Food, Inc. - a review

Hubby got me Food, Inc. for Christmas and we watched it last night. I thought I would share with you my thoughts on the film. Well, my first thought is that it is FABULOUS! I wish they would show it to my kids at school. They probably won't, though, so I will have to show it at home. This movie, along with The World According to Monsanto and The Future of Food, validates all of my weird, anti-establishment feelings about our global food systems. Unlike the other two films, though, which seemed to be designed to fire up people who already have all the "weird" thoughts, Food, Inc. has a much more mainstream feel to it. If you are concerned about where your food comes from now and about where it will come from in the future, well then there's probably at least one person in your life who thinks you're a little "out there," you know, odd. I mean, food comes from Wal-Mart and it always has and it always will, right? If there is someone like that in your life, and there are MANY in mine, then have them watch this movie. In fact, make a party out of it. That's what I'm thinking of doing.

Imagine an evening of organic and local (when possible) snacks. You would have to serve organic popcorn at a screening of this type! I would make it kind of over-the-top to keep the fun in it. But also, if people are noshing while watching, they are bound to start to look at their snack a little differently. As a gracious host, of course you would want them to feel secure as they munch! There is always the other option of serving more traditional fare and LETTING them feel a little uncomfortable as they begin to wonder... That might knock me out of the gracious host category, but it is kind of funny ;-)

If I get organized enough to do something like this, (which is doubtful at the moment with five kiddos home, but will seem much more possible in just a few days when they head back to school) I will let you know how it goes!

I hope you had a fabulous holiday. We celebrate Christmas and I think it was the best one ever for our family. We found out just a couple of days before that we have a finalization date for the adoption of our three almost-no-longer-foster-children. Of course, we don't think of them as foster children, but it is nice to have everything official and final. We will officially be a family of SEVEN! Yikes! It is challenging, but I can't deny that it is also a lot of fun!
Ta ta for now!
B

Tutorial: Going Glam on the Cheap

Okay, my first tutorial. I did not intend to do this, but I got about 5 minutes into this project and decided that it was turning out better than I expected and other people might like to do this, too. It really started yesterday, when I was checking my email. In my inbox was a flyer suggesting that I might like this. Well, as a matter of fact, I do like that. I like it very much. But it costs $79.00. Really? Yes, really. I could bore you with a long list of better ways to spend $79 (like, almost 100 lbs. of organic rolled oats), but I won't. Suffice it to say I wasn't going to buy that wreath, no matter how much I love. Love. Love it.

So, I did what I always do when I find something I love that carries an outrageous price tag. I started trying to figure out how to make my own. I figured it out and put it together this morning - for about $10. Really? Yes, really. Here's what I did.

First, you will need a wreath. I got my supplies at Wal-Mart. Even though I hate Wal-Mart, I shop there. Don't worry, I flagellate myself with a wet noodle after every shopping trip. There are many to choose from. I chose the 20" Deluxe wreath that was $4.

You will also need some shatterproof ornaments. I bought a 24-pack of red and a 24-pack of silver. You can use whatever color you want. All of mine were the same size, but you can mix up sizes, too. I may go back and add some smaller ornaments later. Or I may not (you never know with me). Each pack was $5, and I used half of each package. So I used $5-worth of ornaments. I also used most of one 30-count package of 18" 20-guage florist wire, which was $0.77.

Because the florist wire was so long, I folded each wire in half.

Then thread the wire through the hole in the top of the ornament.

Spread the branches apart to make a little nest for the ornament.

Place the ornament in the "nest" with the top pressed firmly

against the frame of the wreath and the florist wire wrapped

around to the back. Tightly twist the wire at the back of the

wreath to hold the ornament in place.

I went around the wreath once, making the first "layer" of ornaments. Then, I went around a second time to fill in any sparse areas.

Voila! It looks a lot more sparkly in real life, but it's a gloomy kind of day here, so the photo's not great. I'm thrilled with it. It took $10 and an episode of Go Diego, Go! (The one where the roadrunner Roadie is in a big roadrunner race and there's a sandstorm and...oh, sorry) and I now have a gorgeous wreath on my front door! Woo hoo!

Sooner Chili

Yesterday I said I would post my chili recipe and a scarf pattern - so here we go!

Sooner Chili - I'm an Okie (but not from Muskogee) and an OU Sooner fan. Traditionally, I make my first batch of chili of the "season" for the OU vs. Texas football game. That's typically in October, and the weather has usually cooled off enough to make chili sound delicious again. Before I launch into the recipe, I have a couple of procedural explanations. I make my chili powder from dried chilies. I usually get them at the grocery store, but this year I have been lucky enough to score fresh poblanos from our friend Tim. I then dried them before using them in this recipe. I like to use 4-5 ancho chilies (dried poblanos), depending on their size and an equal amount of another type of chili pepper. Right now, I'm using California Chili Pods that I got from the grocery store. I have used New Mexico chilies before with good results. I don't think you can really go wrong - just pay attention to the heat rating.

Anyway, I take these 8-10 dried chili pods and put them on a cookie sheet along with two tablespoons whole cumin seeds. Put the pan in a 350 degree oven for 3-5 minutes. After three minutes, watch carefully because they will take on a strong flavor if they burn. I watch for them to puff up and they become very aromatic. I let them cool for a few minutes before handling them. Wear gloves if your peppers are packing heat. Pull off the stems and shake the seeds out into the trash. Pop the chilis into the blender with the cumin seeds and two teaspoons Mexican oregano. I have used oregano that wasn't labeled "Mexican" before with equally good results. Mexican oregano is usually a lot cheaper, though. Whirl this in the blender until is is a coarse powder. This is what I refer to as "chili seasoning powder." Now, on with the recipe.

• 1/2 cup chili seasoning powder
• 2 pounds ground meat
• Large onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
• 3 cans petite diced tomatoes, with liquid
• 3 cubes beef bouillon
• 1 can each pinto, kidney, and black beans, drained and rinsed

1. Add water to chili seasoning powder to make a thick paste and set aside.
2. In a large stock pot, brown ground meat (my fave is 1/2 pork, 1/2 beef - also great with turkey) with onions and garlic. Drain if needed.
3. Add chili paste to meat and stir well to coat. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add jalapenos, tomatoes, bouillon cubes and three cups of water to pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
5. Add beans. Return chili to simmer. Reduce heat and simmer on low for 45 minutes - 1 hour.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Now for the scarf pattern. I wish I had taken a picture so I could show how my adaptation differs from the original pattern I found, but I didn't. So, you'll just have to take my word for it that it is cute. The original is, too. Here's mine:

Gathered Scarf – My adaptation of the “Mother-in-Law Scarf”

Use size 10.5 needles and DK weight yarn.
· Using cable cast-on, cast-on 15 stitches.
· Knit through the front and back loop of each cast-on stitch to immediately double stitches to 30.
· Start 14-row pattern repeat:
Rows 1-6 stockinette stitch. Odd rows are right-side, even rows are wrong-side.
Row 7 knit two together all the way across to decrease to 15 stitches.
Rows 8-13 knit every row.
Row 14 knit through the front and back loop of each stitch all the way across to increase back to 30 stitches.
· Repeat rows 1-14 to desired scarf length. End with row 7 to leave 15 stitches.
· Bind off 15 stitches. Weave in ends.
Notes:
· Fun and quick knit!
· For a neat edge, slip the first stitch of each row knit-wise and knit the last stitch of each row (even the wrong-side rows). Do this for each row of pattern EXCEPT rows 7 and 14 for increase and decrease rows.
· KnitPicks Swish DK is soft and stretchy, knits up beautifully and is superwash wool – easy care for the wearer, especially if the scarf is a gift. Have knit this scarf in a different yarn, but prefer the Swish DK. Just over 2 skeins – not quite 2 ½ - yields a long fashion-type scarf. Just lovely!

I used the color "Beach Glass" for my sister-in-law's scarf and it is a gorgeous color. Hope you enjoy!

~B

Happy Independence Days Peter Piper

I believe I have officially pickled, jellied, and dried more pecks of peppers than Peter Piper ever shook a stick at. Seriously. It is the middle of November and my pepper plants are still producing like crazy. It is completely. Out. Of. Control. I'm not complaining, though. My mother-in-law gave me her old food dehydrator that was gathering dust in her attic. I have used it to dry our cayennes and our friend Tim's jalapenos and poblanos and apples and pears from the co-op. Tim has given us a lot of poblanos, which I love love love because I like to make my own chili powder and anchos (dried poblanos) are just great for that. I am getting such a kick out of all of these peppers that I am definitely going to grow more varieties next year - including our own poblanos. So, I don't have all my Independence Days stuff separated into categories, but I have been doing things nonetheless. Harvesting peppers, peppers, and more peppers. And some basil and chard. I have preserved peppers by drying and making jelly, basil by making pesto, and apples and pears by drying.

