Homesteading in a Condo

Best You Tube video I've seen all year

2009-12-30T15:15:00.001-05:00

This video has nothing to do with canning or adorable conures sleeping in my hand, but it does combine my all-time favorite movie and my barely-contained fury over the last decade. Thanks, Reagan, and all you doofus Chicago School economists, for ushering in the era of laissez faire on crack.

But I love this idea. We might be able to take it back, one little bank account at a time. Think it would work? Or are the megacorporations destined to dominate from here on out?

Cecilia's All Hopped Up (for a minute)

2009-11-23T10:47:00.000-05:00

Whenever the sun is out this time of year (rare for Detroit) Cecilia gets a little wacky in the morning- she jumps on all the furniture, chews on anything new, such as this Esquire. But it's over in a flash and soon enough she returns to her regularly scheduled all-day nap.

ServSafe study day

2009-11-22T18:06:00.002-05:00

(Cutest bacteria ever??)

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ServSafe is a national certification for food handlers. I have to pass the test before I can even register for pre-requisite culinary classes- my test day is December 8. I began studying for the test today- chapter 2 on pathogens is a toughie- but a lot of the stuff is common sense and/or interesting enough to remember.

I'm going chapter by chapter, making outlines, taking end-of-chapter tests, and doing pretty well so far. But the deeper I get, one thing keeps occurring to me: In the little local, seasonal cafe of my dreams, everything I want to do is illegal.

Real food, by federal SafeServ standards, is considered pathogenic. Here's the list of road-bumps so far.

-Real milk and cheese? Check. Real milk illegal in Michigan, but real cheese can be served after 60-days' aging. Unclear if I can make it in-house, though.

-Local, backyard/ community garden suppliers? May have to jump through crazy hoops for certification- especially with the new hyper-restrictive, over-legislated Food Bills (I'm looking at you, SB510) coming through. Check.

-Garden or greenhouse out back? Probably- if it's not an "approved supplier"- Check. (I smell zoning troubles, too.)

-Worms to recycle kitchen waste? Likely considered vermin. Check.

-Making or handling "unusual" foods- you know, freaky stuff like lacto-fermented foods or on-site smoked meats- will require Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures and will be a Giant Pain in the Butt.

So, blah.

The 10th Annual Weston A Price Foundation Conference-- my .02

2009-11-19T18:15:00.004-05:00

When I sum up the WAPF in a single short sentence (to someone who's eyes are already glazing over), I usually say they promote pre-industrial foods and food systems.

For those who want more info about what the Foundation does, here a link to the WAPF home page.

Last weekend's conference was my first. It was truly fabulous to walk into a room full of real-food foodies-- attendance was about 1100. It was great to not get the blank stare (or alternatively, the look of terror) when waxing rhapsodic about fermentation and raw milk. And the meals were divine.

So- best parts of the conference were the food and my fellow attendees.

I doubt I'll attend again- but I'm glad I went at least once. It is really nice to know I'm not alone.

The Magical Stuff that Makes Blue Cheese Blue

2009-11-11T11:22:00.005-05:00

(Best fungus ever)

This is the stuff, baby- Penicillium roqueforti. It came in the mail yesterday from Leener's and I'm thrilled to my toes.

When I get back from this weekend's 10th annual Weston A. Price convention (this year in Chicago!), I'm taking the plunge and making Roquefort. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Rajiv Shaw Named Head of USAID

2009-11-11T10:55:00.003-05:00

Rajiv Shaw

USAID stands for the US Agency for International Development. That's the agency that oversees economic development, agricultural assistance, and famine relief in developing nations. The USAID states the three pillars of their mission are economic growth, agriculture, and trade. They are under the umbrella of the State Department, so Hillary Clinton is the big boss.

Shaw, who is only 36, had most recently been undersecretary and Chief Scientist at the Department of Agriculture under Tom Vilsack; he worked on food safety, climate, and energy. Before that he was an executive at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was also the health care policy advisor to Al Gore during his presidential bid. His education is in medicine and health economics. By all accounts, he's brilliant.

However, the recent Big Ag-friendly, band-aid policies coming out of the US Dept of Agriculture certainly give me pause. And it can't go without mentioning: The Gates Foundation has close ties to Monsanto.

Certainly, filling this post is a good thing. It's been empty since the beginning of Obama's tenure, and the agency has apparently suffered for it. The Obama administration has stated that they are keen to make development a central tenet of foreign policy. The agency was formed in 1961, and word is, it's still run like a 1960's bureaucracy.

But I'm still concerned. US relief policies have far more to do with WTO-style economics than with actual, well, relief. It will be interesting to see if Shaw continues to carry the water of the WTO. I wonder if he has any choice in the matter, or if he even sees it as a choice to make.

Shaw is American, but his parents emigrated from India to the US when he was a child. I'd love to know his views on India's Green Revolution; specifically, if he thinks the long-term failures were worth the short-term gains. I think it would be very telling of the direction he plans to take the agency.

Sauerkraut, Illustrated

2009-11-08T12:13:00.011-05:00

I make sauerkraut about once a month, in cabbage season (about July through December). Traditionally, kraut is only made in the cooler months- but since I ferment at room temperature, I'm not constrained by weather.

I put up 15 pounds for fermenting yesterday; here's the blow-by-blow:

First, I quarter and core the cabbages. I like to quarter first because it makes coring easier.

Next, I weigh the quarters. Typical kraut-to-salt ratio is 5 pounds of cabbage to 3 tablespoons salt. Be sure to use canning salt, not table salt.

Shredding is next. Yes, it takes a long time, but this shredder works great.

It's a Japanese "Super-Benriner" shredder- fabulous artwork on the box.

Here's the first 5 pounds shredded in the crock. It goes nearly to the top. I shred 5 pounds at a time, add the 3 tablespoons of salt, then stomp away.

Here's my kraut stomper. It's about the size of a baseball bat, but flat on the business end. I found this stomper in an antique store last year, but you can get them new from Lehman's.

Stomping is absolutely the most important step of making kraut. If you don't stomp it, you'll just have salty shredded cabbage. I stomp for at least 20 minutes per 5-pound batch. I stomp until it sounds really squishy and looks translucent.

Here it is after it's been stomped. See how much the volume is reduced?

After all the cabbage is processed, "plate it and weight it" just as you would any lacto-ferment. While cabbage (especially freshly picked cabbage) does release a lot of it's own juice, it's rarely enough for the one or two inches of liquid you need above the plate. I usually add about two quarts of filtered water with 3 tablespoons of canning salt per quart- same ratio of salt you'd use in any fermenting vat. FYI, this vat is a 4-gallon vat. Some people don't spice their kraut, but I use garlic and juniper berries.

Be sure to cover the vat to keep out the critters and dust. I use a piece of clean muslin (it needs to breathe) and a rubber band to secure it. Store the vat in dim light or in the dark.

(After a couple of days mold will form on top of the liquid- and the mold re-forms every day or so thereafter. You must skim off the mold and add more brine as necessary. At room temperature, the vat is typically ready to eat in about two weeks. It will take longer if the room is cooler.)

I don't add any vinegar. Once you add vinegar (and heat if you're canning), the beneficial bacteria die. Instead, I store it in quart-sized canning jars in the fridge. If I had a root cellar, I'd store it there. But we eat it quickly, so storing is not a huge issue.

Now, there's always some cabbage left over- the finger guard that's supposed to let you get down to the nub of the vegetables doesn't really work for me. So I make cabbage soup. Typical Russian recipe, but instead of dill and marjoram, I use fresh sage and smoked paprika. Those two are such a great combo with cabbage and potatoes.

That's all there is to sauerkraut. It's a time investment- usually takes all afternoon- but it's so totally worth it.

Waxing My Cheese

2009-11-06T11:03:00.002-05:00

This is how the cheese looks when it's ready to wax.

This is my pathetic little waxpot- an old cappuccino frother. I need to get a bigger pot, because dipping cheese in wax rather than painting it on is much preferable. I'm using beeswax, which most cheese makers don't use because it's so expensive, but I love the scent of it. I get the wax fairly cheap from the honey man at our farmer's market. The drawback- beeswax is basically the same color as cheese, so I have to inspect the coverage very carefully.

Here it is- the waxed cheese. Isn't it cute? It's a cheese wheel made from one gallon of milk. I date it on the day I wax it. Now into the cheese cave it goes.

I should have waxed this cheese about 2 days earlier- cheddar should be waxed as soon it's dry to the touch... but it sort of got away from me. It will be ready to eat in about 2 months, or longer if I can wait that long. There are 3 other cheddars ahead of it, so I think I can wait.

Sam Kass Might Have the Best Job Ever

2009-11-04T09:37:00.001-05:00

White House chef. Wonk. Locavore. Gardener. Anti-Big Ag. Sits in on policy meetings. Has the ear of Michelle. Cute as a bug. *sigh*

Read the article in today's New York Times.

Stirred-Curd Cheddar, and a Whey Ricotta

2009-11-02T09:02:00.008-05:00

I made a cheddar on Sunday from my gallon of raw milk- my fourth cheddar, and second stirred-curd cheddar. I also made a whey ricotta from the leftover whey- it yielded about a cup of a dry-textured, incredibly delicious ricotta. I'm using Ricki Carroll's recipes here.

Stirred-curd cheddar is not a true cheddar. To cook these curds, they are stirred for a half-hour over low heat (100 F). Traditional cheddars require the curds being sliced into strips and air-dried, and I haven't figured out the set-up yet. I'm working my way up to it.

(Sunday's cheddar in its second pressing)

I'm keeping a cheese journal- very important for reproducibility, and to figure out what I did right or wrong when after the cheese is ready to eat, which is usually a couple of months from the make date.

Here's the blow-by-blow of Sunday's cheese:

Stirred-Curd Cheddar, 11/01/09

11:30- Direct-set mesophilic starter added @ 96F, not 90F as in recipe. Pot removed from double boiler and covered.

12:15- Rennet added @ 94F; stirred in up-and-down motion for 4 minutes.

12:50- Curds cut. Pot covered, placed back on DB.

1:05- Heat turned on to lowest setting. Curds allowed to rest with lid on; temp slowly raised to 100F.

1:40- Began 30-minute stirring of curds- water in DB is 110F.

2:10- Stop stirring- curds considerably smaller.

2:25- Curds drained, whey retained for ricotta. 1 tbsp kosher salt added to curds. Pot covered on DB, with heat on low to keep curds at 100F. Stirred with hands every 5 minutes. Heat turned on and off with every third stir.

3:25- Curds resemble a very large curd cottage cheese sans cream. They are pebbly and a little grainy.

3:30- Curds spooned into cheesecloth-lined mold and put under press with 10 lbs.

4:05- Cheese removed from mold, turned over and re-wrapped, returned to mold. 20 lbs. Cheese was turned about a half-hour later than recipe instructions.

9:15- Cheese removed from mold, re-wrapped and turned a final time, returned to mold. 30 lbs.

After the last pressing, the cheese is removed from the mold in 24 hours, then air-dried for a few days at room temperature. Then, it gets waxed- in my case, with beeswax.

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(Whey Ricotta)

Whey Ricotta, from a little more than 1/2 gallon of leftover whey-

Brought whey to a near-boil. Added two glugs of cider vinegar; whey precipitated immediately. Added a little salt after draining and cooling. Dry, crumbly texture.

S.O.S pads- the original and best

2009-11-01T10:19:00.001-05:00

Brace yourself, I'm endorsing a product.

Now, I don't buy much stuff new. If I can't get it used, I probably don't need it-- well, with the exception of underwear and personal care products. I buy even less brand-name stuff. There is some stuff, though, that has no peer. S.O.S pads are such stuff.

Ever try the off-brand scrubbing pads? Complete junk. They start bleeding rusty liquid after one use, fall apart after two uses. If you want a steel wool scrubber, you gotta go with the real deal. S.O.S pads are the definition of real deal.

