bustle. My silence here has certainly not been because I had nothing to say... quite the contrary.... just that there is SO much to say and there has been SO little time to stop and write! Between the holidays, travel, and big changes at home...

So the BIG NEWS is that David and I are now engaged! Woohoo! After 6 years as a single mama and 45+ years of waiting for the right one to come along... here HE is! Rebecca adores him and life is SO good. Really worth the wait! I must say that it is the easiest relationship ever and just gets better all of the time. Yay!

So now we are in the process of selling David's home on the other side of town. Then we will all move into my little house at the garden. It will be SO good to live back at the garden and not be commuting anymore! I SO look forward to being on site and the great time that will be saved from the travel back and forth.. also looking forward to the more integrated life that we will be able to live all in one place! Cooking and gardening and doing the usual household chores.... an inter-planting of work, so to speak!

My Fresh Start produce business is coming along. I have about 20 families on my weekly email list with 3-8 orders per week. It is what I can manage for now. As the Spring and Summer season comes on I expect that it will become twice a week email with more orders! Right now the winter options are limited to fresh greens and mesclun mix salad greens as well as some fresh herbs.

My row covers are working well! I currently have six covers up and have plans for more. I am using the French Chenille Style of row cover written about in Elliot Coleman's book, The Four-Season Harvest and by our friends at Shibaguyz . I had read the book and seen to information on row covers but it was not until the Shibaguyz posted about their experience making these row covers that I promptly followed suit! Thanks for the inspiration! I promise to write more about the process and include how-to pictures!

We are getting a storage building built at the garden to serve as storage and a woodworking shop for David.. But wouldn't you know it... the ideal place for the building is were my mountainous mulch piles have been for the last few years. So for the last 3 days we have been moving the mulch. Who needs a membership to the gym? My body hurts in places that I didn't think that it was possible to hurt! And I am not done yet.. David helped for the first day until his asthma started up thanks to the molds in the pile.. I took over after that! But I am almost done.. one more day! One of the side benefits of this little project is that now the mulch is closer to the garden and will save steps later. I also managed to get the wide row of berries mulched and the herb garden paths too!

There of course is more... but It is time to cook dinner. Chicken Risotto with mushrooms and onions and a salad of freshly picked (an hour ago) mesclun mix with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar (or vinegar of your choice)
2-3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 garlic clove (finely minced or pressed)
salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste

For the Good of the World

2008-11-05T17:26:00.005-05:00

The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world.
~Vita Sackville-West

We've planted a wonderful new victory garden for our world with this election. Now it is up to us all to roll up our sleeves and nurture this freedom garden we have begun, for it is only through our care and tending that the seeds planted will bring forth abundance for all.
Yes WE can!

Vote! Vote! Vote!

2008-11-04T10:07:00.004-05:00

Today is an HISTORIC and PIVOTAL day. Perhaps the most historical and pivotal of our lives.
Make sure you all get out and vote today if you haven't already done so! And if you have already voted... make sure that all of your family and friends have also voted!
It is OUR Democracy and it will only work if we all participate!
Vote! Vote! Vote!

Peace and Serenity

2008-11-02T08:47:00.001-05:00

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.
~Lindley Karstens

A New way to look at the Victory Garden

2008-10-28T09:24:00.003-04:00

You really must check out the Freedom Garden Movement! It is a new way of thinking of the Victory Garden concept of days gone by. Think victory over your food bill, victory over manufactured and genetically modified food, victory over your status of couch potato. Yes indeed, Freedom from all of the above and more!

Here is the press release from the FREEDOM GARDEN website....

Think of it as Facebook meets the Farmer’s Almanac: A social networking site for 21 st century pioneers who want to fight soaring food prices and global warming by growing their own food. On this site, novice and expert growers from all over the world can gather to post success stories, ask questions, and challenge one another to ever-increasing levels of self-sustained living.

That was Then, This is Now

In response to the heavy impact of World War II on the U.S. economy, Americans were urged to grow a victory garden (also called a war garden) in 1943. The gardens were planted by about 20 million families and would eventually provide nearly half of the fresh produce consumed during this troubled time. On rooftops, in back yards and even in containers on front porches, Americans produced eight million tons of fruit, vegetables and herbs in their own households.

Presently we are faced with a future that’s will be fraught with fuel scarcity, rising food cost and environmental implications.

As the world encounters hard times - there will be need of practical and back to basics solutions.

Freedom Gardens is growing beyond victory garden a food security movement person to person, blog to blog, neighbor to neighbor. A modern gardening era/movement for the 21st century resulting in efforts to become free of foreign oil, corporate controls, contamination and food miles while creating a sustainable future by promoting local food production.

Behind This Site

Freedom Gardens is backed by the example of its founders, the Dervaes family, the urban-dwelling “eco-pioneers” who have been growing most of their own food since 2001. On their one-fifth acre residential lot in Pasadena, Jules Dervaes and his three adult children, Anais, Justin, and Jordanne, grow over 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers-with enough left over to run an award-winning “green” business selling fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.

Freedom Gardens is an offshoot of the family’s first website, PathtoFreedom.com, a seven year-old sustainable living blog that gets 5 million hits per month from 125 different countries. The new, more interactive site uses social networking software to connect visitors with other gardeners in their area. They can share tips about local climate and soil issues, display which challenges they are participating in on their profiles, and find others nearby doing the same challenge.

Through FreedomGardens.org, people everywhere can take back control from the corporate food system. In the process, they can improve their health, reduce their ecological footprint, and save money.

Funding for Freedom Gardens is from the Dervaes Family businesses (Dervaes Gardens, Peddler’s Wagon) and from their non-profit Dervaes Institute. Dervaes Institute is registered as a 508(c)(3) public charity and governed by the state of California.