As far as eating the food, we have been eating a batch of chili a week for several weeks now. I'll post the recipe below. Peppers will not go to waste around here. I have not been as diligent about composting because all of my receptacles are full! Once hubby builds me another raised bed, I will have space to resume composting. We have been doing our usual recycling. I have been shopping regularly at a great little resale shop for most of our clothing. I made most of the kids' Halloween costumes. Actually, one of them - a cheerleader's costume/uniform - came from the resale shop and then I altered it to fit my 10-year old. My other girls were Tinkerbell and a mermaid with homemade costumes. My 8-year old boy was Optimus Prime and I must confess that his costume came from Target. Oh - and I made my sister-in-law a scarf for her birthday. It's a fun pattern and I'll post it below. It's an adaptation of this scarf.

I have been making a ridiculous amount of soap because I plan to give soapy love to teachers - and we have a lot of teachers this year :) - and for hostess gifts during the holidays. I plan to give a trio of soaps: Cranberry-Kaolin for shaving, Pumpkin Spice for general use, and Peppermint-Pumice foot scrubby soap. The first two are curing and I will be making the Peppermint-Pumice soap in the next day or two. Unlike cookies, soap can (and should) be made weeks in advance, so I am excited that our gifts will be ready early. I think it will take the pressure off during those last two crazy weeks before Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, I have decided to reclaim my love of Christmas and the holiday season this year. I've been a little humbuggy the last few (like, 7 or 8) years because the frenetic pace of the hustle and bustle is a bit much for me. And, although it sounds cliche, the commercialization of Christmas really gets to me, too. I would love to get and give only handmade Christmas presents, but many of the givers in my life feel compelled to buy buy buy. They mean well, I mean, they mean the very very best...it's just too much, you know? Last year I asked my brother and his girlfriend to give us a small homemade gift and they said that they just don't have the skills. I remembered some of the gorgeous pics they had emailed me from their outings in Oregon and Colorado and asked for them to have a couple of them blown up to 8x10 and give those. My brother felt that that wasn't enough because it only cost, like, nine bucks to do. But to me, I ended up with four gorgeous pieces of original art for my home. Not only is it special to me because my brother and his lady took them, but it would have cost me a lot to purchase four 8x10 landscape photos at a gallery. And you know what? Once they saw the pics blown up, they decided that they liked them so much that they were going to use them in their own home! So, the moral of the story is that everyone has a skill that can be used for homemade gifts.

In an effort to reclaim Christmas and to share my love of handmade gifts, I am going to throw a kids' Christmas party and I am so so so excited. Kids just naturally understand the special nature of giving something they made with their own hands. So, here's what I am going to do:
1. I am going to take a picture of each kid when they arrive. Then, they will each decorate a ready-to-paint wooden frame (which I bought at Michael's yesterday for $1 each).
2. We're going to decorate cookies. Just because it's fun - no agenda here.
3. The kids are going to watch The Polar Express. I love that movie. Plus, it will give me time to print out the kids' photos and put them in the frames. After the movie, we will wrap up the framed photos and each kid will have a handmade gift for their parents to open on Christmas morning. Fun!
4. To help everyone remember that Christmas is a time of giving, I am asking everyone to bring a canned food item. They will use their food item as a ballot to cast a vote. I'm thinking we'll vote on our favorite Christmas treat, cookies vs. candy. But I also kind of like the idea of favorite holiday movie villain, Ebenezer Scrooge vs. The Grinch. I don't know.

Okay, this post has gotten way out-of-control-long, so I'm going to put my chili recipe and the scarf pattern in a separate post later today. Okay, so it may be tomorrow. I'll do my best!
Love,
B

Another Book Review

Well, I just finished Where Men Win Glory - The Odyssey of Pat Tillman in the wee hours of this morning. I have read a couple of Krakauer's previous books and had high expectations for this one. Krakauer did not disappoint. It is spectacularly well written and drew me in with the first few pages. Krakauer seems to have two goals for this book: to paint a full and honest portrait of Pat Tillman's life and death and to educate his readers on the background of conflict in Afghanistan. He achieved both of these goals.

If you have an appreciation for Pat Tillman's, or any soldier's for that matter, decision to walk away from normal life and defend freedom - well, this book can only deepen that appreciation. Pat Tillman was often painted by the media as a cowboy-type hero who left the NFL to go fight the enemy after 9/11. That is a one-dimensional view of Mr. Tillman, however, and he was a much more complex man than that. I don't think that Pat Tillman saw his sacrifice (NFL contract and career) as any greater than the sacrifices made by his fellow soldiers who had also left behind families and lives of comparative comfort. Mr. Tillman was a Renaissance man of sorts. Well-read and sensitive, intelligent and respectful of people and ideas, and guided by a personal moral directive to live a good life. He loved his wife and family. He was a remarkable man by all accounts. Krakauer undertakes to show the fullness of Pat Tillman, and he succeeds.

Krakauer must have waded through waist-deep piles of documents in order to discern what actually happened during the firefight that killed Pat Tillman. The Army and the government engaged in a massive cover up to hide the fact that Pat Tillman was killed by "friendly fire." It took extraordinary efforts on the parts of Dannie and Kevin Tillman, Pat's mom and brother to finally get to the truth about what happened. It is shameful what the family was put through following Mr. Tillman's death and I can only imagine that it must have felt like they lost him over and over again.

As for Krakauer's second goal to educate the reader about the history and background of conflict in Afghanistan he hits a homerun on that front as well. Krakauer gives a detailed and highly-nuanced description of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan that reaches back to the Carter administration. He gave me a new understanding of our actions there and why many of them were doomed to fail from their beginning. The U.S. government seems to take a simplistic view of politics in that region and continues to make mistakes that will potentially haunt us for decades to come unless some very dramatic changes are made very quickly.

A great book I would recommend to anyone. Entertaining and educational. Well-written. Many thanks to my brother for the recommendation.

Better Living Through Chemistry?

Okay, I'm back to therapeutic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of my anxiety/depression. In discussing my dismay at this latest turn of events, I tell people that I am frustrated that, even as I am slowly trying to reduce/eliminate the preponderance of chemicals in my home, I am back to introducing chemicals in pill form into my body everyday. I am met with questions like, "Why do you have chemicals in your home?" To which I respond, "Well, don't you?" Don't you have a cabinet full of Fantastik, 409, Comet, and the like? Well, those are full of chemicals. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a few spritzes of soapy water can clean my table and countertops just as well as chemical-and-fragrance-laden commercial cleaners. People are surprised to find that I consider those products to be troubling. It makes me seem nutty and subversive. And yet, to me, it just seems like common sense. I am not advocating poor hygiene. I am only suggesting that when perfectly good, but less toxic, options are available doesn't it just make sense to choose the less toxic option? Especially in a home with children?

We have become so accustomed to re-odorizing everything around us that we are often oblivious to the fragrant assault we are subjected to on a daily basis. At the grocery store, I used to love to walk by the laundry detergent aisle. The scents of Fresh Linen, Spring Rain, and Mountain Mist seemed so lovely and calming. Then, several months ago now, I started making my own laundry soap at home. Shortly thereafter, I began to notice something very different at the grocery store - I can't get away from the laundry detergent aisle quickly enough. My nose itches. The fragrances seem heavy and cloying and sometimes even make my head hurt. When my kids come home from Grandma's, I often have to throw all of their clothes straight into the wash. See, Grandma oh-so-thoughtfully-and-graciously never sends home dirty clothes. I, of course, appreciate this gesture immensely and NEVER EVER complain. In fact, I thank her profusely, just so you know, for her kindness. Unfortunately, the clothing is so heavily fragranced that I just really can't stand it. She doesn't read this, BTW, so my secret is safe.

I'm really not trying to be a weirdo nut-job. I like to have a clean house, and I work hard to that end. I guess we all just have a different idea of what makes us feel satisfied that things are clean. My husband knows the kitchen is clean only when it reeks of lemon-scented Lysol household cleaner. I know other moms who feel the same way when their homes smell of Fantastik or smell bleachy. Personally, I feel like my house is clean when it doesn't smell like much of anything at all. If I want to freshen up the house, I like to open some windows to let fresh air in (weather permitting, of course) instead of spraying Fresh Scent from a can. I guess my post today is kind of a "standing on my soapbox" rant - I don't mean for it to be.