Now that I'm working with dairy, the pots get scummy. A substance called milkstone (deposits of mineral salts in milk) build up on the pots, and it's hard to get it off. S.O.S pads are the solution. And it's not just mineral salts- I'm here to tell you, they can scrub off ANYTHING. My pots have never looked better, inside and out. Yes, they cost more, but they are so totally worth it.

So, that's my irony-free paean to S.O.S. Thanks, S.O.S!

Playing With Cheese

2009-10-30T12:36:00.015-04:00

Cheese making. Yes, my friends- cheese making.

(Ricotta salata above, 3 cheddars below)
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I know, I know- I fell into a hole. It was the 'unemployment sucks' hole; the 'crap, I'm turning 40' hole; the 'what am I gonna do with the rest of my life' hole. After I realized that dietetics was decidedly not going to work (higher math, hello) I couldn't see past it. Took months. I was miserable. Summer was awful. I read and I knit, but mostly, I sulked.

To add insult to injury, gardening in Michigan just completely blew this year. Few tomatoes, terrible for hot crops in general. No heat at night makes for miserable little plants.

But then I had a revelation. I made my first raw-milk cheddar.

Now, I've been fiddling around with soft cheeses for a while-- paneer, various spread-type cheeses. And of course, butter and yogurt. But the pressed cheeses felt distant. Then one day, I just did it. Took 7 hours. Pressed cheeses are definitely an all-day event.

But, let me tell you- cheese is magic. I labored for 7 hours and gave birth to a cheddar.

In fact, that first cheese (a little more than a month ago) changed my life. I realized almost immediately that, holy crap, I belong in culinary school, and I am now enrolled in Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI-- about a half-hour drive from here. I start in January.

So that's where I've been. Off with my cheese.

Haven't cut into the cheddars yet- I have some doubts about the first one; I suspect the curds were too undercooked and it will be bitter because of the high moisture content. But that's the cheese learning curve for you- it's sort of a long haul. Jerry-rigging home equipment on a stupid glass-top stove has proven to be the toughest challenge, but I'm finding ways around it.

I'm going to start posting "A Cheese A week"- I'll go into more detail with individual posts.

Strange, new worlds

2009-10-14T07:41:00.010-04:00

The energy barrier from Star Trek's second pilot pays us a visit.

Only in Detroit - Fresh Squeezed Kool-Aid

2009-09-22T06:37:00.004-04:00

We should hire the Kool-Aid man to knock down our abandoned buildings.
"OH YEAH!"

"Do you mind if I smoke?"

2009-09-13T19:18:00.010-04:00

Our glorious eggplant

Cue Blade Runner theme

Holly is making her famous eggplant lasagna. On this occasion, while flash-frying the eggplant on the stove, our condo takes on a dramatic, sci-fi noir appearance. The shafts of light beaming through our windows are thankfully not ruined by the screech of the smoke detector :)

Bunday Munday - bedroom invasion

2009-08-24T07:11:00.003-04:00

"One-Adam-12, One-Adam-12, we have a 602 in progress. Over."

Mamma mia! What a trombetta!

2009-08-02T08:08:00.008-04:00

Someone call Guiness or Ripley's. Holly just picked this ginormous Trombetta squash! It will soon be in a yummy casserole -- or three.
The seeds are from Renee's Garden, FYI.

Red Sky At Morning

2009-07-22T06:20:00.004-04:00

Thunderstorms are in the forecast...

The Thin Orange Line

2009-07-15T06:23:00.002-04:00

It's a new day in Detroit.

Bunday Munday- Morning Yoga

2009-07-13T06:26:00.003-04:00

Here, Maxie demonstrates the bunny version of balasana (child pose).

2009 tomato cages - new and improved!

2009-07-12T14:05:00.025-04:00

I'd like to talk to you for a moment about mechanical grip -- as it relates to tomato cages.

Last summer, Holly and I came up an impromptu design for tomato cages: bamboo bound with zip ties; anchored at the base by bricks. My wife liked the renewable nature of the bamboo, and I liked the vague Gilligan's Island feel it gave our terrace. The green plastic coils hung from the top and supported the plants well. However, this design proved to have one fatal flaw: the cross member at the top of the cage.

As strong as the zip ties were, they just didn't have much purchase on the round, smooth bamboo -- especially at the top, where five pieces came together. We came home several times to cages leaning dramatically to one side -- thanks to violent downpours and the occasional wind gust. Attempts to reinforce the cages with additional cross members proved unsuccessful. We considered scrapping the design for 2009, but thankfully, Holly came up with a great solution...

She purchased four 1x2 pieces of cedar and cut triangular notches on each side. These cedar pieces replaced the bamboo cross members, and so far, they have offered far more mechanical grip. The cages still need bricks to anchor the bottom, but we're quite confident they'll make it through the summer in one piece. [knocks on wood]

This blog is now a co-blog...

2009-07-12T13:27:00.003-04:00

Summer is totally my busiest season. Just yesterday after going to the farmer's market, I--

-put up a 3-gallon fermenting crock of the season's first green beans,
-put up 2 quarts of sauerkraut to ferment,
-made 2 quarts of gooseberry jam,
-made paneer.

Anyway, I'm whupped. It was 9 hours of cutting the stem and blossom ends off a gallon teeny-tiny berries and 8 pounds of beans, shredding cabbage, straining curds- pretty much any given Saturday all summer long. Not that I'm complaining. But my brain is tapioca and my neck hurts. OK- technically, I guess that's complaining. But how love homemade jam and a good vegetable ferment *sigh*.

So my husband is going to join in the blogging fun. He's funnier and cuter than me; also a better writer. His name is Jason. He's an expert eater, design professional, and my favorite person. Hope you guys like him.

Bunday Munday- Napping and Grooming

2009-06-29T17:10:00.005-04:00

Now that the afternoons are warmer, Maxie likes to lay down on this concrete base for one of the I-beams that holds up the condo ceiling. It stays cool to the touch even if he's been laying on it for a while. He tucks his rear into the I-beam; his back half fits into it perfectly. The summer doesn't seem to bother Cecilia as much- she still saves her lay-down naps for the cage floor, or under the sofa.

Future Pickles

2009-06-16T19:32:00.005-04:00

Aren't these little babies freaking adorable? The plant is suddenly just exploding with teeny, weeny cukes. I expect dozens of blossoms by the weekend, judging from all the little nubs.

These are a pickling variety called Double Yield; can't wait to try them. The seeds came from my favorite seed company, Seed Saver's Exchange.

Changing course for school

2009-06-15T12:18:00.003-04:00

(First sweet pea bouquet of the season, on my desk now- what a scent)
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My whole life, this is my pattern- I dive in, but do not hesitate to back out immediately if it's not working for me. And community college is definitely not working for me. I clearly dove in too quickly. I need to quit school- not forever, just for now. I'm not feeling this right now.

Algebra is kicking my can more than ever. For that matter, so is anthropology, especially genetics. They did not teach genetics in school 25 years ago, only Mendel.

It has dawned on me that just wanting a thing doesn't automatically make it mine, or even make it possible. And that thing would be the dietitian path. So I'm attending an introductory seminar next Monday to see about getting my K-12 certification to become an art teacher.

I already know art. I already know how to teach. I love teaching. But the memorization of an entirely different field after 20 years of art, design, and antidepressants (SSRIs are known to inhibit memory-- and believe me when I tell you, I can't remember anything) is not in the cards.

Garden, Mid June 2009

2009-06-15T10:17:00.007-04:00

(green, but wee)
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Everything is behind again this year; just like 2008, it's been another cold, wet spring here in the Great White North. Last week it was still 68F during the day, and in the low 50's at night. We've had bursts of heat, but it doesn't stick- and then it rains, lots. It's been a decent year for lettuce, but for an early start on the hot crops, not so much.

I've yet to see a bee; pollinators don't usually find my garden until early July. But this weekend I'll be changing out most of the lettuce on the ledge for flowers (a.k.a. flags for bees). That will bring them in. Meanwhile, I'm hand-pollinating the squash with a little paintbrush. The self-pollinating cukes are finally blossoming, too. Tomato cages will need to go up very soon- this weekend, if I can find the time. I'm pinching tomato blossoms off, though- the tomatoes are still too small to fruit.

The Underground Fruit Economy

2009-06-10T09:06:00.005-04:00

(Not necessarily forbidden)
---

From today's New York Times, an article about the growing trend of urban fruit foraging. All over the US, folks are setting up backyard fruit exchanges, fruit expeditions, clubs that gather fallen fruit in public spaces- and then give half of their forage to food banks. Pretty cool, huh?

Sweetpeas don't care about algebra

2009-06-05T11:53:00.003-04:00

It's a beautiful day in Detroit, and the sweetpeas just started blooming this week.

Can I just say algebra sucks?

2009-06-04T17:33:00.011-04:00

I scored a 72 on my first algebra test. I thought I aced the freaking thing. I totally thought I was doing the problems correctly.

I scored a 72, mind you:
After 5 hours of tutoring.
After 30 hours of homework.

I'm totally doubting I can do this.

I failed algebra in high school. I wanted to be a biologist, and after I failed they told me to pick something else- look where that got me. Laid off in a dying field, that's where.

And today looking at my blasted 72, it's like I'm 13 all over again, crying at my desk- though today I had the wherewithal to leave the room to cry. I just feel like the dumbest girl ever.

Maybe I truly, deeply don't have the aptitude for this. We all can't have the aptitude for everything, after all.

Just, why did my aptitude have to be for-- oh, I don't know-- making butter?

I really am not looking for sympathy. But the thing is, I have to get all the way through calculus. This new path of mine is feeling terribly unlikely right now.

Mitsubishi cornering market on bluefin tuna

2009-06-03T08:55:00.004-04:00

(fish gotta swim)
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Two disclaimers- I have PMS, and I had my first algebra test yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty tender around the gills right now. But this article brought tears to my eyes.

Mitsubishi (yes, that Mitsubishi) has cornered the market on deeply endangered southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus maccoyii. They are in the process of fishing, processing, and deep-freezing as much bluefin as they possibly can. Why? So they can cash in when it goes extinct. And bluefin tuna's extinction is probably going to occur very soon.

Why is it going extinct? The easy answer is overfishing. The slightly more complicated answer is: Because there is a sushi joint in every strip mall and every grocery store in every burg in every industrialized country in the world. And humans are greedy, short-sighted primates in strong possession of the conjoined-twin attributes optimism and denial.

There are 90% fewer fish in the oceans today than there were just 10 years ago. Optimism says: "Oh, it'll be ok! Somebody'll figure it out!" Denial says: "My eating sushi once a week can't possibly hurt the situation." It's the tragicomedy that is us.

And meanwhile, human population is growing exponentially. Right now, there are 1,000,000 new human babies born every 4 days. That's a lotta mouths to feed.

I had my first sushi in 1987. 1987 was the year human population reached 5 billion. Now, there are 6.7 billion people in the world. We'll have 7 billion by 2012. At least a few of them will love sushi. They will also need other sources of calories, clean water, housing. How can this be possible, except to the destruction of all else?

Well, it's probably not possible. On the bright side, oil depletion will probably bring a Malthusian catastrophe (See? I'm an optimist, too). It will also bring into check our 100-year rampage only made possible by oil, including our destruction of so many critters who share this amazing space with us. I know it runs against human nature, but we can't have it all.

Detroit Metro Times Article

2009-05-27T21:58:00.004-04:00

Detroit's free weekly is called the Metro Times, and every year they run a food issue. This year, I'm in it. The article is called "Food Fighters". It's a really well-written piece by a charming reporter named Michael Jackman. I was very pleased to meet his acquaintance. And what a fun interview.