An Abundance of Greens and Herbs

2008-10-26T09:59:00.005-04:00

I have begun offering fresh produce to friends and family weekly as I have such an abundance of greens and herbs that we can't eat it all. Fresh greens are so good for you and the more you pick, the more they seem to produce. And the possibility of growing greens year-round means that there is no reason for preserving the harvest for long-term storage! Besides greens are much better fresh.
The picture here shows greens (rainbow swiss chard, mixed cole greens..collards, purple veined brussel sprout leaves and broccoli leaves) and herbs (chives and lemon grass) harvested and waiting for pick-up. I pick the fresh greens and rinse them, then bundle them into bunches and put them in mason jars with fresh water to keep until pick-up.
Here is an excerpt from my letter to family and friends, introducing the "Fresh Start" concept.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This year my garden plot has turned the corner and is producing a beautiful abundance of organically grown, lovingly nurtured produce. More than my family can hope to eat... and we are eating well!

My mission with my garden was first to grow the organic produce that I wanted to feed Rebecca but could not afford to buy at the grocery store. As I got more into my project, it became more and more about eating LOCAL, minimizing my carbon footprint and nurturing the planet. It has been a wonderful journey, watching the land that is my yard become a magnet for birds and butterflies and bees. There is more good happening here than meets the naked eye! Layers and Layers of good and important steps forward. A Fresh Start!

I have spent the summer wondering what to do with all of this wonderful food and realizing that the time and effort I spend is like having a full-time job! I have been looking for ways to get my garden to start bringing in some income. I have considered starting a small CSA but have concluded that I am not ready for that yet..
What I have decided to do is to offer each week an email of what is available in the garden. This email will go out on Monday and Thursday. Let me know what you want to order and the next morning, I will pick and bag your order. You can pick it up that day (Tuesday or Friday) at the Garden......

You can be assured that your produce was fresh picked because I am not going to pick it until you let me know what you want! This is LOCAL food at it's best with a small footprint and layers and layers of good!

Making Connections

2008-10-23T09:18:00.004-04:00

Oooo I have discovered another great site which to my way of thinking speaks to some of the "whys" of the grow your own food movement. The site is Slow Movement and has fabulous food for thought! Check it out!
Here is their take on "How to make the connection to food"

We can create a strong connection with our food, local farmers, community members and others by:
* Joining or starting a community food system;
* Eating food grown in your local area or bioregion;
* Eating organically or sustainably grown food;
* Starting a back-yard veggie garden; or helping someone else to do it;
* Joining or starting a community food garden;
* Encouraging local shops and restaurants to buy from local farmers;
* Becoming acquainted with local farmers;
* Volunteering to work on a local community supported agriculture project or community food system;
* Growing and promoting traditional foods;
* Refusing GM food;
* Promoting community food systems amongst your friends and fellow workers;
* Growing fresh produce to donate to food kitchens
* Joining a local slow food group.

Organic Facts of the Week

2008-10-16T16:35:00.004-04:00

I want to encourage you to check out the work of the Organic Consumers Association. They are working for everyone on this planet! Their website encourages a "Get Local" approach and includes an action center to keep you up-to-date on issues that matter to us all. OCA gives you ways to add your voice to the grassroots campaigns for "health, justice, sustainability, peace, and democracy".

Check out the many calls to action. You may be surprised to find that some of your favorite "organic" products are not what you think they are.

You can subscribe to their newsletter which includes great information on the following topics...Organics, Planting Peace, Environment and Climate, Health Issues, Genetic Engineering, Food Safety, Fair trade and Social Justice, Farm Issues, and Politics and Democracy.

In today's newsletter there was the following list of Organic Facts...

* If organic farming methods were practiced on all the planet's food-growing land, it would be like taking more than 1.5 billion cars off the road.
* You can increase your antioxidant intake by 30 percent by choosing organic.
* The average child in America is exposed to five pesticides daily in their food and drinking water.
* The U.S. water system is regularly contaminated above safe limits immediately following chemical fertilizer applications to farm fields.
* Farms in developing countries that use organic techniques produce an average of 79% more than farms that don't.

Now if that don't make you want to buy and grow organic... I don't know what will!

Grow your own Shiitake Mushrooms!

2008-10-15T18:30:00.006-04:00

Last year, I had to good fortune to get 8 shiitake logs passed on to me by a friend who was moving. I am a lucky woman! They have been around a while but still have life in them! Generally, I pick out 2 logs to soak in the rainwater barrels. I soak them for a day, then set them out in the shade. After a few days, they start fruiting and we get to enjoy shiitake mushrooms for dinner! Local food that requires only a few steps to harvest!

here is a quote from ShiitakeMushroomLog.Com

Shiitakes have four to ten times the flavor of common white button mushrooms. In addition to their robust/pungent, woodsy flavor and meaty texture, shiitakes provide high levels of protein (18%), potassium, niacin and B vitamins, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. They have natural antiviral and immunity-boosting properties and are used nutritionally to fight viruses, lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure. Lentinan, an immunostimulant derived from shiitakes, has been used to treat cancer, AIDS, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibrocystic breast disease, and other conditions with impressive results. Researchers S. Suzuki and Oshima found that a raw shiitake eaten daily for one week lowered serum cholesterol by 12%.

Oh my family loves our mushrooms and how wonderful it is to know there is SO much goodness in them.
Think about growing your own. It really is worth the investment and effort. You can watch these baby mushrooms emerge from the logs and enjoy knowing that you will soon be feasting on a delicious nutritious local meal!

Raised Beds

2008-10-14T22:39:00.003-04:00

I love working with raised beds. I think that is the sense of great organization I get when I look out over the beds. But what this picture shows is the great variety of possibilities available in found materials! I get alot of my materials from FreeCycle, the side of the road, or the recycling bin!
The above beds are made of found bricks, concrete pavers, wine and beer bottles, scrap wood, concrete pieces, and rocks from the garden. If you can let go of the need for everything to match or be the same size, you can make just about anything work.