I just don't necessarily buy into everything that Dow Chemical has to say about healthy living. Their goal, after all, is to sell their products. My goal is to provide the safest environment for my family. Remember Agent Orange? Okay, I don't personally remember Agent Orange because I wasn't born yet. BUT, my dad is a Vietnam Veteran and the phrase "Agent Orange" was no stranger in our home. (We also were not allowed to watch Jane Fonda movies, but that's another story. But you can see that I was not raised with my default setting programmed to "Trust the Establishment.") For the uninitiated, Agent Orange is a dioxin-containing herbicide/defoliant that was sprayed pretty indiscriminately on the jungles of Vietnam in order to make it more difficult for the enemy to use the jungle foliage as cover. Unfortunately, this led to high levels of exposures to millions of U.S. troops (and also to Vietnamese civilians), which has led to long-term (still on-going, as a matter of fact) health effects. In fact, exposure to Agent Orange is so destructive that the Veteran's Administration policy imposes no time limits for filing health claims related to the exposure. Which is to say, veterans are STILL developing health problems, cancer, diabetes, and so on, that are presumed to have been caused by exposure to Agent Orange decades ago. So, who made Agent Orange? Among others, Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

You may recognize Dow because their label is probably on most of the commercial cleaning products you have under your sink. And Monsanto is currently hi-jacking agriculture on a global scale with genetically modified organisms that get sold as "food" but ultimately destroy the soil and put small farmers out of business - slowly and systematically diminishing our choices as consumers to purchase anything BUT their products. Do you grow your own food? Where do you get the seeds? Unless you purchase from a reputable supplier who pledges not to sell GMO seeds and sells seeds from open-pollinated plants, well then chances are you bought seeds from a Monsanto subsidiary without even knowing it. Scary stuff.

So, Better Living Through Chemistry, huh? Well, I guess in some ways yes, and in some ways no. It's a line we each have to draw for ourselves and our own families. Where do YOU draw the line?

Book Reviews

Last week I finally read the two books that have been On My Nightstand for months: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm debating moving Animal, Vegetable, Miracle into the Life Changers category because it makes me want so badly to change my life, but it will be baby steps. At least it is baby steps in the right direction :-).

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle chronicles a year in the food life of Barbara Kingsolver's family as they endeavor to eat locally, and, in fact, mostly off of their own land and labor. This is not an undertaking that the Hopp-Kingsolvers took lightly or began on a whim. They planned for a year before beginning and then spent the year continually planning, as well. To eat tomatoes in January means canning tomatoes in August, and lots of them! To eat Tom Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner requires raising chicks in the spring. Kingsolver organizes the book according to the calendar, following their journey through the seasons. They begin by harvesting asparagus and that's how they end their quest, as well. There are portions written by Kingsolver's husband and by her eldest daughter. In addition to describing their personal experiences, Kingsolver educates readers on the history of food in the world and, particularly, how food in America got so screwed up. My favorite thing about this book is that Kingsolver makes it all seem so do-able. At times, she waxes romantic, but she always comes back to the mud-and-blood-stained reality of really feeding her family. I love, love, love this book. I must say, too, that Barbara Kingsolver is, without a doubt, my very most favorite contemporary author and has been since I was 16 or 17 when I was assigned The Bean Trees to read for a high school English class. Thank you, Mrs. Gronberg! Kingsolver has a new novel coming out in November. Woo hoo! If you want to take a peek, or just snag some recipes, check out www.animalvegetablemiracle.com.

And now on to The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert. I really enjoyed this portrait of Eustace Conway. He is a fascinating man trying desperately to wake up Americans to the reality of, well, reality. If you ever feel like a cog in the machine, you will relate to Eustace's message. Eustace would like for us to live REAL lives in harmony with nature. He would like for us to understand the satisfaction of being self-sufficient. And he would like to have a house with huge walk-in closets. Yeah, I know. This guy is full of contradictions, but you just can't help but want to meet him. He lives out in nature on a plot of land he named Turtle Island in the middle of what must be an Appalachian paradise. He walks the walk, people. He is a wounded man, though, and struggles within the confines of close personal relationships, although he longs for closeness probably more than any other thing. I have to say that I do not entirely enjoy Gilbert's writing style. That's not to say that she is a bad writer. In fact, she was very successful with what had to be the most difficult aspect of writing about someone as "larger than life" as Eustace Conway - especially considering that they are friends - she managed to avoid turning Eustace into a caricature. She seems to show all sides of Eustace: the good, the bad, and even the ugly. I would definitely read other books by Gilbert, I am especially interested in Eat Pray Love, before deciding that she's not my kind of writer. I will add, too, that she seems like a chick that you could go have a beer with - that is, there is an earthy sort of real-ness about her that comes through in her writing. I just can't put my finger on what exactly put me off a little in her writing for The Last American Man. You can learn more about Gilbert at www.elizabethgilbert.com.

I just started today on Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer. My brother, who just finished reading it this morning, promises it will be an interesting and educational read, so I'll let you know.

Woo Hoo! Canning rocks!

Okay peeps. Since my last post I have canned 3 half-pints of jalapenos and 8 pints of dill pickles! I am officially over my home-canning-phobia and I am threatening to can anything that will stand still long enough for me to squish it into a jar. So, maybe the stuff I've put up in the last couple of weeks won't get my family through winter - but I have overcome a hurdle and that has to count for something. Plus, it has opened up a whole new world of homemade gift possibilities for Christmas and beyond. Did you know that you can make and can homemade mustard? And did you also know that you can now buy canning jars that feature more contemporary styling so you can give gifts that exude a modern gourmet flair? Well, you can. So now you know.

I want to take a moment to address the roots of my home-canning-phobia because I just can't help but think that I may not be the only person in this great big world who has suffered needlessly from this affliction. First of all, my phobia is not rooted in germ-o-phobia. Let me state for the record that even though I may suffer from myriad neuroses, germ-o-phobia is not among them. I know of a lady who spent a weekend canning jar after jar after jar of glorious produce only to be wakened in the night by fears of poisoning her family. She tossed out every bit of most-likely-completely-safe food. Yikes. In case you are affected by the germ-based version of this phobia, let me just say this: There has been a lot of research done about safe procedures for home canning. If you follow the procedures dilligently - including checking to be sure that the jars have sealed, and including checking the food for signs of spoilage before consumption - well then I just can't see any danger.

No, my phobia was actually rooted in an overwhelming feeling of being intimidated by the procedure of canning. It just seemed like so. many. steps. Then there's the image in my mind of being chained to the stove amidst bushel upon bushel of fruits and veggies. Add to that the fact that my garden did not produce the amount of food that I thought it would, which left me feeling that I didn't have enough to preserve. The recipe for pickled hot peppers in my canning book called for almost 3 pounds of peppers to make five pints of pickled peppers. Well, I only have two jalapeno plants and even though they have been very prolific, I did not have 3 pounds of peppers and it seemed a little silly to buy that many peppers at the grocery store only to wind up with more peppers than we would consume in five years. So this had me feeling a little stuck for a while as well.

I'm not sure what finally got me off of high-center, let's call it Divine Intervention, but I was suddenly struck by the realization that just because the recipe yielded 5 pints, it didn't mean that I had to make that much. Yeah, I know. I'm not that great at thinking outside the box sometimes, okay? There are a lot of good things about me, too. But I digress. Moving on. I made a half recipe of the pickling liquid and used half-pint jars. Then I just chopped up my peppers and decided to make as many jars as I could, which turned out to be three. I was able to use my regular old stock pot and I actually used my pasta/strainer insert as the rack to keep my jars off the bottom of the pot. This turned out to be a great way to start out for a newbie home canner because the procedures are the same whether you process one jar or twelve, but three or four jars just feels much more do-able. Also, my only investment was about seven bucks for a 12-pack of jars and I saved the leftover pickling liquid to use the next time my plants are flush with peppers (For pickling peppers, the liquid was only white vinegar and water, which it seems to me should keep indefinitely. Leftover pickling liquid that includes sugar and spices can usually be stored in the fridge for a week.).

