I know I haven't posted in ages. There is a reason. My hard drive crashed and I have been busy rebuilding my computer. I also took a lovely trip to Montana.
Between working on the computer, beating my gardens back into submission, new projects and reviewing a few chapters in a science text, I've been extremely busy.
I can give you some good news on the home front.
I made a large batch of spaghetti sauce today and I grew all of the ingredients myself. We've been eating a lot of food from the garden and I've had some left over to freeze.
Tomorrow I will be busy blanching broccoli to freeze.
I also stumbled upon a yogurt culture my daughter likes and I just successful made my second batch using a few tablespoons from the last batch of yogurt to activate this one.
I'll expand on these topics in upcoming posts.
Happy Gardening
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Landrace breeds - Randall Lineback
We are losing our biodiversity.
Ok, sure, you are intelligent and you have heard various types of animals and perhaps native plants are disappearing. I am sure polar bears, tigers and other large, mammals come to mind. But did you know we are losing our food biodiversity?
What has taken us 12,000 years to create, we are forgetting in place of seeds from multinationals and a handful of livestock animals that we are relying upon across the globe regardless of local conditions.
Just like the one size fits all garment, it works but it is not the best fit for a given individual.
No, I’m not talking about designer food. Well, perhaps I am in a way. However, the designer was your average farmer and his neighbor selecting the best traits over a succession of generations.
Did you know there is livestock, not just crops that have acclimated to certain conditions? There are certain cows that do well in heat. Others do well on poor forage. These types of breeds are referred to as landrace. They have evolved, via the artificial selection process of breeders, by selecting favorable traits for that given climate and purpose.
I just recently learned that there is a landrace breed of dairy cows from Vermont called the Randall Linebacks. This breed almost went extinct in the 1980s due to the fact that the only herd left was on a single dairy farm. They are the most endangered breed of cow in the United States.
Needless to say, I have fallen in love with this breed. My husband is duly worried that I will soon have a cow added to my collection of critters.
So how are Randalls different from the Holsteins or Jerseys we so often see on dairy farms? Besides their coloring, these cows are ideally acclimated to New England’s cooler/cold weather.
Another admirable feature is they subsist on a diet of grass forage. No grain. Wow, that is my kind of cow. For a farmer this is like gold. You don’t have to pay the extra cost of grain which Holsteins and Jerseys need. This is an added bonus to the environment and to us. The grain doesn’t need to be raised for the cows, it can directly feed people, nor does the grain need to be shipped from out west to a farm in New England.
Individuals who have recently been raising Randalls indicate that their milk production is acceptable. They produce approximately 4 gallons of milk a day at their peak which for a family cow or a small producer in manageable. While this is less than half as much as a Holstein or Jersey, this breed is smaller, eats less and eats more economically.
The last trait is ease of birthing. This breed does not require any veterinary intervention at birth. My understanding is there are a few breeds out there that do but I am not a dairy farmer. Since cows only produce milk for 10 or 11 months after giving birth, calving is a regular event on farms. Even my friend’s small farm with 5 cows heralds in the birth of two to four calves each year. Breeds which do not require emergency, middle of the night visits from the vet are advantageous since they are less costly.
Thanks to a small handful of individuals this breed did not pass into extinction and their numbers on the rise. But how many breeds have we lost? What are we in peril of losing? If you are considering raising farm animals, do your research. Is there a breed which is better suited for your particular area? Is there a farmer or hobbyist with a breed which is hardier locally than the ubiquitous breeds of cow, sheep, goat, chicken or duck? If so, consider the lesser known regional breed. You will be helping to save a key to our food security and a piece of time.
Ok, sure, you are intelligent and you have heard various types of animals and perhaps native plants are disappearing. I am sure polar bears, tigers and other large, mammals come to mind. But did you know we are losing our food biodiversity?
What has taken us 12,000 years to create, we are forgetting in place of seeds from multinationals and a handful of livestock animals that we are relying upon across the globe regardless of local conditions.
Just like the one size fits all garment, it works but it is not the best fit for a given individual.
No, I’m not talking about designer food. Well, perhaps I am in a way. However, the designer was your average farmer and his neighbor selecting the best traits over a succession of generations.