Why raised beds??

Most gardeners find that raised beds are easier to maintain and promote better plant growth. Walking in a garden causes soil compaction, which can cause problems with drainage and oxygen availability to the roots. It's also more difficult to weed when soil is compacted. With a raised bed, you can plant, weed and harvest without ever walking on the soil.

Raised beds can be filled with high-quality soil and it's easy to add compost or other organic matter. Long-rooted plants, such as carrots, do especially well in this environment, because there are no stones to hinder their development.

Plants in raised beds get more sun and air circulation and they can make better use of water. You often can plant earlier and harvest later, because raised beds warm up early in the spring and stay warm later in the fall.

Raised beds also make ideal places to grow plants that can be invasive in a regular garden – such as mints and horseradish. But ease and convenience is the benefit many gardeners appreciate the most. If you get a bad back and sore knees every year from gardening, a raised bed may put an end to those aches and pains.

Raised vegetable beds are excellent for gardeners who have trouble with their backs and older people who don't have limited flexibility. They are also excellent for people in wheelchairs or with other disabilities and those who don't want to spend the summer on their knees in the garden.

I invite you to keep your eyes open to the vast possibilities of materials that are available for free or nearly free for your raised beds. Raised beds can be had for free or little money out of pocket. You will be amazed at the difference it will make in the success of your garden!

What to do with all of those greens

2008-10-12T09:08:00.008-04:00

My winter greens are starting to really come in now. Swiss Chard, Spinach, kale, collards. Yum! But what to do with them all. I am always looking for new ways to prepare the feast. Greens can be picked fresh all year round so I see no need to try freezing or canning them. Besides they are best fresh picked right out of the garden! Here is a recipe that I found and adapted to suit my family and they loved it! Give it a try.

Greens with Toasted Pine Nuts and Raisins
Serves 6
2 1/2 pounds of greens
(spinach, kale, chard, collards, others) either mixed or one kind
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 small onions sliced
1-2 cloves of minced garlic (optional)
4 tablespoons of raisins
(or dried cranberries or blueberries), plumped in hot water and drained
4 tablespoons of pine nuts, toasted
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Fresh pick and rinse greens well. Saute in a large pan with only the rinse water that still clings to the greens. Cook over medium heat, turn frequently until wilted. Drain and set greens aside.
Add olive oil to the empty pan. Saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until tender (about 8 minutes). Add the greens, raisins and pine nuts. Saute briefly to warm and bring the flavors together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.

With the leftovers, I made the most fantastic frittata topped with cheddar cheese! Warm the oven to about 350. Scramble 2 or 3 eggs. Put the left over greens in an iron skillet that has been lightly oiled. Pour in the scrambled eggs. Top with grated cheese. Bake until the eggs are cooked. ENJOY..

YUM!

Quote of the day

2008-10-11T10:42:00.001-04:00

To create a garden is to search for a better world. In our effort to improve on nature, we are guided by a vision of paradise. Whether the result is a horticultural masterpiece or only a modest vegetable patch, it is based on the expectation of a glorious future. This hope for the future is at the heart of all gardening.
~Marina Schinz

A Celebration of Rainbow Swiss Chard

2008-10-10T13:39:00.005-04:00

Today's post is a celebration of Rainbow Swiss Chard. Why eat boring food when you can eat a rainbow imbued with liquid sunshine!

~from a seed catalog description....

A beautiful chard, its colors are brilliant (pink, yellow, orange, red and white). This chard originated in Australia. Very mild, ornamental, and tasty. Great for market growers and specialty markets. Pretty enough to plant in the flower garden, so delicious, one of our favorite greens! Can be sown any time up to late summer for fall use; often overwinters except in very cold-winter areas.

But what is this stuff called "Chard"? and where does it come from? And what the heck do you do with it?

Swiss Chard, the beta vulgaris Cicla group, is actually a close cousin of the beet and also goes by the name "spinach beet." The rainbow variety of Swiss chard, often known as "bright lights" comes with stems in a wide range of bright colors including magenta, orange, red, purple, and golden yellow.

Cooks prize Swiss chard for its colorful veins and ribs. The contrast of the vibrant red, orange, yellow, and white stalks against deep dark green leaves make for a strikingly beautiful presentation. And chard not only looks fantastic but it has a mild delicate flavor that is sweeter, and more refined then other greens. Swiss chard can be used as a substitute for spinach in recipes, or stands alone nicely as a side dish.

One cup of cooked chard provides the following vitamins, minerals and nutritional components shown below as percentage of USRDA.

Vitamin K:	300%
Vitamin A:	100%
Vitamin C:	52%
Magnesium:	37%
Manganese:	29%
Potassium:	27%
Iron:	22%
Vitamin E:	16%
Fiber:	14%

So again I say, "Why eat boring food when you can eat a rainbow imbued with liquid sunshine!" Try some today!

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

2008-10-09T21:50:00.002-04:00

You know that time between really waking and not quite still sleeping.. that seems to be the time that I remember dreams best... Well I woke from a strange one this morning. It seemed that the city decided that home gardens needed to be permitted. With a hefty permit fee of course and all sorts of odd rules. Rules about everything and mostly rules that made no good sense. Yikes.. The permit would require an end to the season, a specified date when the garden would need to be shutdown for the winter and covered over with some sort of impervious cover so the it could "rest" properly... It had rules about what could be grown and what was not allowed. And rules about when to plant and what chemical applications were required.
What really got me was that one of the best reasons for home gardening is that not only do you know where your food comes from and how it was grown but that you don't have to worry about the regulations or lack of regulatory oversight for our food industry.
I tell you it was the strangest dream!