Yesterday, I pickled five pints of cucumbers. I stopped at five because that is all my pot would hold at once, but I still had a bunch of cucumbers left. By the time the pickles were processed and dinner was done, I was too tired to finish off the cukes. So, I threw everything in the fridge and started again this afternoon. And you know what is so fun about that? When you have 3 pints of cucumbers in front of you and the liquid is already seasoned and waiting, your creative juices get going and you start thinking about "what if I add..." So today's three pints of sliced dills included a cayenne pepper tucked into each jar for a spicy variation on a traditional hamburger dill. It's so fun! At the risk of exposing the overall lame-ness of my personal life, I'm going to say that it's, like, the funnest thing ever. Seriously! You should totally give it a try. Even if it's just one jar. Even if it seems silly. It's a skill that could prove valuable in the future, so practice now. You will be glad you did!

Long time, no see

Hello again, world! Wow, two months since my last post. Well, I have a whole mess of excuses if you care to hear them. First, picture Jack from The Shining - driven mad by being cooped up in the Overlook hotel for a long winter. Okay, so he was a little "off" before settling in for the season, but, really, who am I to judge? So, we spent the summer mostly at home. Yes, I know that is the most eco-friendly way to spend the summer. In fact, that is why we spent a lot of the spring sprucing up our backyard and turning it into live-able space. But the reality of spending two months at home with five kids and without a vehicle that will accomodate everyone - thus eliminating even the possibility of excursions - well, it's a little overwhelming. That may be sugar-coating things just a bit, but you get the picture.

In light of those circumstances, I am prepared to cut myself a little slack when I look at my Independence Days accomplishments, and the, er, lack of accomplishments as well. I would appreciate it if you would cut me a little slack, too. And go ahead and cut yourself some while you're at it, because I'm certain that you have a lot going on as well.

Plant something - I have planted NOTHING since my last post!
Harvest something - A few tomatoes, but my tomatoes did not do as well as I had hoped, watermelons, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, cucumbers
Preserve something - Nada - but I am getting ready to pickle some jalapenos just as soon as I get over being intimidated by the process
Cook something new - This one's pretty much a joke. I have hardly been cooking at all.
Reduce waste/dependence - I made re-usable cloth sacks for my kids to take their snacks in for school so we won't use plastic bags, and I have started working on projects for Christmas presents, and our thermostat has been set on 77 all summer
Work on community food security - Zip. Zero. Zilch.
Manage reserves - Ditto.
Store something/prep something - Hubby built me a little hobby greenhouse so I can keep my tender perennials over winter and hopefully grow something yummy, too. Bought canning jars and accesories to pickle peppers and cukes once I get over aforementioned intimidation.

So, you can see that I didn't do a whole lot of Independence Days activities over the summer, but I did more this year than I ever have before. Oh, and all of my kids made it through the summer alive and with all limbs attached, so I'd say it was a successful season overall. They started school last Thursday and I can feel myself recuperating a little more everyday. Hope you had a great summer, too!
Brooke

Independence Days week ending - well, just lately - as of 6/18/09

I just have not been doing a good job of writing things down in my weekly journal. The last couple of days I have started to feel like I haven't really been getting much done so I decided to write down what I've been up to. Still not all of the things I would like to see on the page, but certainly better than nothing. And certainly better than what it would be if I didn't have the Independence Days challenge gnawing away at me. So, here's (kind of) what I've been up to:

Plant something - more stevia, more basil, lots of pretty
flowers ;-), 2 blackberry bushes

Harvest something - misc. herbs, Swiss chard

Preserve something - Not yet, but harvesting and freezing chard is on my to-do list for *today*

Cook something new - Chard frittata (recipe below), whole wheat crepes - which are just crazy good. Even though I'm not completely convinced that they belong in my Independence Days list (I'm not completely convinced that they don't, either), I'm including them because they are just so stinkin' good.

Reduce waste/dependence on commercial systems - handmade gifts for my nieces' birthdays, working on handmade gifts for Father's Day that may or may not be finished on time, and finally, one that I'm afraid to post about because it means admitting to the world just how much fake juice I have been letting my kids drink this summer - I have started experimenting with sewing juice pouch crafts. I just couldn't bear to see the little pouches pile up in the trash - and with 5 kids of my own plus the typical 1-3 neighbor kids that are here at any given time - they were REALLY piling up.

Work on community food security - We're working on a harvest-bartering system with our friend Tim. He always has a HUGE garden and he always gives us tons of zucchini and yellow squash. So, we decided not to grow squash ourselves so we could focus garden space on other veggies - mostly ones that Tim doesn't grow. Like chard. Today I harvested our first chard and sent some to work with hubby to give to Tim. I put together a little flyer with information and recipes so he will know how to use it (I had no idea how to use it until it came in our co-op share with recipes). It was really fun to do because we have enjoyed the bounty of Tim's garden for several years now, but this is the first time we have had something to offer in return. I'm already making a mental list of other people who might enjoy some chard, too.

Trading garden veggies with Tim makes me realize other possibilities for food sharing. It is unlikely that we will ever grow everything we eat - especially on our small suburban plot. But, if several of our neighbors started gardens about the same size as our relatively small garden, and we all planned our crops together with sharing in mind, well, we could grow quite a bit. Incidentally, I am amazed at how much you can grow in a small garden when you use square foot gardening to maximize your space. We went to a block party last weekend that was organized by some fabulous neighbors and gave us all a chance to meet, get to know each other a little, and just generally build a sense of community. I was secretly making mental notes about who could be potential partners in my little food-security-schemes.

Okay, here's the recipe I came up with for a Swiss chard frittata. It's basically an adaptation from a spinach quiche recipe I've had forever.

Swiss Chard Frittata Serves 4-6
· 2 strips bacon, chopped (turkey bacon works, too, or skip and use a little olive oil)
· 2-3 stems chard, leaves and stems chopped
· 2 cloves garlic, minced
· 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
· 6 eggs, beaten + enough milk to make 2 cups
· ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (feta would also be good here)
· Salt & pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350⁰. In a 10” oven-proof skillet, fry bacon until it’s crispy.
2. Add garlic, chard, and mushrooms. Cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add egg/milk mixture to skillet. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until soft curds begin to form.
4. Sprinkle with cheese. And transfer skillet to oven.
5. Bake 20-25 minutes until eggs are set and cheese begins to brown.

Okay, I guess that's about all I have for now. Enjoy your day!
~B

Independence Days - sort of

So, no posts on Independence Days for the last couple of weeks. Mostly because, well, I haven't been doing much in that arena. I've made some bread and some soap. I've tended to the garden daily - weeding, de-aphiding, adding mulch, then weeding, de-aphiding, and adding more mulch. I bought some blackberry bushes this weekend (tired, root-bound-looking plants from Lowe's for 75% off = $5.75/plant!) but I haven't got them in the ground yet. I've been researching creative ways to use chard, because we're about to have a bunch of it. I want to share some of it, but when I say "would you like some chard?" I am met with a glassy-eyed stare. So, I think I will borrow a trick from the lovely ladies who run the co-op and give recipes with veggies I share. One of their recipes is, after all, what kicked off my own love affair with Swiss chard and is the reason that I am about to be blessed with copious quantities of it. I will share recipes here later. I have been sewing and mending and knitting. But, I have NOT been writing things down. Shame. On. Me.


What I have been doing a LOT of is Kids-kids-kids. School's out. We were finally able to finalize the adoption of our youngest on 5/29. And we have been out of the state the last two weekends for BMX races. Yowza.


Oh, and last, but certainly not least - I have been withdrawing from Effexor XR. Double yowza. Google "Effexor withdrawal" or "brain shivers" and you will see what I mean. I am fortunate to be experiencing *relatively* mild symptoms. Which is to say that as I am sitting here typing at my kitchen table, it feels more like I am sitting on a boat in rough seas, but I am not completely incapacitated or bed-bound.

I am not a doctor. I do not play a doctor on TV. I cannot give you medical advice. I cannot tell you what medicine you should or shouldn't take. But I can give you some practical advice. Before you decide to take a medication, do your own research. Figure out if you can live with the risks and side effects associated with said medication. That must be balanced, of course, with the risks and symptoms of whatever condition you are treating. Also remember that "natural" treatments can have risks and side effects as well and you should make yourself aware of those as well.


For me, I have struggled with depression since at least my adolesence. I was first prescribed medication - Zoloft - to treat it when I was nineteen. I have lived with the *knowledge* that I will likely be on and off of anti-depressant medication for the rest of my life. So, about three years ago when it was time for another "on" period, I did not question my prescription of Effexor XR. When my doc told me not to go off of it suddenly, that I would have to taper down over a couple of weeks, I did not question that, either. But I can tell you now that I wish I had. I cannot say for sure that I will never take an anti-depressant again, but I can say for sure that it won't be Effexor. I am going to research alternative treatments, preferably nutritional treatments, now so that I will be better prepared to respond if/when the depression returns and hopefully be able to avoid pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical companies make money when people take medicine, not when they are treated and able to avoid medicine. That may just be the way of capitalism, but it certainly puts them and me working at cross-purposes.