Did you know there is livestock, not just crops that have acclimated to certain conditions? There are certain cows that do well in heat. Others do well on poor forage. These types of breeds are referred to as landrace. They have evolved, via the artificial selection process of breeders, by selecting favorable traits for that given climate and purpose.
I just recently learned that there is a landrace breed of dairy cows from Vermont called the Randall Linebacks. This breed almost went extinct in the 1980s due to the fact that the only herd left was on a single dairy farm. They are the most endangered breed of cow in the United States.
Needless to say, I have fallen in love with this breed. My husband is duly worried that I will soon have a cow added to my collection of critters.
So how are Randalls different from the Holsteins or Jerseys we so often see on dairy farms? Besides their coloring, these cows are ideally acclimated to New England’s cooler/cold weather.
Another admirable feature is they subsist on a diet of grass forage. No grain. Wow, that is my kind of cow. For a farmer this is like gold. You don’t have to pay the extra cost of grain which Holsteins and Jerseys need. This is an added bonus to the environment and to us. The grain doesn’t need to be raised for the cows, it can directly feed people, nor does the grain need to be shipped from out west to a farm in New England.
Individuals who have recently been raising Randalls indicate that their milk production is acceptable. They produce approximately 4 gallons of milk a day at their peak which for a family cow or a small producer in manageable. While this is less than half as much as a Holstein or Jersey, this breed is smaller, eats less and eats more economically.
The last trait is ease of birthing. This breed does not require any veterinary intervention at birth. My understanding is there are a few breeds out there that do but I am not a dairy farmer. Since cows only produce milk for 10 or 11 months after giving birth, calving is a regular event on farms. Even my friend’s small farm with 5 cows heralds in the birth of two to four calves each year. Breeds which do not require emergency, middle of the night visits from the vet are advantageous since they are less costly.
Thanks to a small handful of individuals this breed did not pass into extinction and their numbers on the rise. But how many breeds have we lost? What are we in peril of losing? If you are considering raising farm animals, do your research. Is there a breed which is better suited for your particular area? Is there a farmer or hobbyist with a breed which is hardier locally than the ubiquitous breeds of cow, sheep, goat, chicken or duck? If so, consider the lesser known regional breed. You will be helping to save a key to our food security and a piece of time.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The new family food budget
I haven’t written lately because I came down with a terrible summer cold which then turned into a sinus infection.
I have been reading, thinking, and trying to plan food for a year or until it comes back into season. It is currently strawberry season and I have been attempting to approximate how many quarts of strawberries I will need to put up until next year.
My small garden won’t yield enough strawberries to tide my family over until next year. Dehydrated strawberries are an easy snack to slip into my daughter’s backpack during the school year. I also like to use strawberries in jams, ice cream, rhubarb pies and in smoothies. I would have to guess that I probably buy a quart of strawberries almost every week of the year.
My buying behavior to date has been to buy strawberries in the store when the price comes down and then stock up. Herein lays my dilemma. I am a bargain hunter. I shop for the deal. I have to make my family’s dollar stretch as far as I can especially since I have less buying power than I did three or four years ago.
The decision to buy local has a substantial financial impact on the budget. Local strawberries are $6 a quart. In the grocery store, berries from California are selling for $3. Buying a few quarts is not a huge impact on the budget but I’m estimating I will need 40 to 50 quarts, that means an extra $120 to $150 and all of this money needs to come out of the budget over the next few weeks as opposed to spread out over an entire year. This knowledge sent me into a monetary funk. I need to be able to balance my checkbook at the end of the month. How can I justify buying local when it means I have less?
My main argument for local and organic has always been one about food quality and sustaining nature. We need a food system that does not deteriorate and erode the soil. We need a food system that does not lace its produce with toxic chemicals which stay on our foods no matter how much we wash them.
This argument alone didn’t float the boat entirely for me or my husband to spend $3 more per quart. We had to expand our thinking and look at our entire food production system. As we did this exercise we realized that buying local puts money into the pockets of local farmers which in turn supports their family and preserves the land as farmland. Buying the cheap fruit from California isn’t helping anyone long term except large agribusiness. The savings in money advocates a system that is doomed to fail where water is becoming less common and keeps the poor workers in the fields impoverished, usually immigrants.