Garden Fresh Roasted Veggies

2008-10-08T09:06:00.004-04:00

Here is an amazingly simple yet wonderful garden fresh dish shown here before cooking. It has a beautiful variety of colors! My High School Home Economics Teacher would be SO proud. Beets, Carrots, Onions, Garlic, Potatoes (red, russet, blue), tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and topped with fresh parsley and sprigs of rosemary.
Bake uncovered in the oven at 350 or so... oven setting can be more or less depending on what else you are cooking in the oven at the same time... consider a cover for a bit if you are cooking at a higher heat. Bake until the veggies are done.
Local and Fresh... it can't be beat!

Why Bother?

2008-10-07T20:52:00.006-04:00

You can't start growing your own food without asking yourself the question, Why Bother? It is work, pleasurable work with amazing returns... but at the end of the day aching and tired, you just gotta wonder.. if it really is worth the bother... Friends may even give you a hard time about your "million dollar tomato". And you wonder... I could just drive to the grocery store and buy food... I could even buy food already made...
Ahhh, but the rewards of growing your own and making food from scratch.....the good feeling, the great food.
I am writing now with a full and satisfied belly from an amazing meal. A mostly local meal: Meatloaf (made with local beef and homegrown carrots, squash, onions, garlic, shitake mushrooms, and tomato), Fresh Homegrown Kale braised with homegrown garlic, and Rice. Yum!
This evening I stumbled on an article by Michael Pollan, first published in the New York Times on April 20th, 2008. You can read the entire article, WHY BOTHER? But here is the piece that I wanted to share with you..

But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
A great many things happen when you plant a vegetable garden, some of them directly related to climate change, others indirect but related nevertheless. Growing food, we forget, comprises the original solar technology: calories produced by means of photosynthesis. Years ago the cheap-energy mind discovered that more food could be produced with less effort by replacing sunlight with fossil-fuel fertilizers and pesticides, with a result that the typical calorie of food energy in your diet now requires about 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce. It’s estimated that the way we feed ourselves (or rather, allow ourselves to be fed) accounts for about a fifth of the greenhouse gas for which each of us is responsible.
Yet the sun still shines down on your yard, and photosynthesis still works so abundantly that in a thoughtfully organized vegetable garden (one planted from seed, nourished by compost from the kitchen and involving not too many drives to the garden center), you can grow the proverbial free lunch — CO2-free and dollar-free. This is the most-local food you can possibly eat (not to mention the freshest, tastiest and most nutritious), with a carbon footprint so faint that even the New Zealand lamb council dares not challenge it. And while we’re counting carbon, consider too your compost pile, which shrinks the heap of garbage your household needs trucked away even as it feeds your vegetables and sequesters carbon in your soil. What else? Well, you will probably notice that you’re getting a pretty good workout there in your garden, burning calories without having to get into the car to drive to the gym. (It is one of the absurdities of the modern division of labor that, having replaced physical labor with fossil fuel, we now have to burn even more fossil fuel to keep our unemployed bodies in shape.) Also, by engaging both body and mind, time spent in the garden is time (and energy) subtracted from electronic forms of entertainment.

You begin to see that growing even a little of your own food is, as Wendell Berry pointed out 30 years ago, one of those solutions that, instead of begetting a new set of problems — the way “solutions” like ethanol or nuclear power inevitably do — actually beget other solutions, and not only of the kind that save carbon. Still more valuable are the habits of mind that growing a little of your own food can yield. You quickly learn that you need not be dependent on specialists to provide for yourself — that your body is still good for something and may actually be enlisted in its own support. If the experts are right, if both oil and time are running out, these are skills and habits of mind we’re all very soon going to need. We may also need the food. Could gardens provide it? Well, during World War II, victory gardens supplied as much as 40 percent of the produce Americans ate.

But there are sweeter reasons to plant that garden, to bother. At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen. Chances are, your garden will re-engage you with your neighbors, for you will have produce to give away and the need to borrow their tools. You will have reduced the power of the cheap-energy mind by personally overcoming its most debilitating weakness: its helplessness and the fact that it can’t do much of anything that doesn’t involve division or subtraction. The garden’s season-long transit from seed to ripe fruit — will you get a load of that zucchini?! — suggests that the operations of addition and multiplication still obtain, that the abundance of nature is not exhausted. The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. Michael Pollan

Don't Play with Your Food

2008-10-07T19:40:00.003-04:00

Well sometimes you just can't resist the temptation to play with your food!
So meet Pedro the Hot Pepper Guy! He's one of a kind, spicy and debonaire!
My hot pepper harvest has been abundant.
I am hoping to find the time to make a batch of hot pepper jelly this week.

What Eating Local Really Means

2008-10-06T22:16:00.006-04:00

Eating local means more for the local economy.
Locally grown produce is fresher.
Local food just plain tastes better.
Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen.
Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic.
Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons.
Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story.
Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism.
Local food translates to more variety.
Supporting local providers supports responsible land development.

I found this wonderful list at http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com
Consider committing to the EAT LOCAL Challenge.

"Pesticides.. Ain't Killed No One"...