Anyway, off the soapbox. A few of our neighbors got together and organized a block party for this weekend, so I am excited about that. Shamefully, we don't know many of our neighbors and this will be a great opportunity to change that. Community is a very important thing - and becoming more and more important every day. I am a doomer, after all. So, building community ties is a great, and hopefully fun, way to enhance our preparedness.

I'll try to get back on the Independence Days wagon full swing in the next few days.
Brooke

Thyme oil garden soap

I've discovered red aphids on my tomatoes. It was a dark day the first time I saw them. I thought they were some type of mite because I didn't know aphids could be red. Of course, I immediately turned to the World Wide Web to figure out what the little creatures were and how to unleash a safe and organic version of a nuclear bomb to eradicate them from my yard forever. Do you know what I found out? I read over and over on various sites that a soap and water solution spritzed on my plants and on the little red buggers would take care of the problem. And you know what? It helped a lot. Well, I also discovered that a lot of commercially produced organic insecticides contain white thyme oil. So, last weekend I whipped up a batch of this wicked cool thyme-oil garden soap.

Canola oil: 4 oz
Crisco: 8 oz
Soybean oil: 4 oz
White thyme essential oil: 1/2 oz

Potassium hydroxide (KOH): 3 oz
Water: 6 oz

First off, all ingredients are measured by weight. I dumped all of the oils/fats into my crockpot to heat up and liquefy. In a glass measuring cup, I added the KOH to the water. Once the KOH water had stopped fizzing and popping and all of the fats were melted, I added the KOH water to the fat and started stirring. Now, you don't really have to stand over the crockpot all day, but I pretty much do because I am pathologically anal retentive. Really, just giving it a stir every hour or two would be fine. After several hours it will turn into a stiff and sticky amber-colored mess and if you haven't made hot-process liquid soap before you will be certain that it is ruined. Turn the heat down and add a couple of cups of water. It will take a while, but the soap starts melting into the water and becoming liquid soap-y. Add more water a cup or two at a time until the soap is mostly melted and turn off the heat. When it was cool enough to safely pour, I poured it into a two-liter soda bottle and filled it up the rest of the way with water. The consistency was still a little thick, but since I only made it for diluting in a spritz bottle, that wasn't really a problem.

There's no reason you couldn't use this as a hand soap. It is very mild, but you would have a bit of a culinary aroma about you. I didn't formulate the recipe to be especially cleansing or conditioning, I just picked out the cheapest oils I had in my kitchen. Then I plugged the info into a soap calculator to figure out how much KOH to use. I used a 0% lye discount since I didn't care about it being conditioning and also because I didn't know the saponification value of the thyme oil.

This soap is a cinch to make. If you are a first-time soaper, this would be an easy place to start. I would recommend visiting this site first to get some good basic soapmaking info and lye-handling wisdom.

Results? Well, it may be too early to tell for sure, but it seems to me to be working well. I've been spritzing all of my veggies and roses like crazy. When I spot the tiny red demons, I switch the nozzle on my spray bottle to "firehose" setting and blast them directly. They, um, don't like that very much. But I do. He he he.

Independence Days week ending 5/23/09

We had a good week this week. I finally got some things done and it is really feeling like summer. The kids go back for 4 more days of school next week and then summer vacation begins. Love it!

Here's my list of Independence Days activities for last week:

Plant Something: bell pepper, hot peppers, roses, strawberries, blueberries

Store something: stocked up on multi-vitamins, vitamin C, rice, beans, canned pumpkin, canned turnip greens, kids Tylenol, cough drops, spaghetti sauce, and last (but certainly not least) a bag of candy

Reduce waste/reduce dependence: sorted recyclables and delivered to local recycling center, used leaves cleaned out of the back of my mom's yard in layering new lasagna beds.

Feeling great! Hoping to get strawberries this summer. I guess we'll have to wait at least a year for blueberries, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait. I'm not going to win the debate over replacing the ornamental pears out front with actual fruit-bearing trees, so I'm working on plotting out potential planting sites for peach trees in the back yard. It may mean pulling out the privet in my butterfly garden to make room, but the privet's become rather unruly anyway.

I love this Independence Days challenge. It helps me on a couple of different fronts. First, since I've never done serious gardening before, the challenge kind of keeps me going. My previous experience lies in a few common culinary herbs and a couple of tomato plants. Without the challenge to spur me on, I may have just planted in my raised "vegetable" bed and been done with it. Instead, I keep thinking, "What can I plant now and where can I put it?" I'm re-thinking current beds to include edibles and making new beds to hold even more. Second, the challenge keeps me encouraged because I keep track of what I do and how I spend my time. I find this very helpful for those days (weeks?) when I run around like crazy but feel that I have accomplished nothing. When I look at my notes, I see that I have, in fact, accomplished many important things.

These are things I have metioned before, but I think it bears repeating. Especially in light of Memorial Day. What better way to honor those who have died in service to our country than to live the most independent and abundant lives we can? Historically, isn't that what America stood for? Independence from oppression and tyranny. Abundance through hard work. These are beautiful and wonderful values and we can return to that vision. They were common values as recently as my grandparents' generation. We have departed from that vision in a way that is similar to how a rebellious teenager veers off from his parents. But it is important to remember that rebellious teenagers, through experience and success and failure, often return to the ways of their parents. We can do that, too. We can say, "You know what, we tried it our way and it just didn't work, so we're going to go back to what DID work." We can decide not to keep up with the Joneses, but instead to keep up with the needs of our families. We can choose to provide for our families in ways that will help to provide for the next generation of our families. We can do it. We will do it. It's hard, though, isn't it?
Brooke

Lightning bugs and lasagna love

I saw my first lightning bug of the year last night - a definite harbinger of summer! And I have a new love. Lasagna gardening. I first heard of it here - these chicks are just plain awesome. Play around on their blog and I'm sure you will come to agree with me on that. Anyhoo - lasagna gardening - also called layered composting and compost sheeting - just plain rocks. Here in the suburban wasteland, our soil is as hard as a rock. Digging down into this hard soil has kept my plans for new beds pretty stunted for the last few years. I mean, I had to REALLY want it. Square foot gardening gave me the encouragement I needed to start vegetable gardening this year. Now, lasagna gardening allows me to plant whatever, whenever. The easiest time to do it would probably be in the fall, because you could set it up and leave it to compost over the winter. Then, come spring you'd be set. Of course, I have never been known to do things the easiest way. But that's just another reason to love lasagna gardening - even the hard way is easy.

To build a lasagna garden, you build up instead of digging down, and you assemble it sort of like a lasagna...in layers. Begin right on top of the turf with something that will act as a weed barrier. Some people use cardboard or newspaper. I used brown paper grocery bags because that's what I had on hand. Lay it down and give it some water so it won't blow away. Then, start layering organic material over it. I used dried-out leaves from my mom's house and compost. I watered between layers. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of time it would take for me to make compost in my compost tumbler in late winter/early spring, so I bought some. On one of the bottom layers, I did use some of my own partially-composted goods. But I digress. I also used purchased manure for a couple of the layers. Since I planned to use and plant in my beds immediately, I used a lot of dirt-like material (compost and manure) in the layers, especially the upper layers, and topped it all off with a couple of bags of top soil. If you can let the bed sit over winter, you don't need to use so much dirt stuff in your assembly because the organic materials you layer will break down into the awesomest stuff ever. My finished beds were probably 18" tall, but I expect them to settle quite a bit. I immediately planted roses and strawberries in one bed and roses and peppers in another. I swear the strawberries grew an inch that first night.

Since we want to add a couple more raised beds to our veggie garden next year, I will plan ahead and (if I can get hubby to build the boxes this fall instead of waiting for spring) use the lasagna method to fill the beds. Then they should be ready for planting by spring.