Bunday Munday- Almost Disapproving

2009-05-26T19:47:00.002-04:00

The picture isn't the best, but it's the closest I've come to classic disapproval.

Farmers Downsize with Mini Cows

2009-05-24T10:03:00.009-04:00

(mini-moo)

---

From today's LA Times- farmers are moving towards a preference for mini-livestock. They eat less, are easily grass-fed, are lighter on the land, and are well-suited to small farms. They are not dwarfs; usually minis are closer to the original size of the breed. Turns out a lot of the super-giant livestock were a breeding predilection from the mid-20th century when good stewardship was low on the list of priorities.

The article is worth it just for the cute slideshow!

Homemade Raw Milk Butter!

2009-05-18T17:14:00.015-04:00

I purchased a raw milk cow share a few months ago. At first, it was just a gallon every other week, and I mostly made yogurt. Recently I upped it to a gallon a week, so now have to find other things to do with all this amazing milk.

My milk comes from a Jersey cow. Jerseys are famous for giving milk with very high milk fat content; I can count on about a quart of cream per gallon of milk. And with that cream, I'm making raw milk butter every week. And I'm here to tell you, it is amazing.

Here's how I do it:

Let the cream rise to the top for about 24 hours in the fridge. Suck the cream off the top of the milk with a turkey baster. Cover the quart canning jar with a cloth and let it sit at room temperature for at least 3 hours. Seal the jar with a lid and shake the jar until butter starts to form. It usually takes around 10 or 15 minutes. According to my old copy of Joy of Cooking, 50F is the temperature you want the cream to be.

Note: Do not let the butter form into a firm ball in the jar, because once it does, it's very difficult to get all the buttermilk out of it. Stop shaking once butter "grains" start to form.

When the butter has loosely formed, pour it into a mesh strainer (I retain the buttermilk for cooking). Then rinse the butter in cold water. If the curds are loose, they rinse pretty quickly. It's vital that butter be rinsed completely free of buttermilk- otherwise it will go rancid.

Here it is, all rinsed. Now you have to get the little pockets of water out. Hold the bowl upright and use the back of a soup spoon to smear the butter against the sides of the bowl until liquid stops trickling out of it. When no more water comes out, add salt if desired- it helps preserve the butter, but salt is optional. I smooth the final butter into a little bowl and put it in the fridge. Yield is about 1/2 cup of butter from one quart of cream.

And yes, that's the real color- when the cow is grass-fed, that's the color of butter!

Detroit Eastern Market's 43rd Annual Flower Day

2009-05-17T15:28:00.039-04:00

Flower Day has a reputation for being a bit of a madhouse (suburbanites come down by the busload), so I rode my bike- about a mile as the crow flies. It was certainly more busy than the usual Saturday morning shopping.This is is shed 2. It was renovated last year. For decades it was covered in a slapdash jumble of bad siding, thick white paint, and truly awful cartoon-y paintings on plywood of grimacing chickens with teeth (I kid you not) bolted directly onto these amazing brick arches. You couldn't even see the carved "Eastern Market" letters. The shed is simply beautiful now- a real showpiece. They are taking great pains to renovate the entire market.

R Hirt Jr., Co- one of the coolest stores in Detroit. Great selection of cheese.

Wouldn't be Flower Day without lots and lots of flats

Creative flat display, huh?

Inside shed 2- on Saturday market, this is where the local vendors are

Inside Shed 3- almost finished with renovation. This shed now sports heated floors.

Shed 6

Carts!

Always lots of different carts on flower day.

I don't even know what this one is, but I dig it.

Now that's what I call a Michigan cart.

Jumble o' carts- they tend to cause traffic back-up.

My purchase for the day, from one of the antique vendors at Eastern Market-- an old 3-gallon pickling crock, strapped to the back of my bike. It's a crock made in Red Wing, MN (I stand corrected!). Love the wing. It was only $25.00! And yes, it got home unscathed. Bike was a little wobbly from the weight of it, though.

Molecular Biologist Bonnie Bassler

2009-05-12T21:54:00.003-04:00

This is so cool. Bonnie Bassler and her team at Princeton have discovered how bacteria communicate with each other.

A most excellent tidbit from the video- humans are, at most, 10% human. The majority of what we are is actually bacteria. That's sure to piss off/ freak out the germophobes. Fun!

Bunday Munday- Grooming

2009-05-11T10:20:00.003-04:00

After eating and dozing, this is what Max and Cecilia like to do best.

School Starts May 18!

2009-05-07T14:41:00.007-04:00

(Hmmmm)
---

School, hooray! (Yeah, I say that now.)

The good news is, I'm officially in the system for Trade Adjustment Assistance. The bad news is, I have so may pre-reqs it will take longer than TAA will cover (26 weeks for remedial training + 2 years for education). The catch with TAA is: It all has to be consecutive. So for now, we're paying for school.

But something interesting happened today. I went to the community college to submit my application and get some general academic advising, and while I was there I had to take a math placement test. Can I tell you that the math test was actually fun? I remembered how to solve for x. I remembered how to add fractions and balance equations. Now, more advanced algebra was just squiggles, taunting me. But I totally aced the pre-algebra portion. Gosh. I'm very happy right now.

I didn't get a perfect score- it was more like 78%. I have to retake algebra- and considering it's been 25 years since my last algebra class, I'm totally ok with that. But still, holy crap- math is fun, people.

So starting May 18, I'm taking compressed (12 weeks) summer courses in anthropology and algebra. It feels so totally AP high school.

A Bunny Poop Circle of Life Photo Essay

2009-05-06T18:25:00.017-04:00

I make my own soil for container gardening, and a critical component is poop. I feed my Eisenia fetida worms the house rabbits' poop and other organic waste, and the worms digest it down to worm castings. The worms even eat junk mail and cardboard.

First, the bunnies do their thing. In large volumes, every day.
The droppings get filtered out with a cat litter scoop. I avoid the urine-soaked bedding- it can hurt the worms. The dry bedding is ok, though. I compost the urine-soaked bedding separately- it's high in nitrogen.
The worms get fed their favorite food. To Eisenia fetida, bunny poop is ice cream. This bin needs some fresh bedding on top, but there is no odor and the worms are crawling all around it, so the bin is well-aerated and healthy.
It all gets digested, and redigested, into this fabulous stuff-- worm castings. The more times it passes through the guts of the worms, the better it becomes.
Finally, the castings go to the plants. I use my castings for everything- even my seedling start mix. Then, the plants feed us and the rabbits. See? Circle of life. Or as I like to call it, the Bunny Biosphere.
The stars of the show. See the little kid worms in the middle of the picture? There are probably 40,000 worms between my two bins.

2009 Spring Garden Update

2009-05-05T11:32:00.021-04:00

Early May, 2009
---

I've had a slow start this year in the garden. I think it's because I'm lacking structure (employment-free as I am).

There are salad greens and potherbs in about half the pots along the ledge. I'll finish planting those in the next day or two. Once it gets too hot for greens on the ledge, I switch those pots over to flowers- or as I think of them, flags for the bees.

We've had another long, cool spring this year, so I don't feel too far behind if I use weather as a marker. At any rate, here are some baby plants:

Tomato teens, potted up one size from starts. Kellogg's Breakfast, Paul Robeson, Stupice, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, and Hillbilly Potato Leaf. All seeds are from Seed Saver's Exchange, except for the Paul Robesons, which are from Tomatofest. I like to repot my tomatoes at least 3 times before final transplant- it seems to create stronger root structures.
---
Sunny Supersett crookneck from Renee's Garden- the best variety of yellow crookneck, ever.
---
Arugula, the bacon of vegetables.
---
Climbing French beans from Seed Saver's Exchange. These are intended for spicy dilly bean pickles, but we'll probably eat some fresh, too.
---And it will all look like this come high summer. Here's my beautiful urban vegetable jungle, last year in July.

Bunday Munday- Baby Cecilia

2009-05-04T12:32:00.007-04:00

I was going through an old file and found this pic of Cecilia sampling a smorgasbord of cole trimmings. She was about 8 weeks old. It's my only baby pic of her.

Swine Flu, the Musical

2009-05-04T09:51:00.003-04:00

Another one from therockcookiebottom. I love me some Jonathan Mann.

Swine Flu Media Coverage is Pissing Me Off

2009-04-30T17:43:00.010-04:00

(Wilbur?)
---

Guess how many 'Mericans die of heart disease every year? --696,000

How many die in accidents? --106,000
Guess how many die of diabetes? --73,000
How many die of influenza (you know, the regular ol' seasonal flu)? --66,000
How many have died of H1 N1 variant swine flu? --1

And no, you can't catch it from eating pork. Though that's one thing I wish the media would mention every time they sensationalize and fear-monger this wanna-be pandemic. 300,000 pigs were needlessly slaughtered yesterday in Egypt, but a lot of folks think that asinine move was a thinly veiled excuse for the Muslim officials (anti-pork) to piss off the Coptic Christian farmers (pro-pork). Religion fans every flame, even pig farming.

Now, I'm perfectly willing to admit that this flu could absolutely get worse. The 1918 influenza had a few false starts, too. But can't the media panic wait for when the shit really goes down? They should be reporting on, say, Gietner's painfully tight ties to the banking industry. Or the real possible cause of the H1 N1 variant, the giant, filthy Smithfield pig factory in Vera Cruz, Mexico. Or the rapidly melting Antarctic. Or Monsanto's evil rampage. You know, real news. A girl can dream.

Bunday Munday- Max's Angst

2009-04-27T11:32:00.008-04:00

(meh)
---

There always seems to be a small storm brewing in Max. He can sit perfectly still for a long time, and he wears a perturbed look on his face for the duration. Unlike his sister Cecilia, he's no happy-go-lucky bun. I've seen him flop only a few times, and his rare binkies are usually confined to tight, small circles. I wonder what goes on in his little noodle.

"Hungry Girl"

2009-04-24T09:25:00.022-04:00

(Do not want)
---

The Washington Post ran a happy, chirpy story today about Hungry Girl. Who is Hungry Girl, you ask? Her name is Lisa Lillien; she's the doyenne of how to create fabulous low-calorie snacks from corporate food-like substances. I kid you not.

Lisa Lillien has written a "cookbook" about how to blend all this fake food into yummy, diabetes-courting combinations. Sadly, the Hungry Girl has made a small fortune from said cookbook; as of this morning it's #15 on Amazon.

Here's a taste of Lisa Lillien's unfathomable food wisdom, from the Washington Post article: "Lillien knows she has critics out there. "People are hypocrites," she says. "They say 'shop the perimeter of the store, never eat anything that's not organic,' but it's B.S., because people can't live like that forever."

What have we come to? Just four generations ago, 75% of Americans lived on farms. By default, all food was local and organic and seasonal. 80 years ago, only the elite could eat out-of-season food from far away- it was prohibitively expensive for ordinary folks to eat, say, oranges in August. That out-of-season orange was the ultimate display of food elitism. Now, food elitism is eating organic, in-season food, and cooking it yourself. It's come to this: eating real food is elitist. Real food, that we humans have adapted to over millennia. We are not adapted to HFCS and hydrogenation and aspartame and preservatives. We're not even adapted to out-of-season foods; it's one of the many reasons we're fat. Avoiding the "modern" diet is not elitism, it's just evolutionary. It's listening to the wisdom of the seasons and culture and human history.

But she'll soon discover the best low-calorie diet of all; it's called the peak oil diet. It's the diet where you're hungry all the time because the supermarkets are empty and you don't know how to grow your own food, or store it, or cook it. Hungry Girl is sure to love it- she'll be skinny as a rail.

Spring Gardening in the Great White North

2009-04-23T10:33:00.012-04:00

I'm still waiting to hear just how much federal reeducation money is coming my way so I can move on with my life. Thank goodness for gardening. It's a welcome and worthwhile distraction. Spring in Detroit this year is not nearly as cold and miserable as it was last year, though we did have sleet and hail a few days ago.