2008-09-14T22:14:00.010-04:00

Yep, Believe it or not... that's what the guy said!
So the whole story... my family and I went to the WNC Farmer's Market.. the BIG one in town.. the one run by the state... not one of the many small farmer ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) sponsored ones at the Health Food Store parking lots or the City Market where organic growing methods are common and a general understanding that natural and organic methods are important for so many reasons!
This Farmers Market is sponsored by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. We went in search of a bulk quantity of apples, peaches and gourds...
Well it was amazing! First we explored the retail barns.. NO organics... some heirloom tomatoes but nothing touting it's organically grown and natural methods..
Then we moved on to the Watermelon and Peach area which for some reason also has pumpkins... It was clear to me that the lack of signs about ORGANIC, meant that everything was conventionally grown..
I spoke with one fellow who was selling gourds and pumpkins... When I asked him about pesticides... he told me that it was me NOT possible to grow pumpkins without spraying them...
Well, I have some lovelies that we harvested that very day from my garden... beautiful pumpkins WITHOUT spraying of any kind! Nothing!
Then we moved onto the barns. Lots of vendors....not a single mention of ORGANIC!
By this time I had sworn off the peaches I wanted.. I have been dreaming of peach butter.. but if I am going to put in the time and effort to make and preserve peach butter... well... I am going to do it with organically grown produce...
David just wanted apples that he did not have to pay $2/pound for... which is what the conventional ones are in our local grocery store.. So there he is buying a box for $12. a deal!
But I say to the guy selling them, "So are there pesticides used on these apples?"
"Of course" he says.
I say, "Well, that's too bad."
He continues, "Pesticides are safe, Ain't killed no one... look at all of the people walking around!"...
Do you believe it?? By this time, I am almost speechless...
But I manage to say, "Depends on how you measure the dead."
This interaction has given me alot to think about! So just how DO we measure the cost of pesticide use...it is SO about the poisoning of our planet... Our water, our air, our soil...
these are all things that are necessary for life... all life!
Your life, my life, the lives of our pets and food animals, and yes... even those who are unwilling to believe that there is a problem!
The more we degrade our soils with chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizer, the less we actually can produce from that land. And unhealthy land yields unhealthy life!
How do we measure the dead.... if we don't want to look at those who are in their actual graves .. how about the walking dead... those with cancer and other unexplained deteriorative illnesses.. what is it that causes these and many other diseases? Who knows... but my money is on the untold multitude of chemical inputs to our bodies that we ingest through the foods we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink and the drugs we take in, both on purpose and those in our food supply and water supply...
Think about it... "Ain't killed no one..." I say again.... it depends on how you measure dead!

Eat your Veggies!

2008-09-11T09:44:00.005-04:00

My young assistant, Rebecca, and I have been having a big time putting up our bounty this year. We watch the squirrels in our neighborhood stocking up for the winter and feel like squirrels ourselves as we can and dry and freeze everything that we can't eat in the next few days.
Rebecca's been a great help in the kitchen. Her big responsibility, besides tasting, is washing the canning jars. Her little hands fit right into the jars. She scrubs them till they squeak and has developed her own system of soaking, scrubbing and rinsing. She checks for chips in the rims and has learned all about the importance of using sterile equipment. Enlisting our kids to help in these tasks is a great way to reinforce the "we're all in this together" and "we need to work as a team" lessons.
Rebecca feels such a great sense of satisfaction when we break into the canned foodstuff. Just this morning she had a bowl of our spiced applesauce with breakfast. And was ready to lick out the bowl she liked it so much! I sent her off to school filled with yummy healthy food and bursting with pride that she had helped make that applesauce. She taste tested throughout the process, decided what spices to add, stirred the pot and washed all of the jars.
Early this month, my friend Amanda and her 3 year old Emma took care of my garden for a week while my family took a trip to Alaska. We were chatting the other day and she told me that Emma had never been very interested in eating vegetables but while helping to pick cherry tomatoes, she discovered that she loved tomatoes. Sometimes the best way to get kids to eat something, is to involve them in the growing, picking and processing of our food.
So many children today (and adults) are so disconnected from the source of our food. For most people, food simply comes from the supermarket, so therein begins the disconnect in our society. But when we start asking about where our food comes from and how it is processed, when we start taking part in the process... that sense of pride that Rebecca carries with her is available to each and every one of us!

Tomato Bounty!

2008-09-09T09:38:00.005-04:00

I have honestly been SO busy keeping up with my tomato harvest and the demands of the garden that I have had no time to write!
My tomato plants are the most amazing ever. I have about 50 plants and an unknown number of varieties. I planted a mixture of Heirloom Tomato Seed from Gurney's this year, so a real variety of red tomatoes, cherry and mini tomatoes as well as yellow, orange and purple tomatoes!
The plants have been really prolific but are starting to wind down. One day in August I had a 40 pound harvest day! It has been amazing.
Canning has taken up a bunch of time and I have a cabinet full of canned tomato sauce to use through the winter.
My sweetie gave me a super dehydrator for my birthday in August.. so I am also drying cherry tomatoes and sheets of tomato paste! In the past I have cooked some tomatoes down for paste and frozen them in ice cube trays then transferred them to freezer bags. The cubes were then added to sauce as a thickener or soups for extra flavor. I never would have thought of drying the paste... but the dehydrator instructions suggested it and I really like the idea! The amount of room it takes up is dramatically diminished. And I am not storing water... the paste should work really well as a thickener!
I imagine that I will spend the winter catching up with posts!

Minor adjustments to Rainwater Barrels

2008-07-19T17:49:00.005-04:00

The proof of anything is always in the using... well, in using my rainwater barrels for watering I have found that because of the height of the barrels, I was wasting too much water in spillage whenever I filled my watering can.
Lowering the barrels was not an option because I need the difference in height to make the overflows from one barrel to the next really work. So I figured that adding an extension hose to effectively deliver the water directly into the watering can was the way to go!I got some old garden hose and bought some fittings for about a buck each and custom made hose extensions for each of the higher barrels. Each extension is incrementally shorter as the barrels go downhill. The watering can fits under the hose and it keeps all the water in the can... No spillage. Problem solved.
Necessity is the mother of invention!

First Pesto of the Season

2008-07-12T12:13:00.007-04:00

This week I made two small batches of Pesto. The Basil is coming in and we LOVE Pesto in our family, with an Italian name like "Molaro" it is practically required!
I grow the Basil Variety called Sweet Genovese. This is the third year in a row that I have gotten this seed from Cook's Garden and I have been very happy with the results.
Last year we also grew a Lemon Basil variety.. but were not as pleased with it for Pesto or tomato sauces. So halfway through the season we just started ignoring it. Let it flower and just forgot about it.. Well this year we are overrun with Lemon Basil and we have learned to cook with it. The lemon basil is nice in Thai and Indian cooking..
But the lesson here for me is that it is easy to have basil reseed itself! I never knew this because I am so obsessive about heading the basil to let it bush and keep producing new leaves. So this year.. I will allow some of the Genovese to flower and go to seed so I will have self-seeded Basil next year! And I will save seed to get some started too.. just in-case this variety is not as good about reseeding itself. I'll let you know.