When we looked at the system as a whole my husband and I agreed that we will buy as much local as we can afford. We decided that we needed to keep in mind that our own garden was producing free, or almost free, food for us and we needed to consider this as helping to offset the costs
This does not completely alleviate the cost of paying more for local food. I will still be hunting bargains, perhaps different ones (I see more consignment shops and thrift stores in my future). I will try to seek out owners to see if they will cut me a break on the cost if I buy in bulk. For example, yesterday I purchased a flat of strawberries instead of buying by the quart. This was equal to paying for 5 quarts and getting a 6th one for free.
I’ve done the math so far. I’ve purchased 9 quarts locally, harvested 1 from my garden and have spent a total of $48. Translation, the average cost of a quart of local strawberries is $4.80. Not too bad and not as devastating as the original $6 a quart I was looking at when I originally started pondering the situation. This still leaves me with another 30 – 40 quarts before I reach my goal. I’ll keep you updated on the cost of this part of my initiative.
I have been reading, thinking, and trying to plan food for a year or until it comes back into season. It is currently strawberry season and I have been attempting to approximate how many quarts of strawberries I will need to put up until next year.
My small garden won’t yield enough strawberries to tide my family over until next year. Dehydrated strawberries are an easy snack to slip into my daughter’s backpack during the school year. I also like to use strawberries in jams, ice cream, rhubarb pies and in smoothies. I would have to guess that I probably buy a quart of strawberries almost every week of the year.
My buying behavior to date has been to buy strawberries in the store when the price comes down and then stock up. Herein lays my dilemma. I am a bargain hunter. I shop for the deal. I have to make my family’s dollar stretch as far as I can especially since I have less buying power than I did three or four years ago.
The decision to buy local has a substantial financial impact on the budget. Local strawberries are $6 a quart. In the grocery store, berries from California are selling for $3. Buying a few quarts is not a huge impact on the budget but I’m estimating I will need 40 to 50 quarts, that means an extra $120 to $150 and all of this money needs to come out of the budget over the next few weeks as opposed to spread out over an entire year. This knowledge sent me into a monetary funk. I need to be able to balance my checkbook at the end of the month. How can I justify buying local when it means I have less?
My main argument for local and organic has always been one about food quality and sustaining nature. We need a food system that does not deteriorate and erode the soil. We need a food system that does not lace its produce with toxic chemicals which stay on our foods no matter how much we wash them.
This argument alone didn’t float the boat entirely for me or my husband to spend $3 more per quart. We had to expand our thinking and look at our entire food production system. As we did this exercise we realized that buying local puts money into the pockets of local farmers which in turn supports their family and preserves the land as farmland. Buying the cheap fruit from California isn’t helping anyone long term except large agribusiness. The savings in money advocates a system that is doomed to fail where water is becoming less common and keeps the poor workers in the fields impoverished, usually immigrants.
When we looked at the system as a whole my husband and I agreed that we will buy as much local as we can afford. We decided that we needed to keep in mind that our own garden was producing free, or almost free, food for us and we needed to consider this as helping to offset the costs
This does not completely alleviate the cost of paying more for local food. I will still be hunting bargains, perhaps different ones (I see more consignment shops and thrift stores in my future). I will try to seek out owners to see if they will cut me a break on the cost if I buy in bulk. For example, yesterday I purchased a flat of strawberries instead of buying by the quart. This was equal to paying for 5 quarts and getting a 6th one for free.
I’ve done the math so far. I’ve purchased 9 quarts locally, harvested 1 from my garden and have spent a total of $48. Translation, the average cost of a quart of local strawberries is $4.80. Not too bad and not as devastating as the original $6 a quart I was looking at when I originally started pondering the situation. This still leaves me with another 30 – 40 quarts before I reach my goal. I’ll keep you updated on the cost of this part of my initiative.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Strawberry fields
Strawberry fields forever, or at least I believed them to be a constant as a child. (sorry, I really couldn't resist quipping the song title)
One of the most prominent summertime memories from my childhood is about fields and fields of strawberries for as far as the eye could see. Okay, I was small and I couldn’t see nearly as far as I can now from a slightly higher vantage point but you get the idea. Strawberries and cows were part of the town where I grew up. There were three dairy farms and an expansive pick your own strawberry farm.