Sweet peas, potted
---

Tomatoes and peppers, started
---

Maple seedlings from last year that I didn't have the heart to kill- I found them rooted amongst the eggplants. But now what do I do with them?
---

Cuke power! Go cuke go.

Daunting.

2009-04-13T08:57:00.011-04:00

(omg)
---

Here's a completely overwhelming list of prerequisites at one school I'm considering for my second career as a registered dietitian; the school is Wayne State University, just two blocks from our house in downtown Detroit. These are needed before I can even enter their RD program. Similar prereqs are required at all schools- and frankly, if the program were any easier, I'd wonder if they were instead filling my head with marshmallow fluff.

I've taken only one of these- inorganic chemistry- and that was 14 years ago, so I'll need to take it again. But really, even if they told me I could skip it, I wouldn't. I remember not a single thing about chemistry. Heck, I'll probably have to take remedial algebra just so I can remember how to balance equations.

But jeepers, there are 17 prereqs. If I take 2 classes per semester per year, including summer classes, I'll finish the prereqs in 3 years. I seriously doubt I can handle more than 6 classes a year given the difficulty of the subjects, not to mention the foreignness- design professionals generally are not exposed to microbiology in our workdays. So, Gah! Tell me I'm not nuts, and I can do this.

Basic Life Mechanisms

Anatomy/Physiology

Microbiology

Chemistry, Inorganic

Chemistry Lab, Inorganic

Organic Chemistry I

Organic Chemistry I - Lab

Organic Chemistry II

Statistics

Psychology

Anthropology or Sociology

Microeconomics

Management

Food Science

Food Science - Lab

Human Nutrition

Human Nutrition - Lab

By Jove, I've Got It- Registered Dietitian!

2009-04-09T23:27:00.018-04:00

(6-11 servings of grains daily? This pyramid bought to you by the grain lobby.)
---

I think I've stumbled upon the perfect second career for me. It's so obvious I don't know why it didn't occur to me before.

Registered Dietitian!
Foodie? Check!
Super-opinionated about food? Check!
Love science? Check!
Feel like I'm making a difference? Check!
Potential for political activism? Check!
Growing field? Check!
Teaching/ coaching? Check!
Professional degree that doesn't require me to be an entrepreneur? Check!

I think the fact that I'm a gardener, pickler, fermenter, and food traditionalist could really work in my favor, too. Or not- depending on how many of my professors are bought and paid for by Monsanto.

Which leads me to a drawback: I have a bit of a subversive streak. Naw, it's bigger than a mere streak. It has its own area code.

For instance, I think reducing food to nutrients or constituent parts (Eat more beta carotene! Eat more oat bran! Fish oil will save us all!) is a bunch of hooey which serves only one purpose- to stuff the pocketbook of Big Food. And even though, every few years, the food authorities make a big show of announcing reversals on former findings, these things have a way of coming up again and again (beta carotene, oat bran, and fish oil lobbyists shoulder a lot of the blame- politics and food, together again). And I'm sure also it's the Cartesian reductionist model of science, hard at work. I intuitively know that there is more to food than it's parts. And I have a feeling that view wouldn't be terribly popular in most RD programs.

Another unpopular opinion of mine: Big Food has inflicted a vast evil upon humanity and ecology in the name of profit and global domination. That'll make me a total freaking ray of sunshine in an RD program, won't it? Michigan State has an outstanding program in food and nutrition sciences, but the school also has many ties to industry. That troubles me deeply. But moving out of state for school is out of the question.

Still. This is the first time I've felt really excited about a second career. And I've been looking for a second career for more than a decade; golly, I was thinking of changing my major to medicine when I was in my second year of grad school. Sad to say I chickened out.

Now the only problem is, I'm too excited to sleep.

New Documentary- "Food, Inc."

2009-04-09T10:07:00.003-04:00

Coming to an (independent) theatre near you, hopefully in June. Note the voiceover in the trailer is Michael Pollan.

Scientific American Update on Bees

2009-04-05T22:21:00.005-04:00

(I've gotta bee me)
---

Scientific American's April 2009 publication has an update on our honey bee troubles, known as Colony Collapse Disorder. An excerpt follows below, but the 'are-you-freaking-kidding-me-no-duh' italics at the end are mine:

"...no single culprit has been identified. Bees suffering from CCD tend to be infested with multiple pathogens, including a newly discovered virus, but these infections seem secondary or opportunistic much the way pneumonia kills a patient with AIDS. The picture now emerging is of a complex condition that can be triggered by different combinations of causes. There may be no easy remedy to CCD. It may require taking better care of the environment and making long-term changes to our beekeeping and agricultural practices."

I'm glad it's finally getting reported that way in a mainstream publication, even if organic, local, small-scale beekeepers have been saying the very same thing since the beginning of the crisis. Despite the article's publication in corporate-friendly, Big Ag-friendly Scientific American, the article dares to briefly take on honeybee nutrition, criticizing fencerow to fencerow planting, monocropping, and suburban lawns- all of which are food deserts to bees. It also has some words about pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. I certainly hope this article gets noticed.

My Little Greenhouse

2009-04-02T08:26:00.009-04:00

(cozy!)
---

I've had these big honking storage bins for years. Yes, they are plastic. No, I don't buy plastic storage bins anymore. But year after year, I keep finding uses for them. And this year, I've turned them into winter sowing greenhouses. In this little greenhouse are most of my cold crops, and as an experiment, a few herb hot crops. I was inspired by my e-friend Kateri over at Dandelion Haven. She had a great post about winter sowing and I really wanted to try it. It took me a while to figure it out since I don't have any actual terra firma of my own to work with. So this upside-down bin, with the lid as the tray, was my hybrid solution. (Because the bins are not greenhouse-size they don't get super warm, but they have certainly kept the soil from freezing.)

So far, only the Lacinato kale has come up- it looks very hardy and perfectly happy. The real trial will be the sweet basil and the tulsi, but I'm also starting these two dears indoors on an electric seedling mat with my other hot crops, just in case. I expect that my curcubits and melons and beans will do just fine. And I must say, this winter sowing stuff certainly appeals to my secret, latent lazy streak. These winter-sown puppies will not need hardening off- and hardening off is always a pain in the butt, what with all that carting indoors and outdoors; an hour one day, two hours the next, three hours the following. Winter sowing might be a neat new trick.

Bunday Munday- Hole, On Schedule

2009-03-30T12:40:00.003-04:00

She'll finish this job by the end of the day. It's done when her big furry butt can fit through it.

"Bunnylicious" website

2009-03-24T20:25:00.006-04:00

I've never seen this site before. Therein lies some pretty fabulous rabbit-themed art (and some of it possibly NSFW, depending on the coolness of your boss). Me, I just kept saying "wow" over and over again. Mighty fine.

Here's a Little Ditty About Paul Krugman

2009-03-24T09:04:00.002-04:00

My sentiments exactly. Hey Paul Krugman, where the hell are you, man?

Bunday Munday- Mmmmm, Concrete

2009-03-23T08:48:00.005-04:00

(licklicklicklicklick)
---

Our condo has I-beams holding up the ceiling (industrial "loft" style). At the base of the I-beams are 2x2 foot slabs of concrete. The buns like to lick the concrete. They like to lick it so much they leave wet spots. Licking the concrete occurs after breakfast but before afternoon sleepytime. Buns are funny.

Second Career Blahs, also known as Navel-Gazing

2009-03-20T17:28:00.007-04:00

(Not the second career for me)
---

My e-friend Verde over at the blog Justice Desserts mentioned the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator the other day. It reminded me that I should, maybe, be using my type as one possible map through the funemployment muck. And since the muck is getting deeper, I'm willing to try anything. Please forgive the high-intensity navel-gazing, but I'm in a bad place today.

When I was 20, I took the Myers-Briggs test and tested as an INFJ. I took the test again last year-18 years later- and since MB types are usually the same for life, I scored once again as an INFJ. We INFJs are the rarest type- about 1% of the population. We are extremely idealistic; it's vital that we find purpose in life. We are sensitive to a fault, and intense (that was my mother's favorite word for me, but she didn't mean it as a compliment). We have lots of interests and long for a true calling. Apparently we make really good monks and nuns-- but I'm a non-believer, and never mind that I'm married.

I tried to get my mess nailed down by writing about it, but it didn't really help. Navel gazing- well, you know.:

I'm a 39-year-old female seeking a second career. I was a textile designer for twelve years, but I hated it. It wasn't really the job itself, but I hated the corporate structure I was shoehorned into. I don't suffer corporate B.S. gladly. It was, by far, the worst part of the job. I held a variety of crappy odd jobs up until grad school, all of them miserable, mostly retail. Going to art school for undergrad prepared me for, well, nothing.

So I went to grad school to get a real job. But the real job turned out to be a nightmare for so many reasons. I was trapped in the career because of huge grad and undergrad student loans; I moved from job to job because every mill I ever worked for was always on the verge of closing (thanks, NAFTA); I was taught the barest minimum of skills in grad school, but was reassured by my professors- "Not to worry, you'll learn on the job from master weavers!"- except, master weavers didn't exist anymore. The professors who told us that had been out of the textile industry for 20 years. So for 12 years, I felt like I was scrambling to catch up. And I don't have the aptitude for tracking the million little details in manufacturing. I'm not a multi-tasker-- I'm a single-tasker. I need to address one thing thoroughly until it's finished. I think multi-tasking is over-rated. And the corporations insist its a worker's most important attribute so they can wring every last penny out of value out of us.

I’m desperate to find my true calling. Paradoxically, I have lots of interests- though I can't see how any could be careers. My interests are vegetable gardening, hand-spinning, knitting, cooking, canning, pickling- most of my interests are probably best described as 19th century homemaking skills. Useful, but pretty uninteresting to most folks. My husband has suggested pickling, but scaling up scares me. The business side scares me. Investing in equipment and and a commercial kitchen scares me. The food industry scares me. Selling stuff scares me.

Having been laid off from textile manufacturing, I will soon qualify for re-education benefits. I’m willing to go back to school, but I have no idea for what. And the last time I took a blind leap into school, I ended up with a 12-year-long nightmare. I cried on many, many Sunday nights; I hated Mondays.

I'm drawn to biology- in high school, I wanted to be a marine biologist. Lately my interests are soil biology, agroecology, and plant pathology. But starting over in biology scares me, and the re-education benefits will only go so far. Besides, my memory for scientific nomenclature is non-existent. And, well- there's the math. Math came much easier to me in grad school (I have a Master of Science- took graduate chemistry- hardest B+ of my life) but it is definitely not painless.

I'm considering a 1-year certificate program for sustainable agriculture at Michigan State, but most students out of the program start their own small farms or work for community gardens. I'll never be able to start my own farm (landless peasant that I am), and jobs with an urban ag non-profit could be a tough row to hoe. I'll be 41 when I finish that certificate. I'm not so much the scrapper I used to be. And my inability to multi-task may not be such a good fit, either.

My husband thinks we should work towards buying and running a B&B. It does fit with a lot of my skills, but I'm not a natural extrovert; I have to work very hard at it, and afterward I need a lot of recuperation time. And, I don't have a competitive or entrepreneurial bone in my body- not an indicator for success in the wonderful world of capitalism. I think money lessens the value of everything it touches. I don't want to get in touch with my inner capitalist. I'd much rather get in touch with my inner socialist.

I don't want to be rich or famous.

I want to work in a pretty place, or at least have access to daylight and fresh air every day.

I've always wanted to be a noted expert on some small, esoteric thing that's really important to a handful of people.

Sometimes I think the most important thing is just growing really great tomatoes every summer.

I'm sure I must have a true calling, but it's probably in a field that has never occurred to me. And with my luck, it's in a place I can't move to, or in a time that doesn't exist anymore.