So.. PESTO..

My Recipe..
~A colander full of freshly picked basil leaves washed, de-stemmed and dried in a salad spinner
~1/4- 1/3 cup of nuts (I have used pine nuts, toasted almonds, cashews, walnuts, toasted sunflower seeds... depends on what you like and what you have on hand)
~1/4 - 1/3 cup of grated cheese (parmesan or romano)
~3-8 cloves of garlic (depends on your love of garlic~)
~enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil to make it the "right" consistency

Zip it all up in a food processor and freeze as quickly as possible.
When I make Pesto, I put the finished product in Ice Cube Trays and freeze for a few hours before I put the cubes in a zip-lock bag. The quicker you can get them into the zip-lock.. the greener the pesto will stay.. Keep them open to the air and they will turn a dark almost black green on the outside.
These Pesto Cubes make a great addition to soups, stews and sauces. Add a cube or two depending on your personal tastes.
If you are making pasta take a few cubes out the thaw before you start the pasta water, then toss with the pasta after it has been drained.
YUM!

Rain in the barrels!

2008-07-04T18:15:00.007-04:00

Western North Carolina is in an extreme drought so Rain is always exciting but I've got to tell you that watching one barrel fill and then overflow in to the next and on and on is pretty darn Exciting!
My young assistant, Rebecca (age 7) had a grand time watching too and learning about how important it is that we conserve water and make the most of what we have.
We got the camera out and had fun shooting the following pictures in the rain.

This second shot shows my latest addition... the upper overflow spigot on the "Barrel 5". It has a 10 foot length of hose which leads into the garden and ends at the "whirly bird" sprinkler. The spigot is kept open. This way the overflow is kept away from the house and waters the garden some more!
One good rain is enough to fill all of the barrels and gives us enough water to keep up with the garden until the next rain.
It's a good feeling!

More on Catching Rainwater

2008-06-27T08:48:00.013-04:00

I have gotten several requests from people for more details about how I connected my barrels. So here are some detail photos and more information.The above shot shows the five barrels coming downhill. Each barrel feeds into the next with an overflow hose. "Barrel 4" has an overflow pipe as it is a steel barrel.

This is "Barrel 1". It is the primary barrel and is fed by the flexible downspout from my roof gutter. The downspout simply pours into the top of the barrel which has a screen top with a perforated plastic support insert. Sometime junk from the gutter collects in the top of this barrel and I just have to gather it and put it in the compost pile.
I drilled a hole in the top of the barrel to accommodate the fittings that I got in the plumbing department of the local hardware store. The fitting slips into the hole and has a screw on piece that hold it in the barrel. The hose then fits onto the outer piece which has barbs on it to hold the hose in place. Works pretty well. I wish that I had drilled my holes a little lower as the angle of the fitting and the arc in the hose means that the water level needs to be above the arc before the overflow begins.
During the first rain I had to adjust the hoses a bit to make it work better. Some wire and an old tent spike wedged under the hose pulls it down just enough to make it work better. The other option is to have more height difference between barrels.

This next photo shows "Barrel 3" into "Barrel 4". The tops of "Barrel 4" and "Barrel 5", my two steel barrels, are made of window screen stretched over the opening and held on with bungie cord. It is important to keep mosquitos out of your barrels. This will do it! I also like that I can open the steel barrels and soak my mushroom logs in them. The openings on the plastic barrels are too small for log soaking.

These photos show the spigots of "Barrel 4" and "Barrel 5". Again outfitted with parts gotten from the plumbing department. "Barrel 5" (silver steel barrel) has soaker hose feeding into the nearby Asparagus bed. This is the final overflow of my system and I open it when all barrels are full and more rain is coming.
The steel barrels were scavenged but the plastic barrels were purchased at out local healthy grocer, EarthFare. They came outfitted with spigots and cost $70 each. The parts to connect them all cost about $30 from the hardware store. I figure that the savings on my water bill will cover this well within the first year. Not to mention that my plants are happier without city water and I am doing my small part to conserve resources.
The barrels each hold approximately 60 gallons. So together they give me about 300 gallons. Because I have such a drop from the collection site and the garden, which is below... I can hook up a hose with a sprayer to a barrel and run it down hill to the garden and have a gravity watering system.
Generally I only water what needs watering and use a large amount of mulch to keep watering needs to a minimum.

Catching Rainwater

2008-06-19T10:35:00.006-04:00

When I first started the garden, we set up one barrel for rainwater and we watered from that one 60 gallon barrel for the first year and a half, then added a second barrel. And this year I have added 3 more. The three orange barrels have the added value of having begun their lives as olive barrels and have been recycled into rainwater barrels. I really like that!
Each barrel overflows into the next. They are each outfitted with a plumbing fitting with a piece of hose attached that runs water into the top of the next barrel. Together they give me a 300 gallon capacity! The set-up for this system was easy. I did it myself! And it works. I had a great time during the first rain watching one barrel fill and then overflow into the next and so on. Better than watching TV! The lower steel barrel has a soaker hose that runs into the asparagus bed around the corner from the barrels. This soaker hose is the controlled overflow for when all of the barrels are full. And the Asparagus is happy to have some extra water.

I like not needing to use city water to water my garden. I like the honesty and connection when you water with a watering can. The attention that I get to pay to each and every plant seems important to me. I only water the beds that need watering. I use lots of mulch to hold the water and conserve as much as possible. During really hot and dry spells I need to resort to the sprinkler for overall watering.. But for the most part I water from the barrels.