Ira Flatow had a couple of great discussions today during the second hour of Science Friday. One of them was about the importance of replenishing native plant species to our local food webs. The second was a conversation with Lester Brown about his new book on food shortages and the effects on civilization. You can download the podcast for free, or check out Lester Brown's book. Is NPR considered mainstream media? I think it is, but I'm probably biased because I'm pretty weird and decidedly nerdy. So, if you do consider NPR mainstream, then the topic of food shortages is going mainstream. Things that make you go, "Hmmm." Maybe in a few years, I won't be the doomer weirdo of the family. Well, I'll probably always fall into *some* category of weirdo. It's okay. I'm learning to embrace that about myself. ;-)
TTFN,
Brooke

Independence Days week ending 5/16/09

Well, this update is going to cover two weeks' worth of activities. We had 21 straight days of rain and I was pretty much couch-bound with sick kiddos for 2 weeks - so the list of my accomplishments is shorter than I would have hoped. But I did get some things done, so I am pleased with that.

Plant something - calendula seeds (in herb garden), re-potted root-bound peppermint, seeds for Mesclun salad mix, planted new tomato plants to replace 5 of my seedling transplants that didn't make it, bee balm (herb garden), thinned seedlings and pulled weeds in veggie garden.

Manage reserves - Okay, I'm not sure if this counts, but we ate a lot of food from the back of our freezer and from the food I stored a couple of weeks ago because I was unable to get to the store for 2 weeks.

Cook something new - Cooked beets for the first time and LOVED them! Yum -roots and greens! I'm so excited now about the beets in my garden. Also, I'm not the one who actually cooked this recipe - but I enjoyed it A LOT - and I wrote the recipe down to use myself. Anyhoo - the reason I'm putting it here is that it is a super easy recipe for a yummy treat that is sure to put a smile on the family's faces even in troubled times, and it is simple and uses only items that we would almost certainly have in our emergency stores. I got it from my mom:
Peanut Butter Cookies:
1 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder

Seriously. That's it. Mix it up. Scoop it up. Flatten them with a fork and bake at 350 for 6-10 minutes. I think it deserves it's place here. The cookies are totally delish. And, in the absence of eggs, you can usually sub 1 Tblsp of milled flaxseed + 3 Tblsp of water for an egg. I haven't tried it in this recipe, but I have had success with it in other recipes.

Regenerate what is lost - planted calendula seeds in butterfly garden

Reduce waste/Reduce dependence on commercial systems - made bread, sorted recycling, used brown paper grocery sacks to make paper pulp to make handmade paper embedded with wildflower seeds (Okay, I admit it, I'm pretty bad at remembering to take my cloth grocery bags with me to the store. But don't worry; I flagellate myself regularly with a gluten-free spelt noodle ;-) ). I used this paper to wrap up my homemade soap to go with my handknit washcloths. I'm kind of proud of my handmade Mothers Day gifts, can ya tell? It's mostly because I actually finished them in time to give them on Mothers Day. Which brings me to my final activities in the reduction category: working on and completing some Christmas gifts. Sounds impressive, right? Well, it's not - these gifts are to fulfill IOU's from LAST Christmas. Yikes. I have really patient family members. I finished Dana's handbag, Lance's hat and scarf, and almost finished an apron for my mom. I'll probably get finished just in time to start on this year's Christmas gifts!

Well, this week should be more productive. I've got roses, blueberry bushes, strawberries, and peppers to get in the ground!
TTFN,
Brooke

Independence Days week ending 5/2/09

Well, I've been trying to post my Independence Days updates on Mondays, but we've been passing a non-swine-flu-virus around our family, so I'm a little behind. Last week's Independence Days activities were a little out of the ordinary for me. It's been raining for almost two weeks now, so working in the garden hasn't been much of an option. Then came swine flu. I mean, not to our house, but to the world. After marinating in all of the H1N1 hysteria for days now, I've realized that I'm actually much less afraid of H1N1 than I am of public/government responses. The H1N1 bug itself, at least in its current form seems to be fairly mild. The one confirmed case in our state did not require hospitalization.

I realized, though, that if I woke up to unexpected school closings one morning and the cupboards were bare - well, then I may have to be hospitalized. So the combination of swine flu and inclement weather brought the food storage issue to the forefront for me. And you know what? I'm really glad it did. I have been intimidated by the idea of starting a food storage system - I mean, where do you begin? Doomers (and I use that term affectionately) recommend having enough food on hand to feed your family and animals for 6-12 months. That just seems crazy overwhelming to me.

A couple of years ago, as The Ice Storm of The Century was rolling into town, I was trying to do my regular grocery shopping. I found myself in a crowded, poorly-stocked grocery store. And the worst part was that I was stuck in line for two hours surrounded by anxious and panicky shoppers. I would prefer not to repeat that experience again. So, instead of trying to prepare for the apocalypse in one fell swoop, I decided to start small. I asked myself: If getting to the store is likely to be inconvenient for a couple of weeks, what would I need to have on hand to make that time as "normal" (I use that term loosely for my crew) and comfortable as possible? That simplified things greatly for me and gave me a good jumping off point. And I can tell you that it has paid off for me big time this week. Getting to the grocery store this week would have been really inconvenient and probably would have resulted in a lot of fast-food dinners. But a little prep has truly gone a long way and this has been a valuable lesson for me.

Store something/Prep something: brown rice, dried pinto beans, TVP, canned fruit & veggies, canned beans, sweet treats (hard candy, hot chocolate, popsicles), cereal, canned soup, ramen noodles (keeps morale high around here), pasta, spaghetti sauce, cheese, mac-n-cheese, flour, Tylenol - adults and kids, ibuprofen - adults and kids, benadryl, imodium, vitamins, dog and cat food, vinegar, bleach

Reduce waste/reduce dependence: made bread, made a batch of laundry detergent, worked on knitted washcloths for Mothers Day gifts, sorted recycling

Learn a new skill: Read a book about herb gardening

So, don't get overwhelmed by tasks that seem larger-than-life. That is really the point behind the Independence Days challenge, after all: do what you can, no matter how small it seems and do a little bit everyday. Small changes applied over time really do add up.

Take care and keep on truckin'!
Brooke

Independence Days - Week ending 4/25

Yea!!!! Another productive week!

1. Plant something: Expanded my herb bed; planted lavender, citronella (technically a citronella-scented geranium), dill, cilantro, stevia, basil, parsley, grape tomatoes, and either lemon balm or bee balm (not sure which one yet) in newly-expanded herb bed; planted several varieties of tomatoes, 2 types of peppers, bush (soup) beans, kale (I know it's really way too late here to start kale, but what the heck - I need practice anyway), watermelons (3 kinds!), carrots, and chard.

2. Reduce waste/reduce dependence on commercial systems: Worked on hand-knit washcloths for Mothers Day gifts (from this adorable pattern - fast, easy, and tooooo cute!), finished setting up our home recycling center (no curb-side pick up here), sorted our first batch of recyclables, baked bread

3. Regenerate what is lost: I'm not sure if my entries in this category truly qualify, but in our highly developed suburban area, the impact to the environment and to native species is *WOW* off the charts. One of my projects since we moved here has been a butterfly garden in my back yard. I didn't spend much time on it last year, but most of my previous plantings there are perennials, so I still have something to work with. This week I planted what is either lemon balm or bee balm. The flowers are supposed to be highly attractive to butterflies and to bees. I also planted dill and parsley, which are larval (sp?) host plants. I have this strange idea that if I give the butterflies their own dill and parsley in their designated area of the yard, then they will refrain from laying eggs on the dill and parsley in my herb garden. Makes sense, right? Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Oh well. The Eastern Swallowtails are an amazing sight in the garden, so I'm willing to share my parsley.

I'm so glad to have my square foot garden underway. I know that this will be a big learning year for me, as I've never gardened on this scale before. I know there will be failures, but that's okay. There will be successes too, I'm certain. I'm also thrilled to have my herb bed expanded. I've expanded it a little bit each year - the digging is hard, so I have to do a little at a time. Any further expansion will require additional beds, which I am not opposed to in the least, BTW. There are so many wonderful herbs, and so many wonderful uses for them. I dream of a cook's garden, a dyer's garden, and a soaper's garden. But then there are medicinal uses as well. Of course, many plants are great for several different uses. Calendula, for example, can be used in cooking (commonly called "pot marigold" because of this use), would be great for use in dying fibers, is useful in soaps, salves, and tinctures for its calming and anti-inflammatory effects, and can be taken internally as a tea for many different ailments. Oh - did I mention that I have Calendula seeds on the way?!