Sometimes I think I'd be best suited to life on a well-run intentional community (is that an oxymoron?) But that kind of life would definitely not suit my husband. Besides, living in an intentional community isn’t an avocation or a career.

Oh jeepers. I'm in such a muddle.

HR 875-- Chill, people

2009-03-16T10:06:00.031-04:00

(Just a bill)

---

Ok, there's a lot of buzz on the interwebs (and by buzz, I mean hysteria) about HR 875, The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. The primary sin of the bill is that it is vague (as bills are), and vagueness is the devil's playground. It allows those with a conspiratorial bent to fill in the gaps as it suits their agendas- and I should know, since I'm one of 'em.

Important stuff you should know first--
1) The bill is tabled, and not currently up for a vote.
2) The bill has failed before.
3) The bill has little support and is not likely to pass.

So, what's in the bill? The bill is a knee-jerk reaction to the various industrial-scale food scares we've had in the last few years- mind you, these are contaminations caused by, or aided by, the industrial food system itself. And naturally, the bill wants to fix the symptoms and not the root cause of the problem. It's kind of like the War on Drugs, or the War on Terrorism- to only go after symptoms and not the root cause is a Quixotic, endless fight. But lately, that's what American gov'mint does best.

The bill also wants to create a new agency called the "Food Safety Administration"; in fact, it wants to split the FDA into two agencies- one concerned solely with food safety, and one concerned with drugs and medical devices. The bill also calls for tougher oversight over contamination, mainly by increasing the frequency of inspections at processing plants. Splitting food and drugs is probably a good thing, but our food would need far less oversight in the first place if the system was simply decentralized. Of course, that'll never happen- the last thing the system wants is to cease to exist, or exist in diminished capacity. That would be bad for the system, see.

The biggest problem with the bill is that it appears to seek a one-size-fits-all solution to the contamination problems; it never specifies if these measures will apply to mega-farms, or Chinese imports, or small organic farms. And that lack of specification is what's causing the panic. Do I think it will apply the same measures equally to every different food system we already have? No. Just because the bill hasn't formally excluded small organic farms or even backyard gardens (it doesn't, but it should) doesn't automatically mean it will go after them. This bill does not call for the formation of the Greenshirt Food Police.

Most importantly: The bill does not cover anything already regulated by the USDA. That includes seeds and seed banks, farmer's markets, microchipping of animals (a whole other mess unto itself- hello, NAIS), and food traceability. Backyard and community gardeners, please exhale now. You will still be able to buy open-pollinated seed. And no Greenshirts will rip out your heirloom tomatoes at 2 AM.

This bill was introduced by Connecticut 03 Rep Rosa DeLauro, and her husband, Stan Greenberg, is the CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a consulting firm. Guess who's on the client list for GQR? It starts with an M and rhymes with Schmonsanto. I totally believe DeLauro's motivations are less than pure. I'm equally certain the giant holes in the bill would allow Big Ag more liberties. And probably that her husband would love a new job title- say, Director of the Food Safety Administration. But do I think one single bill could allow for a vast, evil corporate takeover of our small farms and gardens and farmer's markets? Nope. Not gonna happen.

Food activists are passionate folks, and I can understand the panic a bill like this would generate. Clean, safe, fresh food is not a luxury, it is a basic human right. But government-planned machinations are just not in this bill. What's in the bill is a whole lotta vagueness. Like, I said-- devil's playground, people. But still, do contact your congressman and ask them to vote a big fat NO on this bill should it come back up. Sloppy, knee-jerk legislation is not helpful, no matter what the topic. Besides, it's good to call your congressman's office now and again. Shows them you're paying attention.

Bunday Munday- Some privacy, please?

2009-03-16T09:52:00.003-04:00

Can't a girl get some privacy 'round here? Always with the camera...

Favorite Lunch

2009-03-13T12:13:00.002-04:00

(yum)
---

Pickles n' sandwiches- what could be better?

These are some of the pickles I made last summer, from four different jars--
--Baby eggplants, fermented first, pickled later
--Mixed hot and sweet peppers, fermented first and pickled later
--Spicy dilly beans, pickled only
--Giardiniera (cauliflower, Romanesco broccoli, peppers, garlic) , pickled only

And a turkey sandwich-- home-roasted, buttermilk-brined turkey (a really big turkey breast from Heritage Foods- best turkey ever) on my favorite farmer's spelt bread.

The eggplant was a funny thing. I decided to leave the skins on, since they were all about golf ball-sized; I just washed and quartered them and tossed them into the brine. But after two weeks in the crock, something was amiss. They weren't spoiled, but the mouth-feel was wrong. The flesh was too soft, the skin was too toothy. The flavor was shallow and mainly metallic. But the eggplant whispered to me: give us a chance. So I jarred them up with basil, garlic, and red wine vinegar. And then, they sat. I cracked the first jar in about January- that means they pickled for 5 months. Something truly magical happened in vitro. The flavor became wonderfully complex, the skins softened, the flesh firmed up. I'm so glad I listened to the eggplant. I will always pickle eggplant now.

Customers of the month!

2009-03-11T09:43:00.006-04:00

(Eastern Market's Flower Day, this May and every May)
---

My husband and I have been featured as March 2009 customers of the month for our local farmer's market, Eastern Market. It's a sweet little writeup. We love our market very much.

Bunday Munday- Bunny Butts

2009-03-09T09:19:00.004-04:00

(licklicklick)
---

If you stick your hand in between them when they're sitting like this, it's the warmest, softest thing you can possibly imagine. And they don't seem to mind too much. At least, they don't get up and leave.

Funemployment mittens

2009-03-04T10:10:00.008-05:00

(Mmm, toasty)
---

I finished these puppies last night. Yarn is handspun, Navajo-plied; finished yarn is about a DK size. Needle was size 5, cast on 36 at the cuff. There's probably enough leftover orange yarn for a hat.

Store-bought mittens never fit me right- I have small, skinny hands and stupidly long thumbs. My hands always feel adrift inside them. But these fit.

Spring cleaning this year includes donating most of my stash of commercial yarn. To lighten the load and remove further temptation, I've decided to only knit with yarn I've personally hand-spun. It keeps the stash under control, is super-cheap, and limits me. I have the utmost respect for limits. No, I'll go further and say I truly love limits. They free me up from too much choice, which I've always found crippling.

Funemployment is an excellent opportunity to exercise the voluntary simplicity muscles. Well, ok- I suppose the simplicity in this case is actually semi-voluntary. But still, it is liberating.

Funemployment update

2009-03-02T09:18:00.009-05:00

(That's me, in the middle)
---

What I did on my week-long funemployment vacation: made casseroles in the middle of the day, almost finished some unfinished knit projects, spun yarn from the roving stash, started seedlings, got a pretty good head start on spring cleaning.

And I worried, lots.

On bright side, my skin looks great! Work stress always shows up in my skin, but no work = no work stress. Weirdly, unemployment stress doesn't seem to count. Who knew?

I think I know what I want to do next. Michigan State University offers a 2-year certificate in sustainable agriculture.

But yeah, I'm worried. I'm worried that a 2-year certificate (that's as much as the state will help pay for) is not going to be enough education, even though I already have a (now useless) Masters of Science in my former field. I've looked online at job listings in the emerging urban ag field- most of the interesting jobs seem to require 4-year undergrad degrees. I already did the 4-year thing a long time ago. Besides, I just finished paying off my student debt last year, and the thought of a brand new pile of indentured servitude at age 40 completely fills me with dread. It's called trickle-down economics these days, but it used to be called Feudalism. But I digress.

I also worry I'm too old for a second career in such a physically demanding field; I have really terrible knees and a bad neck. Small women are surely at a disadvantage in a field that requires physical strength. I can lift about 40 pounds if you need me to move it somewhere, but it's a struggle. I fear I'll be eating extra strength Tylenol for breakfast, lunch and dinner the rest of my working life.

I'm attending an organic food and farming conference this weekend in Lansing, called MOFFA. Maybe I'll find some answers soon, or at least a better idea of what I'm getting into.

And then there's the small matter of land. I was telling the wife of my favorite farmer about my possible new career path on Saturday at the farmer's market; I told her that my dream job was to become the head gardener for a local and seasonal restaurant. And she plainly (and kindly) asked, "And you'll grow the food, where?" It was rather startling to hear, but was a point well taken. Her one little question is all I've thought about all weekend. After all, I come from a long line of lifelong, landless apartment dwellers with no money. So I'll be a landless, itinerant peasant gardener with permanent knee and neck pain, hooray! Think my new field comes with a good dental plan?

Sweet Pea Seedlings Don't Care About Politics

2009-02-17T09:12:00.009-05:00

(Great stuff)
---

Astonishingly enough, my sweet peas are up. They germinated very quickly, more than a full week faster than I expected (normal germination is 14- 21 days; these were up in 5 days). Most instructions for sweet peas say "soak in water for 24 hours", but I really think using filtered water this time made all the difference. Ever since learning to ferment vegetables, I'm very conscious of chlorine in water; chlorine inhibits many positive bacterial functions. Surely there's some chlorine-free magic afoot with these babies.

And even though we are getting another 7 inches of snow today and tomorrow, if the sweet peas are up, spring is almost here. Even though my frost date is April 21, I expect they can go out in about 4 weeks (End of March). Sweet peas are tough little buggers.

Crappity crap crap

2009-02-16T10:22:00.012-05:00

(Hope you like soup)
---

I've never written about my day-job in here, but I lost my day-job this morning. I'm sure I'm just one of another 600,000 this month, just like January. What are you gonna do? Maybe Michigan has re-education opportunities. I'm going to take my time and figure this out. But considering the global pickle were in, I'm not expecting much any time soon.

Still, I'm really mad. A lot of economists are mad. A lot of economists blame the Republicans, and they start with Reagan and his cockamamie trickle-down crapola. Trickle-down economics-- what a load of hooey. The rich won't share, you idiots. How do you think they got rich? By not sharing! And whoever thought the market would self-regulate must have been high. Oh wait, that's the core belief of the GOP for the last 28 years. Along with their other core beliefs, hate and fear. Greed, hate, and fear. Some folks think the GOP is dying. Geez, I hope so.

So, thanks, you greedy Repug jerks. You laissez-faire, trickle-down, Milton Friedmanite, oligarchic-fascist, fear-mongering asshats; yeah, you, the ones granting personhood status to corporations while carrying the bible and wrapping yourselves in the flag. You won't rest until you turn us little people back into surfs or slaves. You won't rest until you can make a profit on everything, use up every last natural resource, trash every ecosystem, destroy the air, soil and water, control every genome. You suck.

Ok, I actually feel a little better after that. Now what? Yeah, I dunno.

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin!

2009-02-12T07:40:00.005-05:00

Today is Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. (Bows head in reverence.)
---

Towards the end of his long and amazing life, Darwin was finally able to devote himself to a lifelong interest- the biology and function of earthworms. While still in his thirties, he was certain that earthworms performed a key role in soil biology, though he was unable to spend time on what he called his "hobbyhorse" until old age. His last volume is still considered one of the best studies ever written on earthworms, called "The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, With Observations of their Habits". It was published in 1881, one year before his death. The entire book is available on-line here.

Notes on Hemp

2009-02-11T17:27:00.003-05:00

(Cannibis satvia- industrial hemp)
---

I'm a huge fan of hemp-- the industrial fiber Cannabis sativa, not so much the smokin' herb-- but I do think every species of the plant should be totally legal. I wish I could grow both forms, hemp and marijuana, in my own garden; I'd gladly whip up the occasional dish of baked goods with the drug variety. Smoking the stuff is epic fail for me: I cough my lungs out and then sleep the sleep of the dead for 12 hours-- so, meh. Give me a Bloody Mary any day. And bonus, alcohol is legal.