How much water is it possible to catch in your barrels? Consider the following formula...
1 inch of rain on a 1000 sq ft roof yields 625 gallons of water. To calculate the yield of your roof, multiply the square footage of your roof by 625 and divide by 1000.
One good rainfall, and my 300 gallon capacity is overflowing!

Here in the East we have been in a severe drought for a few years now. Anything we can do to conserve will make a big difference to our environment and add to your sense of self-reliance. Catching rainwater and saving it for when you need it is a good first step.

Urban Homesteading hits the Mainstream Media!

2008-05-16T08:57:00.004-04:00

Woohooo! ABC News program NIGHTLINE ran the following story last night on their show.

A Family Farm in the Midst of Suburbia

IT is SO exciting to me to see that our message of self-reliance and resourcefulness is now going beyond our circle of like-minded people. The more we get our story of food empowerment out to "the people", the more likely we are to see real change that will improve everyone's lives.

Next week my daughter's 1st grade class is walking the two blocks to come and visit my garden. So many of these children think that food comes out of a box or from the "golden arches". These school kids are simply the product of generations of Americans who have been taken in by the ease of fast-food and the simplicity of processed food products. I look forward to showing them another way to think about food and backyards!

The first year that I had this garden underway, my daughter was 3 years old. When the tomato plants started putting on fruit, I showed them to her excitedly. "Look, " I said, "look at the tomatoes!" I was shocked when she said, "Mom, those are NOT tomatoes! Tomatoes are RED!"
Wow, she really needed a garden. Now green tomatoes are her favorite. And she has her own raised bed or two and is in charge of edible flowers in the garden.

We need to get our kids involved in food production. It is the only way to truly break the chain of apathy and dependence on long-distance produce and overly processed convenience food.

What can WE do?

2008-05-12T17:14:00.008-04:00

Everyone wants to talk about the rising costs of food and fuel. We all have worries about the impact of these rising costs and the possibility of food shortages.

"Historians know that nations that cannot keep food supplies cheap, abundant and secure are in trouble. Food is national security. Food, fuel and the rise and fall of nations are inextricably linked. If the cost of fuel rises, the price of food will rise as well. That's the big picture." ~Rose Hayden-Smith

Amid cries of "Bring back the Victory Garden" and the news that according to the World Bank's food price index, our Global food prices have risen 57.5 per cent from a year ago, I have been reading the 1919 book, The War Garden Victorious by Charles Lathrop Pack.

It has been interesting and eye-opening to say the least. Pack was the founder of the National War Garden Commission which was formed in 1917. The express mission of the Commission was to develop latent resources of food supply and to that end to arouse the patriots of America to the importance of putting all idle land to work, to teach them how to do it, and to educate them to conserve by canning and drying all food they could not use while fresh. Thus began the War Gardens of WW1 and later known as Victory Gardens in WW2.

"Put the slacker land to work" became the slogan of the National War Garden Commission. In response the people in 1917 put to work more than 3,000,000 pieces of such uncultivated territory. In 1918, the total number of war gardens is conservatively estimated at 5,285,000. The food value was estimated at $525,000,000.

The huge PR campaign was promoted through leaflets, instructional pamphlets and posters. War gardeners were called on by the beautiful figure of Liberty to "Sow the Seeds of Victory." Another slogan, a clever paraphrase on the title of a famous song, told them to "Keep the Home Soil Turning." West Virginia started the message: "Food Must Follow the Flag," which became a household word throughout the United States. The Marion (Indiana) War Garden Association put to the home food producers in this fashion: "Earn the Right to stay at Home–Plant a Garden." The honored title of "Soldier of the Soil" gave the home tiller the feeling that he, too, was performing a service for his country although he was not wearing the uniform; and when he was informed that "Every Garden is a Munition Plant" he knew that he was helping the boys over there to fight their battles, for "The Seeds of Victory Insure the Fruits of Peace."

The patriotic spirit is contagious and the war gardener helped mightily to spread it.

The success record of the Victory Garden Project is well documented and it was not only the US Government that encouraged the participation of Americans but Big Business and the media as well.

The government and civilian groups such as the Red Cross and the Scouts organized committees to coordinate gardening efforts and allocate seeds, fertilizer and other resources. Gardening classes and literature were made available to the public. Because food production was critical, the literature emphasized getting the highest yield from each garden and the most nutrition from the crops by raising plants rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals.

The response was phenomenal. In 1917, Americans raised $520 million worth of garden produce in vacant lots, backyards, and unused land. Victory Gardens yielded as much as 40 percent of the country's nonmilitary produce. But the gardens did more than feed the civilian population. They gave people a chance to participate in the war effort and brought them together. People from all walks of life and every ethnicity and age group mingled in the many committees and the thousands of community gardens.

In Dallas, Texas there were around 20,000 war gardens in 1918. These citizens produced 17,500 cans of vegetables in just a few weeks from their garden plots. Temples, Texas had 5000 war gardens. In one growing season alone, the town produced an astounding quantity of black eye peas—one ton. The town of Marion, Indiana only had a population of about 29,000 people and it had 14,081 vegetable plots.

During World War II, a similar gardening movement swept the country. Most commonly these were known as Victory gardens. The White House lawn became a garden in which carrots, cabbages, and tomatoes were grown at the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. As part of the war effort, the American government called on citizens to plant 18 million victory gardens. The response was overwhelming. Some 21 million were established, and actually produced around 40% of the country’s vegetables.

Things that amaze me most about this movement:

1. The extent of government involvement
2. The extent of big business involvement
3. The extent of media involvement

I doubt that we will see this kind of involvement today. However, We don't really need the government or big business to start a grassroots effort. And how much more grassroots can you get than planting a garden.

I want to focus on what WE can DO.

Plant a garden and have some control over the effect of rising prices both food and fuel on your family budget!