Spring has sprung!
Brooke

Children are like pickles

Okay, bear with me, here. At the risk of sounding like a paid promoter for Sharon Astyk, she has a thought-provoking post, followed by an even more stimulating discussion in the comments. I posted a rather lengthy comment there myself and have been moved to further address the topic here. Sharon's point to really determining how we value children is to be able to be very honest when we discuss the problem of, and potential solutions to, overpopulation. I don't really feel like I'm smart enough to take on the issue of overpopulation, so I'm going in a bit of a different direction. To start with, here is my aforementioned rather lengthy comment:


Wow! One of the things that strikes me as I read through the comments is how our society (as a whole) has stripped all of the dignity out of hard work. Having children who are “productive” members of a family is not equal to poor working conditions and hours that violate child labor laws. Productive members of a family grow into productive members of society.

Because we are foster/adoptive parents, traditional definitions of “family” don’t necessarily apply to us. We have borrowed Nancy Thomas’s definition that a family is a group of people working together to make a house a home. So, we work together at chore time and chores really become less of a chore, and it is quality family time. We laugh and have fun, help each other and share in a sense of accomplishment and the joy of a job well done. Instead of breaking the children down into Cinderella-ish versions of slave labor, it builds them up into confident and capable individuals. IMHO, the false inflation of confidence that comes from telling kids that every single thing they do is fabulous regardless of the validity of that statement is a bubble that is bound to burst at some point. Not every person can win every race every time, ya know? An unsuccessful attempt to reach a goal can be a successful opportunity to teach a lesson, if you are so inclined, and can be very constructive instead of destructive.

As I was discussing this topic with my husband, he pointed out that our generation really doesn’t value hard work because we are the first generation (of Americans, anyway) who did not have to work very hard to get to where we are. I do not think it is merely coincidence that we will also be the first generation who, as a whole, does not leave our children better off than ourselves. It seems to me that we have neglected to realize that our *entitlement* has, in fact, come at a very high cost, even if we ourselves have not had to bear the burden of that cost. We have been drawing on the resources built up for us by those who came before. But we have been living to excess and have depleted those resources and now must draw on the resources that will be needed by future generations if we are to keep up the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed. (The costs borne by the world’s poor to keep us in the latest fashions should not be ignored, either.)

I don’t find in Sharon’s essay any implication that children should be viewed as cheap labor either within the household or outside of it. I think it is important to teach children that when you take something out, you put something back in. And hey, while you’re at it, put back a little extra. It doesn’t - and shouldn’t - mean sweatshops. But what is wrong with the vision of parent and child working side by side toward a common goal? I think that’s lovely. Our grandparents were raised that way, and I believe they are better for it.

I want to close by saying that I have really enjoyed the spirited banter in the comments above. There is so much value in being challenged by each other when the goal is to seek better solutions. Please, please, refrain from criticizing a person based solely on the number of children they have. It is not productive and, I think, runs counter to what any of us believe. I gather from the previous comments that everyone here honors the intrinsic value of children and I think that reducing them to a decision that their parents should have made differently only serves to devalue them.


So, what does all of this have to do with pickles, anyway? Well, pickles are a value-added product. That means that when you take something, a cucumber in this case, that has intrinsic value and you add other things of value - your time and talent and a few other ingredients - you end up with an item that has more value than either the cucumber or your time and talent has if they are taken separately. So, what do children and pickles have in common?


If you think of a child as a cucumber - okay, I know this is a stretch, but think of it this way: Like a child, a cucumber is fresh and delightful...but they are both prone to spoilage ;-) If you want the cucumber to retain, and even gain, value long after cucumber season has past, you have to prepare it with the addition of a little heat, a lot of time, some vinegar, and pickling lime. Do you see where I'm going with this? Preparing kids doesn't mean coddling them, it means pickling them! Wait...I don't think that's really what I mean! What I do mean is that giving your kids a little heat can make them stronger and more...er, shelf-stable? What I don't mean is to put pickling lime on your children. Vinegar, on the other hand, is good for a whole host of skin problems, but I digress.

One of the greatest legacies we leave our children is our teaching. And, in truth, it is a legacy we leave whether we want to or not and in our presence or in our absence our children's views on the world begin with us. So, we might as well be intentional about it. Don't just let your children watch you start to garden, or start preserving food. Let them learn with you. Explain to them, in an age-appropriate way, please, why you think it is important to learn or to practice this skill. This one is hard for me because I often feel that I don't have the time or the patience to take a time-consuming task and make it take even longer by inviting my 9 year old to "help" me. So, don't think I am coming at this from some sort of Holier Than Thou perspective. In fact, I assume that I am much LESS holy than thou. I'm a humble housewife. Although, I do wonder if claiming humility is in itself boastful and negates my original claim? Oh, there I go again.

So, when you take on your first batch of pickles, invite your child(ren) to learn with you as you go. Children are truly an investment, in more ways than one. And time is one of the most important commodities we can invest in our kids. Don't think about the one hour task that is now going to take you three hours. Think about the task as the vehicle that will allow you to spend one on one time (or one on two, or three...) with your kid. You can share your worldview, learn about her worldview, talk about the cute boy that sits next to her in music class. In a world where we all wish we had more time, more hours in the day, you will have three hours of quality time with your cherised kiddo and if you accomplish your task, too, well that's gravy. Or pickles. So, go forth and make pickles - of your cucumbers and of your children!
Brooke

Indedpendence Days

Okay, an Independence Days update. You can join this challenge at Sharon's website. The idea is to break down the sometimes-overwhelming tasks involved with becoming more self-sufficient into smaller pieces that can be done a little bit at a time. It's the whole "How do you eat an elephant?" "One bite at a time." strategy applied to sustainability. It's great! Here are Sharon's categories:
1. Plant something
2. Harvest something
3. Preserve something
4. Store something
5. Manage reserves
6. Cook something new
7. Prep something
8. Reduce waste
9. Learn a new skill
10. Work on community food security
11. Regenerate what is lost

You can read more detailed descriptions of these categories at Sharon's website. Just look at the Independence Days section of her archives. I've added a twelfth category for myself, just to reflect one of my own personal goals - Reduce dependence on commerical/industrial systems. I mostly mean Wal-Mart. A lot of things that will go in this category could probably fit under reduce waste, but sometimes it's a stretch. So, I just added my own. Sometimes, like this week, I will just combine them. I tracked my activities last week and here are my results:
Plant something - lemongrass, rosemary, lemon verbena, basil, pole beans...also planned out the planting for my raised bed, but it was too rainy to plant that day ;), purchased stevia and lavender plants but the planting was thwarted by the rain
Reduce waste/reduce dependence- Finished 5 more of my cloth napkin/"paper towels" (since we added 3 more to our fam back in March, the number I had previously finished was just not doing the job), made a batch of soap for Mothers Day gifts, worked on (and finally finished!) Lance's knitted hat to fulfill the IOU I gave him for Christmas, made a couple of loaves of bread
Learn a new skill - Started reading a book on home canning in hopes that, by the time the season gets into full swing and it's actually time to start canning, this won't intimidate me so much. Plus I need time to get the supplies together.

Wow! I've really enjoyed keeping notes on my activities as it helps me realize that I do actually accomplish things! You know how a lot of the time you feel like you run around like a chicken with your head cut off, but you can't think of anything that you've actually gotten done? Well, I bet if you started keeping track you would be pleasantly surprised. I certainly have been.

I am also thinking about adding another category: Convincing My Husband to Go Along with My Latest Crazy Idea. I seem to be spending a lot of time lately in this area. Currently I am working on convincing him that it is a fabulous idea to pull out the ornamental pear trees in our front yard that, for the first time, actually look really pretty, and replace them with crabapple or cherry trees. Oh yeah, and I want to start keeping bees. I am admittedly quirky, but I don't think the bees thing seems weird at all. Jeff is standing firmer on this subject than he does on most because he thinks it is completely outrageous to keep bees in the burbs. Personally, I think the removal of two perfectly good trees seems weirder (although still a good idea, in the long run). I think he will eventually come around on the trees, but I may lose on the bees. I won't go down without a fight, though!

Until next time,
Brooke

The times, they are a-changin'

When I started this blog last summer, I really just wanted to use it as a project journal for my crafts and knitting. I never really intended for anyone to read it, it was just a little something for me. Then, our computer crashed and I was without internet access (gasp) for a few months. During that internet-less period, something happened that has changed my life.

I was listening to NPR one day, specifically to a local program called Studio Tulsa. Rich Fisher was interviewing author Sharon Astyk about her book _Depletion and Abundance_. The interview focused primarily on the ways that Sharon and her family have dramatically reduced their energy usage. It was a light-hearted and only mildly quirky discussion and I enjoyed it so much that I wrote down her name and the name of her book. A couple of days later, when my mother-in-law asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told her about this book. I have always had a desire to be "greener" and I thought this book would give me some ideas on practical changes we can make in our home to make a difference for the environment.