Industrial hemp makes great yarn and fabric, beautiful paper, grows ridiculously fast, and can grow everywhere. It's beyond stupid that we have outlawed such an incredibly useful plant because of misguided prudery. But that's the American way. Thanks, Puritans! You've helped in so many ways!

I ran across these tasty bits over at Huffington Post today, though I'm sure they've been oft reposted on all the pro-hemp sites. But hemp is cool, so I want to play, too.

--The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp.

--80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.

--It was legal to pay taxes with Hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s.

--Refusing to grow Hemp in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries was against the law. You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769.

--Rembrants, Gainsboroughs, Van Goghs as well as most early canvas paintings were principally painted on hemp linen.

--In 1916, the U.S. Government Dept. of Agriculture predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down.

--For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and rope were made from hemp. The word 'canvas' is Dutch for cannabis.

--The hemp plant produces up to four times more cellulose per acre than trees. Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that Hemp produces 4 times as much pulp with at least 4 to 7 times less pollution.

--Hemp fuel is non-toxic, biodegradable and does not contribute to sulfur dioxide air poisoning.

--In Feb. 1938, Popular Mechanics called Hemp a 'Billion Dollar Crop.' It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars.

--The following information comes directly from the United States Department of Agriculture's 1942 14-minute film encouraging and instructing 'patriotic American farmers' to grow 350,000 acres of hemp each year for the war effort: '...(When) Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable...

...Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese...American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our industries...

...the Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!'

Mama's Got a Brand New (tea) Bag

2009-02-10T17:37:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness, you guys have gotta try this stuff. Tulsi tea will not be news to some of you (yes, I'm looking at you, D. Moll), but I decided last week to try some, and it's heavenly stuff. I'm in love. I found this particular brand at my favorite health food store- it's new to their shelves. I don't know what made me want to try this particular tea, but then, I'm always on the lookout for new teas. MMMmmm warm, flavored, (no calorie) liquids mmmmm.

Tulsi is also known as Holy Basil. There's definitely a basil-y taste to it, but I'd say it's deeper and richer. Tulsi is sacred to Hindus, and is purported to have all kinds of healing properties-- mouth sores, female complaints, digestive issues, common cold and sore throat, and it's supposed to be energizing, too. Bunches of claims are made for it. I just know I really like the taste and scent, and I really do feel more energetic after a pot of it, especially in the low hours of the afternoon.

Ever notice that when you learn something new, suddenly you see it everywhere? Well, I've just discovered that Johnny's sells seed packets of this plant. I'm so growing it this year.

Bunday Munday- Cecilia's Toilette

2009-02-09T17:34:00.000-05:00

Why should she like to sit slightly elevated while grooming? I have no idea. But she does.

GMO protestor gets 22 years' imprisionment

2009-02-06T18:46:00.003-05:00

This woman, Marie Mason, was handed a 22-year sentence yesterday because she protested (granted, with arson- not the best tactic) Michigan State University's role in the development in genetically modified crops.

The judge, U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney, called her acts as an “abandonment of the marketplace of ideas.”

I couldn't disagree more with Judge Paul Maloney; there is zero possibility for a protester to engage in the 'marketplace of ideas' when it comes to GMO. Cargill, Monsanto, and ADM are unstoppable global Goliaths with gazillions of dollars and tens of thousands of of well-paid scientists and lobbyists firmly ensconced in every hall of power on the planet. There is no David that can fight them. I completely understand what might lead a very passionate individual to such tactics.

Marie had been a peaceful protester once, but she joined Earth Liberation Front after peaceful methods didn't make any headway. When you're trying to reason with unbelievably greedy and sociopathic corporations, peaceful methods are useless. I often wonder how Gandhi would have dealt with Big Ag had it existed in his time.

---

Here's how farmers in India protest their own government forcing them to use GM seeds- they commit suicide. By the thousands. This enforcement is another step in India's "Green Revolution", which took place in the mid-20th century right after their independence from Britain. Millions of people were starving and dying in India, so the new government introduced Western farming practices nation-wide. At the time, it included the use of pesticides and petro-fertilizers. Now it includes GM seeds.

But, why was there mass-starvation in India in the first place? India is home to one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Farming has existed there for at least 6,000 years, with no need for chemical or GM help. The starvation of the 20th century wasn't due to sudden population explosion or ignorance on the part of Indians. It was the result of the British Empire forcing farmers to grow non-food crops for export (cotton, indigo, spices) instead of the incredibly diverse food crops they had always grown. But even after Ghandi's revolution, British monocrops were still firmly in place. So how to feed many people and still grow the financially important export crops? Implement Western food monocrop methods which require chemicals and pesticides. The methods worked fine for a while, just like they do everywhere else. But eventually, the soil suffers and dies, bugs evolve with pesticide resistance, water runs out or becomes poisoned. So the process must be stepped up. And GM seeds came along just in time.

With the use of Western chemicals, at least farmers could still save seeds. But once the government forced the farmers to use GM seed, they couldn't save seeds from year to year anymore, for two reasons. First, GM seeds are hybrids. Saving hybrid seeds is folly. The seeds might or might not produce the next year- or when they do produce, the plants are poor. When you can't save seeds, you have to buy seeds, every year. Second, even if the farmers were able to save hybrid seeds, it would be illegal to do so because Monsanto owns the genes. This forced practice is absurdly expensive for poor farmers. And seeds from Monsanto corporate central won't necessarily grow in a farmer's particular micro-climate.

Seeds saved from year to year, for many years, are called "land-races". They have been slowly selected over time by local farmers who live on that particular patch of dirt, and they produce best for that spot. India has millions of these micro-climates, and there were probably tens of millions of land-race seeds all over India before the GM revolution. But land-race seeds are now dying out, and the GM seeds don't produce nearly as well. Farmers are forced into bankruptcy because they have to buy seed every year, or they have no profit because of bad crop production, or both. Culture suffers, families suffer, villages suffer. As farmers fail, Big Ag Mega-corps buy up the land. As land becomes privatized, Big Ag companies gain more power. So otherwise voiceless and desperate individuals protest in the only way they can.

Forced GMO use is happening in the US, too, though there are no known suicides from it. Farmers are strong-armed into buying GM seeds, and are sued if their non-GM crops test positive for privately owned genetics, since the Big Ag company "owns" that patented organism. And how does a non-GM crop become positive for those genetic markers? Pollen drift. Because of wind. Pollen can't be contained. And no one knows what will happen over time if GM genes are widely released and absorbed into our food sources.

I understand the frustration of Marie Mason. And now that we have a pro-GMO Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, I'm even more frustrated and less hopeful.

Home gardeners in the U.S. have some choices for non-GMO seeds. My personal favorite is Seed Saver's Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. Every gardener should grow at least some heirloom, non-GMO vegetable seeds, and learn to save seeds. It's really the only way we can fight back.

New to container gardening? I'm here to help.

2009-02-06T12:39:00.006-05:00

(Mid June, 2008- it seems so far away)
---

Hiya Erin, glad you stopped by. I was going to post this response to your questions in the comments section, but it got really big, and besides, it all bears repeating because (hoists self up onto soapbox) everyone should be growing at least some of their own food, and now more than ever.

You'll be happy to know there's so much more to container gardening than tomatoes. A great book I recommend is called "Movable Harvests" by Crandall and Crandall. It talks about soil mixes in detail, very important in container gardening. Another book is "The Bountiful Container" by McGee and Stuckey. That book has a big following, but personally I find it too cutesy, with far too many pages dedicated to edible flowers. Also, I prefer photographs to line illustrations- the former has photos, the latter does not.

Ok, some advice!

My number one piece of advice- If you're new to container gardening, start small the first year. If you try to grow too much you'll be completely overwhelmed and probably never want to do it again. There's a lot to learn, and you learn it plant by plant.

My number 2- Grow what you like to cook and eat, plain and simple.

Number 3- Think vertically. Any vining plant (squash, peas, pole beans, small melons) can be tied and trained upwards with poles, trellises and twine. If given a choice, grow vining varieties over bush varieties. They are usually far more productive.

Number 4- Get potting mix, not potting soil. There are important differences between them, number one being that roots need a lot of oxygen and potting mix allows for much better aeration. Potting soil will compact quickly and stunt your plants. Don't be attracted to the giant bags of topsoil for vegetables, they are mixed for in-ground gardens. Container gardening is a horse of a different color.

Hope that helps. If you have any specific questions, just ask.

February Sunshine

2009-02-05T12:35:00.002-05:00

(Mmmm sun)

---

Sunshine in Detroit never lasts long this time of year; if we're lucky, we'll get an hour of sun in the morning before light succumbs to clouds for the rest of the day... and the next day, and the day after that, seemingly ad infinitum. But I can tell by the angle of the light this morning- spring is coming. Even though it's 8F outside right now. With a -15F windchill. Gah. I hear tell we're getting a heatwave this weekend: 43F. T-shirt time! It's been months since I felt the sun on my arms. The cold this time of year is so relative.

Another reason I know spring is on the way: I start my sweet pea seedlings this weekend. The variety I'm growing is Cuthbertson Floribunda. Is there a lovelier flower than sweet peas? Ok, maybe yes; maybe a big, fat heirloom variety of peony. But then, I like flowers with lots and lots of scent. I don't understand the point, say, of all those gaudy hybrid roses with absolutely no scent left in them. Gauche.

I know I'm getting older because I love flowers a little more every year.

Bunday Munday- Noir Buns

2009-02-02T17:31:00.003-05:00

She blew into my cage on a cold winter wind, wearing a full-length brown fur coat. She was a real looker, though given to flights of fancy. Her claws could be sharp, but that dish had gams all the way up to her velvet ears. She asked to share my chew, and who was I to say no. She tossed her pretty head, said she liked my nose. Days went by, we bumped gums, we pitched woo. I was dizzy with this dame, even thought about making her my frau. Turned out she was a chisel and a worker to boot; I shoulda known she'd breeze.

(Anyone want to add to or finish this bun-noir, go for it in comments- & use this great website!)

Maybe if we all had ducks...

2009-01-26T12:42:00.002-05:00

Bunday Munday- Box time

2009-01-26T07:30:00.001-05:00

Every morning at about 10:00 is box time. Cecilia favors the box over Max, but then she's the alpha bun so she always gets her way, no matter what. Oh, to be the alpha bun.

Farewell, appendix

2009-01-24T09:38:00.007-05:00

(Buh-bye)
---

It's been dark in here for a while, because early last Friday morning I awoke with a bad pain in my lower right-side gut. I had an inkling it was my appendix-- and so it was. I was admitted on Friday night, and the horrid little bacteria-filled thing was out by Saturday afternoon. In the interim, I've been lallygagging around on the sofa for a week, mostly sleeping the stone-dead sleep which can only be brought to us by Vicodin. Sadly, I was half-watching through one heavily lidded, well-drugged eye while Obama was being sworn in on Tuesday. "Q: So, where were you when Obama became President? A: On my sofa, recuperating from an appendectomy." Blah.

As of yesterday, I can sit up for longer than 30 minutes at a pop. My incisions itch and I'm getting bored, so I must be marching towards "better".

My little drop spindle

2009-01-13T12:54:00.007-05:00

(happy little drop spindle)
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I learned to spin 20 years ago, when I was an undergrad. I learned on an old clunker of a wheel held together with kite string and spit. It was a real piece. After college, I didn't spin for a long time.

Three years ago, I got bit by the spinning bug again at a Michigan wool festival. Now I spin almost every day. Recently I started teaching spinning at a nearby knit shop. I just really love spinning. Knitting is work, but spinning is restful. And it's so arcane. For me, the more arcane it is the better I like it.