The dairies and the strawberry farm are both gone. The strawberry farm was replaced by houses with big grass yards, but a few acres of farmland survived and now produces a variety of crops as well as a small patch dedicated to strawberries.
As a young girl, I can remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night as the strawberry farmer called for my brothers. I was too small to tell you when the calls came for I have no recollection if they were at midnight or 4 am. I just remember my Mom rousing ‘the boys’ and sending them to the farm to help with the spraying so the berries didn’t freeze from a late frost.
I remember sitting amidst rows of strawberries that seemed to go on forever, a barely visible line of trees in the distance and the knowledge that there were more fields of berries beyond them. My mom and I would pick and pick for what would seem like hours filling large trays with plumps berries and then bringing them home to wash and hull. Other days my brothers would return home from the farm with flats of berries for my mother.
My first job was picking strawberries. I think I was paid 10 cents a quart. I remember one year I persuaded my best friend to pick with me. We would get up early, walk to the farm thinking we were pretty grown up to walk the path through the woods alone and spend the morning picking to earn a dollar and some change. The need for pickers was short lived so this job only lasted a few weeks each summer but it was enough to fill our pockets with money to buy candy bars or penny candy at the store.
I remember going with my parents to the fields in the evening time to pick up my brothers and watching as they good heartedly raced down a row of berries to see who could clean pick the row the fastest or fill a flat the quickest.
I never thought there would be a time when picking strawberries would not be a part of my summer activities. But, it seems to be something relegated to memories now. I revisited the few fields of strawberries that had survived several years ago. The land had changed hands several times since my childhood. I had hoped to rekindle part of the memories and experiences with my daughter. Instead, the outing was a glorious disaster with unpleasant, bitter tasting berries that were far and few between and a child begging to leave. I gave in quickly to her pleas. This was not the place of my childhood memories.
I have noticed in recent years that there are a few pick your own strawberry fields coming into existence but they are a bit of a drive.
I have devised my own solution and last year shared a little of the love for these berries with the daughter. I built my own 10 x 15 foot bed of berries. Already I can see hints of red. Tomorrow, I anticipate harvesting a small handful which I am sure will never make it to the front door. I think I’ll wait for my daughter to get home from school before I go to inspect our berries. I wonder who will find the most berries.
One of the most prominent summertime memories from my childhood is about fields and fields of strawberries for as far as the eye could see. Okay, I was small and I couldn’t see nearly as far as I can now from a slightly higher vantage point but you get the idea. Strawberries and cows were part of the town where I grew up. There were three dairy farms and an expansive pick your own strawberry farm.
The dairies and the strawberry farm are both gone. The strawberry farm was replaced by houses with big grass yards, but a few acres of farmland survived and now produces a variety of crops as well as a small patch dedicated to strawberries.
As a young girl, I can remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night as the strawberry farmer called for my brothers. I was too small to tell you when the calls came for I have no recollection if they were at midnight or 4 am. I just remember my Mom rousing ‘the boys’ and sending them to the farm to help with the spraying so the berries didn’t freeze from a late frost.
I remember sitting amidst rows of strawberries that seemed to go on forever, a barely visible line of trees in the distance and the knowledge that there were more fields of berries beyond them. My mom and I would pick and pick for what would seem like hours filling large trays with plumps berries and then bringing them home to wash and hull. Other days my brothers would return home from the farm with flats of berries for my mother.
My first job was picking strawberries. I think I was paid 10 cents a quart. I remember one year I persuaded my best friend to pick with me. We would get up early, walk to the farm thinking we were pretty grown up to walk the path through the woods alone and spend the morning picking to earn a dollar and some change. The need for pickers was short lived so this job only lasted a few weeks each summer but it was enough to fill our pockets with money to buy candy bars or penny candy at the store.
I remember going with my parents to the fields in the evening time to pick up my brothers and watching as they good heartedly raced down a row of berries to see who could clean pick the row the fastest or fill a flat the quickest.