When Christmas came, I was delighted to receive _Depletion and Abundance_ from my in-laws. (Alas, my darling husband may never forgive them.) I am not exaggerating when I say that this book has truly changed my life because it has changed the way I look at pretty much everything. I had never heard the term "peak oil" before reading this book, although I must have been aware of the concept somewhere in the back of my mind. Some people think Peak Oil is just a made up boogey man used for fear-mongering, and Peak Oil is a pretty radical idea. My interpretation of Peak Oil - and this is just my own interpretation not really based on science, just based on what I consider to be reason and logic - is the wild and crazy idea that oil supplies are finite. If oil supplies ARE finite, then it stands to reason that at some point we will use half of the supplies, and at that point we will be working off of the second half of the oil supplies. So our oil use will peak and then begin to decline. Like I said, this is not meant to be a comprehensive explanation of Peak Oil, just my simplistic understanding of the most basic aspects of the concept of Peak Oil. Pretty radical, right? I guess I had to know this before I read Sharon's book and had a name for it, but to be perfectly honest, I just never thought about it. In our modern consumption-driven society, we are constantly encouraged NOT to think about it. We are told that we must do something about our dependence on fossil fuels because we have to reduce our carbon footprints and our dependence on foreign oil. And so, instead of being encouraged to drive less (and instead of designing our communities so that we can drive less), we are encouraged to buy hybrid cars and energy star appliances. And instead of being encouraged to buy less and to use less, we are encouraged to buy "greener" versions of our favorite items at the same ol' big box stores. We have become trapped in this self-perpetuating cycle of consumption. The more we have, the more we want. And this monster is fed with cheap oil, often at the expense of poorer people around the world. Yeah, there are ethical considerations to all of this as well. You may be beginning to understand why my husband will never forgive his mom for getting me this book.

So, for me, the times, they are a-changin'. Over the last several weeks, I have been posting here more regularly and about topics that are still fun, but are relevant to our changing times. I am hoping that someone will read my blog sometime and from here will go on to read what other, more educated and enlightened authors and bloggers have to say about the world in which we live. I am trying to muster up the courage to let my friends and family know what I'm up to here in the blogosphere instead of just using this as my private journal space. In the meantime, I'll just keep trying to do a little more all the time. If you want to do that, too, check out Sharon Astyk's blog and her Independence Days challenge. Sounds like fun! I know, I know. I really should get out more.
Brooke

Figuring out waste

Before I climb onto a soapbox today - I'd like to make a little comment about my last post. My original intent while writing the post was to help myself keep track of what changes I have made - not to give myself a big pat on the back, but to remind myself that my efforts, while small, can add up to make a difference. I tend to get overwhelmed by all of the things that I am NOT doing and I get really down. Seriously, I can get really kooky. I can lay awake at night and feel bad because there are children in Malawi (and all over the world) who cannot remember their last meal and I spent $5 on a drive-thru meal this afternoon because I couldn't wait 20 minutes until I would be home and could make a simple sandwich. Do you know what five-well-spent-dollars could do for a truly hungry person? It's really sickening. And I take so much for granted, you know? I also wanted to show anyone who might read that post that little changes are not difficult to make. In fact, all of our changes so far have been super easy and totally painless. And all of our changes have been really small. I am hoping to make some bigger ones soon, but more on that at a later date. Anyway, I'll move on now.

I thought it might be worthwhile to post about how we think about waste. I've been thinking a lot about it ever since I came across suggestions for reuseable dryer sheets a couple of months back. My initial reaction to reusable dryer sheets was that these very tiny things could not possibly be taking up large amounts of landfill space. I mean, seriously, wad one up in your hand - they get really small. But then, for some reason, I started thinking about how the little buggers are manufactured. I conjured up an image of a giant factory with plumes of black smoke rising into the sky. Whether this image is entirely accurate I don't know, but it is probably pretty close. And what powers this giant factory, anyway? Fields of solar arrays and wind turbines? Right. Then, once they are packaged up (in boxes made in another giant factory), they are put on trucks to be driven all over the country so they can end up on the shelves of your nearest big box. So, even though the dryer sheets themselves are small, eliminating the need for them can have a big impact.



So, I've started to think about all of the products we buy and use in this "new" way. Ask yourself some questions:

1. How does this product contribute to my family's garbage output?

2. How does the manufacture/transport of this product line up with my morals and principles?

3. What kind of waste materials are produced during the manufacture/transport of this product?

4. Is there a way for me to replace this product with something similar, or even superior, with something I can make (and reuse)? Or is it possible for me just to do without this product altogether? (I struggle with this one.) OR is there a person out there offering a sustainable alternative to this product? Check out http://www.etsy.com/ - you will be amazed at everything offered there and you will be supporting the "hand-made" movement!

5. Is there a previously-owned version of this product available? I love Craig's list. Last week I bought a practically-new bread machine for $20 from a woman who lives about a mile away. WOW! Since our family "exploded" on March 2nd when we welcomed three more kiddos, we have been seriously mowing through bread. Now I can make bread for about 1/2 the cost per loaf, I know exactly what goes in it, it takes about 5 minutes to throw everything in the machine, and it uses less electricity to bake a loaf than my oven would. We may be eating twice as much of it now though, because it is definitely twice as delicious!

Just some ideas. A lot of "green" products can be quite a bit more expensive than the traditional alternatives. But a lot of "green" products are really only "greenwashed." That is when the marketing gurus tap into the national trend toward greening up and change their marketing strategy instead of substantially changing their products or the way their company conducts business. Ironically, truly greening up your lifestyle can save you money! Instead of buying "green" papertowels, rip up old baby blankets or t-shirts and you will never have to spend money on papertowels again! Get green and save green all at the same time!
TTFN,
Brooke

Sustaining in Suburbia

Ahhh - Sweet Suburbia - where SUV's reign and your mettle as a mom is determined by the size of the bow in your daughter's hair. Sad, but true. Alas, this is where we are and, given the current economic climate, this is where we will stay for at least a few more years. And so we have realized that our dreams of sustainability will start here in Sweet Suburbia.





To date, our biggest accomplishments involve reducing our trash and reducing our dependence on Wal-Mart. I have turned my daughter's old flannel receiving blankets into "paper" towels that we can use over and over. We joined a food co-op through a local natural foods store, which has been awesome. Unfortunately, we are still supplementing what we get from the co-op with trips to Wal-Mart, but we are trying to cut back. I am hoping that the money we save from using re-usables instead of disposables and from using other less-expensive homemade alternatives will allow us to purchase more local items and fewer Wal-Mart items.





My darling husband made me a compost tumbler for Valentine's Day. He bought the barrel for $10 (it used to hold Dr. Pepper syrup!) and built the stand/tumbler from scraps in the garage. Sounds weird, I know, but it was actually really romantic! This has reduced our trash by a surprising amount. I didn't realize just how much compostable material we were throwing away. Plus, we will not have to visit a big box store to purchase compost or fertilizer for our garden. Oh yes, our garden. We have dabbled in the past, but this year we are serious! I just finished Mel Bartholomew's book and we have big square foot garden plans. His website is full of great info as well. I ordered way, way too many seeds from Baker Creek. They have an amazing selection of organic seeds - that means no genetically modified organisms. Their plants are open-pollinated, so I can collect seeds and keep planting gorgeous and nutritious heirloom vegetables year after year. (Check out this site to learn more about why that is so important.) I just started my seeds indoors yesterday and I can't wait until they sprout!



We've done some other fun things as well. I learned how to make soap from this cool website that also explains how to turn that soap into homemade, all-natural laundry detergent. I also learned more about soap here. What a fun adventure! We've eliminated disposable dryer sheets by cutting strips from tattered washcloths. Currently, we spritz a strip with a mixture of liquid fabric softener diluted with water (2 capfuls softener to about 2 cups of water fills up our spray bottle). About 5 spritzes onto the cloth and the cloth strip goes into the dryer with the laundry. It really works great! Sometimes there is some static in the clothes, but that's not a huge problem. Once we use up the fabric softener, which will take quite a while at this rate, I am going to experiment with some homemade softener recipes I've found online. That way we can eliminate some more chemicals from our home environment.

Well, this post has gotten quite long and, since it's a bit self-indulgent anyway, I will go ahead and close. Will post new and fun green and thrifty ideas soon!