I have two spinning wheels, but lately I'd much rather use this drop spindle. It's a cheap student spindle; I needed to learn how to spin with it if I was going to teach it in my class. But now I'm utterly addicted and I use the blasted thing everywhere. I spin with it in my weekly knitting group. I spin with it at the movies. I even tried spinning in the car over the weekend, just to see if I could (as a passenger, not while driving).

If I'm spinning in public, the spindle itself gets long, mesmerized stares. Sometimes I can tell they have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. But usually, no one even notices I'm doing it. In the past, I'd take my collapsible spinning wheel to weekly knit group, but we meet in a coffee shop and it felt like showboating. This little spindle is such a subtle thing. I spin between my legs when I'm sitting. To look at me, you'd just think I was sitting in a rather un-lady-like position, and doing something weird with my hands (hard to tell exactly what).

The yarn in the picture is from the drop spindle, but it's 3-plied with a technique called Navajo plying. Picture a really big chain stitch, the very same stitch crocheters are first taught. Except, your hands are the crochet needle, and the big chain stitch is spinning onto a bobbin on a spinning wheel. When using this plied yarn for knitting, the technique works best with very soft fiber such as Shetland, because spinning this way makes a hard (though very beautiful) yarn. Traditionally, this yarn is used for the hidden warp in Navajo rugs. It's amazingly strong.

The fruit of this drop spindle will eventually become a fisherman's sweater for my husband. The sample in the picture is from the Navajo yarn next to it. The pattern is just so crisp.

Yes, it will take a long time to make this sweater, but I'm ok with that.

Just when I think I can't have a bigger crush on Mike Rowe

2009-01-12T12:54:00.003-05:00

I'm a big fan of the Discovery show Dirty Jobs, and the show wouldn't be the same without Mike's charms. However, this FORA.TV video he made in December just completely takes it to a new level. The video is about 20 minutes.

Bunday Munday- Hey hoomans, wher'd the tree go?!?

2009-01-12T12:08:00.000-05:00

I blame the hoomans for the mysterious and abrupt disappearance of my Christmas tree.

On the bright side, at least I still have this tasty box.

Just when I think I can't have a bigger crush on Anderson Cooper

2009-01-08T07:54:00.003-05:00

...he goes and does THIS.

Bunday Munday- Ears to you

2009-01-05T12:28:00.002-05:00

Friends, Romans, countrymen. Bunnies.

Op Ed from Today's New York Times

2009-01-05T07:44:00.001-05:00

(Love your mother)

---

Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry have written an outstanding piece about the importance of proper soil management, titled "The 50-Year Farm Bill", in the Op-Ed section of today's New York Times.

An excerpt: "For 50 or 60 years, we have let ourselves believe that as long as we have money we will have food. That is a mistake. If we continue our offenses against the land and the labor by which we are fed, the food supply will decline, and we will have a problem far more complex than the failure of our paper economy. The government will bring forth no food by providing hundreds of billons of dollars to the agribusiness corporations."

I'm really blown away that the NYT would run an opinion piece as detailed and arcane, though as critically important, as this.

I sure hope Governor Vilsack reads the Times.

Winter Experiment

2009-01-02T11:22:00.004-05:00

(Aren't plants amazing?)

---

I crave fresh greens year 'round- even a little bit will do me right. This season, I decided to try and grow some inside. This is a mesclun mix of greens that I just love; it has Golden Streak and Red mustards, Komatsuna, Mizuna, and Skyrocket, all in one packet.

The Indoor Flowerbox Experiment is proceeding about as expected. They germinated in less than 24 hours, but they are rather weak-stemmed since they don't have the wind and rain to knock them around. Apparently an oscillating fan aimed at them provides strengthening air movement; the breeze beefs up cell walls and gives them some heft, but I didn't put a fan on this batch. The lights are my usual seedling lights- I use 4-foot-long, fish tank florescents. And I've provided some additional food by way of worm castings.

I've already thinned twice, and they were perfectly edible, if a bit redolent of hot-house-- sort of like a corporate tomato shipped from California in February. Still, they are home-grown, and they're mine. No 3,000 mile greens here.

These hardy varieties would do very well in a cold frame outdoors, even in a Detroit winter. They would likely go in and out of dormancy, but would absolutely take off in earliest spring. Because of all the construction on the porch at the end of my growing season, I did not build or buy one this year. Maybe I should look into it... Peaceful Valley carries a terrific little cold frame... hmm. Maybe I'm due a little bit of Christmas in January?

Bunday Munday- Tocks and hocks

2008-12-29T16:37:00.005-05:00

Cecilia, giving me her full attention.

Marshmallows on the porch

2008-12-23T10:44:00.004-05:00

(Mmmmm, marshmallows)
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To compliment Houseful of Rabbits' amusing photo of what snow tends to do, I make this humble offer.

Bunday Munday- Tannenbaum buns

2008-12-22T12:24:00.001-05:00

(We demand more trees, hoomans!)

---

We put up the tree a couple of weeks ago, and this is now where the buns love to be more than any other place in the house, day or night. I shudder to think what will become of them come January. They will feel so adrift without their very own tree to hunker under.

We had to take away the tree skirt-- naturally, they wanted to eat it. Same goes for the presents. But as we hooman slaves all know, buns come first.

Speaking of Ducks

2008-12-17T11:40:00.002-05:00

Oh Noez! Vilsack to be Secretary of Agriculture!

2008-12-16T19:50:00.010-05:00

(Mister Secretary)
---

So much for reform to American agriculture. And the decentralization of food systems. And stopping the utter boondoggle of corn ethanol. And the removal of HFCS from 99.9% of our commercial-crap foods. And any real support for traditional polyculture farmers. And putting a stop to the unholy power held and wielded by Monsanto, and ADM, and Cargill.

The Governor of Big Ag Central (that would be Iowa), Tom Vilsack, has been appointed Secretary of Agriculture.

What does this mean? Well, I'm pessimistic. Yeah, I know, I'm a pessimist. The ONLY good thing I can possibly come up with is, maybe, his ability to communicate with the Ag lobbyists- he already knows the players. But, more often than not, he dealt with them by kowtowing to them. With the two exceptions of 1) Des Moines, and 2) Seed Savers Exchange, which every American who eats food should join, the entirety of Iowa has been turned over to giant corporate monoculture farms. While it's true Vilsack didn't start the fire-- that would be Nixon's Agriculture Secretary, Mr. Get-Big-or-Get-Out Earl Butz-- he didn't exactly put it out, either.

And, no surprise here, Vilsack's a big proponent of corn ethanol. Ethanol from corn is so very wrong for so many reasons, among them: inefficiency, pollution, piss-poor energy input vs. energy output ratio, how it screws with global commodity prices. Many folks who pushed for corn ethanol just a year or two ago have backed off considerably now that the facts are far more clear. But not Tom. What's good for Iowa is good for America.

President Elect Obama, I'm really disappointed.

Wonder what our Food Reform Superheroes will have to say about this. Alice Waters, expect to see your Bat-Signal in the sky over Berkeley, and soon. But heads-up, it will be in the shape of an heirloom carrot.

Obama and Agriculture

2008-12-11T12:22:00.010-05:00

(Take it back, people)

---

In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kristof is calling for "bold reform" in the way we administrate our country's agriculture. From the piece, here's a quote from the master himself, Michael Pollan:

“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”

Major reform is unlikely to happen; Monsanto and their ilk will fight it tooth and nail, because there's no profit (for them anyway) in real food. There would also be considerably less profit for the medical and pharmaceutical industries if our population suddenly becomes healthy, since the vast majority of our modern illnesses are food-related. You can bet the multinationals who run our lives don't want any changes made to the current system. So, bold reform will likely not be coming from our government. Even if the government is led by Barack Obama.

But there's another way. Want "bold reform"? I got your bold reform right here. Opt out. Individual American households need to opt out of Big Ag. Plant a garden, grow what you can, preserve what you can. Keep a few chickens. Join or start a community garden. Ask your neighborhood mom and pop store to buy local, seasonal produce and regional foods. Stop going to the big box grocery store. Join a co-op. Buy a cow share. Go to your local farmer's market, and get to know your local farmers. Learn to eat seasonally, and learn to cook from real, whole ingredients, not pre-mixed boxes of corporate crap with who-knows-what mixed into them. Stop reading diet books; listen to your body and the traditions of your region, climate, and culture. Only eat food that your great-grandmother would recognize as food. Reprogram your brain to know this simple truth- cooking is not drudgery; cooking is health and love and life.

Reform will happen one tomato plant, one back yard, one community garden, and one local farmer at a time.

Well, looky here...

2008-12-10T12:49:00.005-05:00

(So... cold....)

---

I went out on the porch at lunchtime to bring in one of the flower boxes. I want to grow some baby Asian greens indoors this winter, under my seedling lights. Lately, I'm craving Asian greens like crazy. I'll settle for even just a leaf or two at a time, chopped fine, for garnish on a hot, buttery, salty baked potato. Mmmm, piping hot potatoes in winter...

Anyway, the still dirt-filled flower boxes are stacked on each other, and they are pretty well frozen, too, except in the drainage crevasses on the undersides of the pots. And behold, what should my little eye spy? Worms. My worms. Eisenia fetida. About two dozen. Must have been some egg cases in one of last year's worm poop garden feedings.

This is in a Detroit winter, folks. Today's high is fixing to be, oh, about 27 F. That's some powerful worms. I am mightily impressed. I'll go out again later, on another worm recon mission.

The little buggers were ice cold, but started immediately wriggling from the heat coming off my hand. I brought them indoors, and tucked them safely in the indoor bin. My palm still remembers the cold of them.

Hand spun yarn

2008-12-09T18:40:00.001-05:00

(1400 yards of two-ply- destined to become a Gansey)
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I've been spinning a lot lately. I love spinning. I first learned how in college, but I picked it up again about three years ago after a long time away. It's mostly a very soothing thing to do (well, unless the roving is crappy-- lumpy, oily, badly carded, full of vegetable matter). Honestly, I prefer it to knitting. Knitting requires far more brain cells, which I don't always have in ready supply at the end of the day.

Starting in January, I'm teaching a spinning class twice a week, and I've been working through the verbiage of the process in my head. Spinning can get very technical, but beginners can't be bothered with crimp-to-staple ratios and other such nonsense- heck, I don't bother with them, either. New spinners just want to make enough yarn to knit a hat or a scarf. So, how to explain what is really very non-verbal? What's important? I do have a handle on a few points.

Pre-drafting is important. Pre-drafting is loosening the fibers before spinning them into yarn. It's probably the single most important thing you can do before spinning.

Treadling as slowly as possible, and in rhythm, is also important. I was told by an experienced spinner to sing a song, such as "Happy Birthday", very, very slowly. Since I can't carry a note in a bucket, I'll probably tap a stick on the floor a la an old-school ballet teacher. And anyway, the first class will be taught on drop spindles.

Sending the new spinners home with some kind of yarn from the very first class is important, too. Even if it's just one measly yard. The first yarn a spinner makes is precious stuff.

I'm open to suggestions. How do you teach something that is really rather intuitive?

Bunday Munday- Not fat, fluffy

2008-12-08T07:58:00.004-05:00

(Cue wolf whistles)
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Cecilia is a big girl. She's a whole lotta of bun. But this snap of her sitting on the edge of the buns' empty bottom bookshelf is too much. Gedda load of that overhang! Surely they make bras for that.

Coolest birthday present ever

2008-12-03T12:37:00.005-05:00

(Da.)

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No, this gift is not useful. Or practical. It does not contribute in any way to the homesteading goals or ideals. But it is so cool.

I turned 39 on Monday, and that number is sort of a biggie for me--29 was, too-- something about those precipice numbers. But this terribly fabulous, vintage Soviet poster makes me smile and temporarily forget I'm nearly 40. It's pretty big- about 28 x 40 inches. Love the colors. And I swear some of the women bear a fleeting resemblance to Jackie O. Must be those doe-like, wide-set eyes.