Bringing back the Victory Garden makes sense. It's low cost; seeds are inexpensive. I personally do not find the labor of a garden to be drudgery. It is a pleasure to get away from my desk and work the earth and enjoy the sunshine and to watch to literal fruits of my labor come to the table and feed my family. For every bit of produce that comes out of my garden, I save untold dollars at not only the grocery store but at the gas pump, in wear and tear on my car, and at the doctor's office. In addition, I get a share in saving the environment by leaving a smaller footprint and I get the empowerment that comes with taking some control in my life and becoming more resourceful and successful.

Think of the task of starting a garden as an creative adventure. The educational resources to make your garden venture a reality are plentiful...the internet offers abundant information sites, blogs and forums that focus on new and experienced gardeners. Don't forget the local library and garden club workshops. You will meet teachers and like-minded people at plant sales and garden shows. The Cooperative Extension Office in every county has a Master Gardener who you can call on the phone and ask questions! No outsourced customer service here!

The foods you grow are fresh and minimally processed and therefore will have a higher food value than any vegetable you can buy at the chain grocery store down the street! The flavor will amaze you.. it is hard to believe that it can make that much of a difference but the proof is definitely in the tasting. Let your garden be a protest against bland grocery store produce that is bred for its ability to be shipped long distances and to have a longer shelf-life. Most of our grocery store produce travels 1200 or more miles from field to our table! When you do buy produce, make sure that you get as much as possible from the local farmers market or locally suplied produce in your grocery store. I encourage you to start looking at WHERE your food comes from. Grapes from Mexico. Lettuce from California. Garlic from China! Let me tell you garlic is SO easy to grow.. I planted 250 cloves in October and will start harvesting in a month or so.. no work... just plant and mulch! And that garlic will last us through next winter.

Grow heirloom varieties whenever you can. They are hardy, of superior taste and novel appearance, they benefit the environment because planting them increases the genetic diversity. The focus on mono-culture crops and genetically modified foods has seriously limited crop variety. Heirloom varieties tend to be more naturally pest and drought resistant.

Your garden need not be big to make a difference. Consider a small strip of ground or a series of containers filled with tomatoes and peppers. For less than the price of a tomato you can buy a plant already started at the local garden center, ready to go in the dirt. Potatoes can be grown in plastic bags! There are many creative and productive ways to garden.

Gardening is an excellent way to increase food security (the amount and quality of food) in America. Access to Good Food should be a right, not a privilege.

In a changing world, the ability to grow food, to share and enjoy it, and to live in a healthy world full of beautiful gardens may be the best legacy we can our children and grandchildren. The human race will not know peace till each everyone one of us has access to healthy food, and clean air and water.

Join the movement. Here are a few resources to get you started:

http://www.ringsurf.com/ring/UrbanHomesteader/

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/

http://urbanhomestead.org

http://www.earthlypursuits.com/
books and history of victory gardens

http://www.victorygardensforall.org/

http://buncombe.ces.ncsu.edu/

http://www.victorygardendrive.blogspot.com/

http://freedomgardens.org/

http://www.victorygardendrive.blogspot.com/

http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/

http://www.myfootprint.org/en/

http://adventuresinmyurbangarden.blogspot.com/

The main points of Modern Victory Movement encourage people to:

1- Raise & preserve as much of their food as possible.
2- Conserve energy, fuel, freshwater & other natural resources.
3- Reduce personal consumption of all goods & resources.
4- Repair, reuse & recycle to as great an extent as possible.
5- Plant trees as part of reforestation projects & edible landscaping.
6- Improve soils through wise use, composting & vermiculture.

Time for Victory Gardens is NOW again!

2008-05-11T19:46:00.006-04:00

"If you have a back yard, you can do your part and help the world and yourself by raising some of the food you eat. The more you raise the less you will have to buy, and the more there will be left for some of your fellow countrymen who have not an inch of ground on which to raise anything. " - Bolton Hall, Three Acres And Liberty (Published by The MacMillan Company, New York. 1918)

Every Day Is Earth Day

2008-04-28T19:33:00.008-04:00

My almost 7 year old and I were on the way to school the day after Earth Day and she let out with one of those "out of the mouths of babes" kind of statements. She usually comes up with these pronouncements after one of her rare quiet moments. She says, " Momma, actually, EVERY day is Earth Day. Why do we only have ONE day a year that we call Earth Day?" Well, she is right. Every day IS Earth Day. I explained how every day she is a day older but we only celebrate her birthday one day out of the year...
I told her about how I remembered the very first Earth Day in 1970. I was only a couple of years older than she is now. I told her how we got out of the classroom that day and cleaned up the school yard and planted trees and learned about the importance of taking care of the environment. I asked her what she had done for Earth Day at her school. I was disappointed, they watched a movie about Earth Day and wrote a journal entry. Not bad stuff to do but I would have felt much better about them getting out into the environment in some small way...
It all got me to thinking about the ways that we can honor the Earth each and every day. As a gardener who is concerned with the empowerment that comes with growing your own food, I realize that the things I do each day to support my garden also support the Earth. Those everyday things like composting and recycling the waste in my life and working to leave a smaller footprint.
Over the weekend, in full scavenger mode, I salvaged a great stack of plant pots from the neighbor's trash. I snagged them for my transplants. I also picked up a bag of grass clippings that another neighbor had put out on the street. Grass clipping are a fabulous addition to help any compost pile go thermophilic. And the score of all scores, two carloads of old hay from a construction site which will be put to use as mulch throughout my garden. Mulching helps to not only keep down weed infiltration, but keep the soil cool and moist. I have also added three more 60 gallon rainwater barrels to the two that I already had going to increase my rainwater catchment and minimize my need to use city water on my plants.
We also watched a movie called The Eleventh Hour . Watch the movie and check out the website for important information on the actions you can take to make a difference every day for our environment. Everyone should see this movie and then you will KNOW just how important it is that we all realize that EVERY DAY must indeed be Earth Day before it is too late.