Official Husband had this framed for me, his state-approved Democratic Socialist wife. Thank you, comrade. More share of pot pie for you.

Thanksgiving pic, 2008

2008-12-01T20:45:00.006-05:00

(An intimate dinner for four)

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This is sort of late, being December and all, but this was a really good meal. Since our table is so small, I had to plate most of it in the kitchen. The menu was nothing out of the ordinary, but everything was from scratch. Here's the list:

Buttermilk-brined heritage turkey
Sage stuffing, made from spelt bread
Mashed potatoes
Giblet gravy
Candied sweet potatoes
Spinach sesame casserole
Roasted cauliflower
Stuffed baked mushroom caps
Whole cranberry sauce
Green tomato chutney
Fresh jardiniere ferment (root and cole mix)
Pumpkin pie with spelt crust

I must say a word or two about the buttermilk brine. Buttermilk brine is the magical prep method for turkey. From here on out, this will always be the way I prep a turkey. I hear it's amazing with chicken, too. This was the best bird any of us had ever eaten. It made truly amazing gravy too, and lots of it.

Buttermilk brine recipe
1 part brine: 1 gallon filtered water to 1 cup pickling salt, plus 1/2 cup brown sugar- stir well until dissolved
1 part buttermilk-- 1 gallon

Cover rinsed and dried bird completely with brine mixture (I used a 3-gallon pickling crock- the little 9 pound bird was a perfect fit). Soak for 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Remove and rinse; roast to preferred instructions.

Wow, just... wow. Great turkey. Highly recommended.

Bunday Munday- Bunny Mischief

2008-12-01T12:19:00.005-05:00

(Bunny, no!)

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For unfathomable reasons, Cecilia is absurdly wound up today. She's digging in the sofa (good thing there's a cover on it- she bites and digs and bites some more); she's standing on the back of the sofa with designs to nibble on the art; she bit two holes in a kilim rug last night. She hasn't been destructive like this since she was a kid. The little jerk. WTF, Cecilia?

Pumpkin pie with spelt crust

2008-11-25T17:10:00.007-05:00

(My first ever pie crust, and the finished pie)

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The wife of my favorite farmer is an outstanding baker. A born baker. A baker's baker. She sells not-to-be-believed sourdough spelt bread. (Oh, and I should mention that her husband grows the spelt on his family's centennial heritage farm- they are living the dream.) I picked her brain for some tricks to spelt pie crusts and she had excellent advice. To you bakers out there, none of this advice will likely come as any surprise, but I'm a born pickler. What do I know from baking?

1) sift flour until you think you can sift no more.
2) cut cold fat in slowly, and in stages.
3) add as little liquid as possible.
4) work the dough as little as possible.
5) keep the pastry board well-floured.
6) chill, baby, chill! (the dough, that is)

And she loaned me a few books- crunchy little baking books from the 60's and 70's, when baking with whole grains was in vogue. Most helpful. The recipes do differ from the new recipes that call for all-purpose or white flour. The book I found most helpful is a tiny 1975 publication called "Making Homemade Apple Pies and Crusts" by Phyllis Hobson. Hobson has an amazing variety of crust recipes in this little book. I'd like to find a copy of this book for my own library.

The recipe I followed is this:

Flaky Pastry
3 C Flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 C butter
1/2 C lard
3/4 C ice water

Sift flour and salt together. Add butter and lard and cut with pastry cutter until mixture has texture of small peas. Sprinkle with ice water and mix with fork until dough forms into a ball. Place dough on floured board, sprinkle top with flour, and roll with a rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick. Fold both ends of dough towards the middle, making dough 3 layers thick. Roll again to 1/2 inch thick. Repeat folding process. Chill dough for one hour before rolling for pie.

The crust is spectacular. Though it is not flaky, it is very, very thin; a quality made possible by the leaf lard, and probably, too, my french rolling pin. The crust leaves not a trace of grease in the pie plate, cuts cleanly, and holds it's shape. I'm so glad I finally know how to make a decent crust.

And for the filling? I baked and processed the squash myself, but the rest of the recipe is good old Libby's. It really is the best recipe for pumpkin pie.

Come Friday, this same crust recipe will become a turkey pot pie. Can't wait for that.

Rendering leaf lard

2008-11-25T09:27:00.017-05:00

(Cubing the lard)

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(Roasting the lard)
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(Rendered lard, before it cools)
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I went on a wild goose chase last week looking for leaf lard. What is leaf lard, you ask? Why on earth would I want lard? And, um, lard? Really?

Well, yes. Lard is real food. It isn't hydrogenated like shortening. (Hoists self up on soapbox.) There was a time when we humans ate real food. Then the "nutrition experts" --usually connected to the government, or corporations, or both-- stepped in and declared real food bad for you. Next, the chemists were hired to replace real food with food-like substances. Then we all started to get sick and fat. Think these things are related? (Falls off soapbox in a froth.)

But I digress, as I am wont to do. Leaf lard. Leaf lard is the interior lard that surrounds the organs, usually the kidneys. It is a finer grade of lard and doesn't have a pork taste or smell when baked, so it's much preferred for pastries.

Now, I'm not much of a baker. It's just not on my list of things to do, and even less so since I was diagnosed with celiac a decade ago. But, I decided that if I was going to bake this year for Thanksgiving, I was going to go whole hog (sadly, pun intended).

I looked for lard all week in downtown Detroit, in vain. It got to the point I was ready to order it online- for about $50.00, shipping included. That's an awful lot of dough for lard, even good lard.

But all along, all I really needed to do was wait for Saturday morning to go to our beloved Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. We go every Saturday, year in and year out, but our dear old farmer's market never ceases to amaze. If you can't find it at Eastern Market, you probably don't need it.

Certain vendors at Eastern are seasonal, meat vendors chiefly among them. The big old sheds that comprise the market are unheated, and the meat can't spoil in a Detroit winter. The pork vendor who appears in late November has an old portable glass butcher case with whole pig heads inside, among other impressively large pork parts. It's quite spectacular to see these whole, freshly butchered parts in what is essentially an outdoor market.

And wouldn't you know it; the pork vendor had leaf lard. For One Dollar and Forty-One Cents. that's a buck-forty-one. $1.41, people. That beats fifty bucks and airplane shipping any day.

Now I had to render it. And it was easy, and didn't take too long, either. Cube it up, toss it in a roaster (no lid), let it bake at about 325 until it melts. What's left will sort of look like soft pork rinds (but it's not what I'd call edible- I tried it, and it's darned nasty.) Strain out the solids, pour carefully and slowly into jars. Let cool. Voila, home-rendered lard, ready for baking. I cooled it outside; in a matter of hours it was solid and a beautiful snowy white. I will say that the smell during rendering was pretty strong- like I'd been frying chicken all day- and the smell stuck to my clothes and skin. But it diminished pretty quickly with the crack of a window. And personally, I don't mind smelling like I've been cooking something interesting.

I recommend this food adventure to any baker out there. It made for a fun, educational day. And I have my very own leaf lard, and also a source for leaf lard. Neat, huh?

Notes on Crocks

2008-11-17T12:22:00.012-05:00

(Doncha love the art on this one?)

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P~ over at A Posse Ad Esse asked about the trick to finding good antique pickling crocks. I have a few thoughts on this.
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Not to cause any despair in my blogfriend P~, but I think the ease of finding old crocks depends on where you live in the country, and on the pre-industrial food storage traditions of your region. Crocks were typically used in root cellars, and root cellars weren't as common in the west; in the more arid western climates, foods were often dried rather than fermented. As well, since the west experienced it's major population boom post-electricity, fewer old crocks made it that far west. Since I know P~ is in the great state of Utah, I suspect he'll have a tougher time of it than I do here in Michigan, which is full of old barns stuffed with old crocks. (If it makes you feel any better, P~, I'm jealous that you can collect your own salt.)
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As a tip, though: It never hurts to endear yourself to a few antiques dealers. I "found" a couple of mine by asking a few dealers I know to keep an eye out for me; ask and ye shall receive. If you make sure they know you're definitely going to buy a few from them (provided they don't leak and are not pitted inside), it's a nice day's work for a local dealer. I wish I had time to knock around in antiques stores every weekend, would that I did, but dealers also have primary sources that end-buyers don't.
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As lovely as the old crocks are, you can buy them new, too. Lehman's, located in Kidron, Ohio, has a nice selection of all the typical family-sized crocks. They cost less than many of the old crocks, and they also have sauerkraut boards and nice wooden lids to fit them, too, although a non-reactive plate and a piece of fabric held snugly with a rubber band work just as well.
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If I ever go into the fermenting biz, I'd probably commission a local potter or pottery student to make some crocks for me. I'd personally request stoneware and salt-glaze, just like the old ones, but letting the student have at it could be cool, too. As long as the interior sides are straight and the glaze is safe, there are a lot of possibilities.
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Update: Of course, there are many other pots you can use for fermenting- food-grade plastic pickle buckets are free from any fast food restaurant that uses pickles (though plastic personally gives me pause); stainless steel stockpots or any non-reactive cooking pot- i.e., not aluminum and not granite ware (the surface might be cracked). Even the patron saint of modern fermenting, Sandor Ellix Katz, uses plastic pickle buckets. I just have a soft spot for the old ones.

Pickling and writing- I got nothin'

2008-11-16T11:22:00.013-05:00

(roots, glorious roots)

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Something my blogfriend Diana Moll said over at The Qi Papers (about how, after attending the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference, she "could write short and concise pieces about Heart Rate Variance, Energetic Coherence, Iodine and Health, Healing the Bio- field and Subtle Energies in the Soil, but I choose to write about a rabbit"- Which, Ms. Moll, I personally would love to hear all about, in addition to the bottomless subject of buns) got me thinking.
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Pickling or fermenting and writing just don't mesh for me like gardening and writing does. And I'd call it a bit of a conundrum, since my whole raison d'etre for gardening is eating the best food money can't buy. But when it comes to any sort of post-growing process, I'm mainly mute. I wish I knew why that is. Of course, the edible outcome of a two-week-old crock of freshly fermented turnips or mixed vegetables is food positively taken to the next level; fermented vegetables become elevated, sublime- it very well could be beyond words for me. There are only so many ways to say "amazing" and "extraordinary" without sounding like a vapid cheeseball in need of a good Thesaurus.
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Take today, for instance. I'm putting up a fermenting crock of sliced turnips and beets, and also making a pot of apple butter. But I've no desire to put fingers to keyboard about the wonders of either, and both are positively chock-full of wonders. Yet, if I was planting said beets or turnips, I'd wax on and on.... About how well or fast or slowly the seeds germinated, about how cute the cotyledons are, about the first true leaves, and the miraculous growth response from the first fertilization with worm tea. And of course, the weather. I never tire of thinking about or participating in weather, especially spring weather.
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But the waxing about chopping for pickling... nope. Nada. Chopping for pickling is painfully boring. No matter how much I do it, I never achieve that desired Zen-like state. The best thing I can say about chopping up a big pile of vegetables for pickles is that, by comparison, it makes ordinary prep for a single meal seem quick and tidy. I love to cook, but I know that my processes or outcomes are mostly nothing to write home about. My husband loves my cooking, and I find it edible and satisfying and nutritious, and that's quite enough for me.
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Anyone have any opinions about this?

WE DID IT!

2008-11-05T08:08:00.005-05:00

I worked at Obama headquarters in downtown Detroit all day yesterday, making phone calls for the final push to get out the vote in Detroit. The mood was ecstatic. There was a real sense of turning the page- or perhaps, closing the book. It was especially wonderful to talk to elderly black folks who had seen so much and waited so long- their joy was uncontainable. Detroit city feels like a very different place this morning. Car horns were blaring all night and I still hear them this morning. I feel so privledged to witness this amazing piece of American history.