I never thought there would be a time when picking strawberries would not be a part of my summer activities. But, it seems to be something relegated to memories now. I revisited the few fields of strawberries that had survived several years ago. The land had changed hands several times since my childhood. I had hoped to rekindle part of the memories and experiences with my daughter. Instead, the outing was a glorious disaster with unpleasant, bitter tasting berries that were far and few between and a child begging to leave. I gave in quickly to her pleas. This was not the place of my childhood memories.
I have noticed in recent years that there are a few pick your own strawberry fields coming into existence but they are a bit of a drive.
I have devised my own solution and last year shared a little of the love for these berries with the daughter. I built my own 10 x 15 foot bed of berries. Already I can see hints of red. Tomorrow, I anticipate harvesting a small handful which I am sure will never make it to the front door. I think I’ll wait for my daughter to get home from school before I go to inspect our berries. I wonder who will find the most berries.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
What's with lawns anyways?
I hate my lawn.
This opinion might startle you, but have you ever paused to think about what your lawn gives you in return? I challenge you to make a list. What are the pros of your lawn? In other words, what do you use it for, when was the last time you sat in your front yard entertaining guests, etc? What are the cons of your lawn?
My brother once sold a house he owned because it was too time consuming to maintain the golf course perfect lawn that was expected in the development where he lived. It was a pretty lawn, but other than admiring its green perfection as I walked from my car to his front door I never actually walked on it or sat in a chair gazing at it. This begs the question, what was its purpose and why are we a slave to being a conformist?
I confess I love the smell of fresh mown grass but what is behind this ugly little American dream of a picket fence and pristine front lawn?
The truth is these lawns are toxic, water demanding, monocultures which are ruining ours and the planet’s health. It is estimated that homeowners use 10 times as much chemical treatment in the form of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers in order to maintain a healthy lawn as compared to commercial agriculture. Most of these chemicals wash off into the local water shed contributing to environmental issues such as algae blooms and eutrophication in local lakes and ponds, decreased shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
The small amount of gasoline we use to power our individual lawn mowers or tractors may not seem to have a significant impact on oil dependency and the dwindling of a finite resource. However, if we consider instead our collective use to mow 40 million lawns, the number quickly escalates. Furthermore, if we take into account that most herbicides and pesticides are derived from petroleum products and synthetic fertilizers from natural gas we can see that our fossil fuel dependency is greater than we originally conceived.
The environmental impact doesn’t end with fossil fuels. If you maintain a lawn you know you need to water it or else it will dry up and turn brown. In suburbia, this is a social no-no except when there is a water ban in effect. Water. It’s amazing to consider that we use possibly the most precious resource on our planet for something so trivial as to keep our lawns green. Our planet is over 70% water but only a fraction of 1% is accessible as fresh, potable water.
For many of us, our lawn occupies prime real estate. It has access to partial to full sun and the land is arable. Why then do we not demand more from this space? We spend time weed whacking, trimming, fertilizing, mowing, and reseeding this space on a regular basis. Is there something else we could use it for? Can we be smarter and more savvy in our use of this land?
Let’s consider 40 million homeowners converting a small portion of their lawn to grow food (0.025 acres). It’s not much land per person when you consider this but collectively, this is 1 million acres of food production. That is a lot of food.
So, I once again repeat my original question, what does your lawn give you in return? Could you plant a few edibles there or perhaps some native flowers and shrubs? Either way it is a win-win for you and our planet. Growing local flora will attract pollinators and wildlife to your yard. If you are interested in creating a wildlife habitat instead of food, I recommend you check out www.nwf.org for more information. Besides, there is no reason you have to decide on food or wildlife, you can combine the best of both to attract beneficial insects to your yard which will protect your harvest.
What are your dreams and ambitions for your yard? Even if it is just the addition of a blueberry bush to your foundation planting it is a monumental movement against the established norm.
Happy Gardening and Eating.
-Susan
This opinion might startle you, but have you ever paused to think about what your lawn gives you in return? I challenge you to make a list. What are the pros of your lawn? In other words, what do you use it for, when was the last time you sat in your front yard entertaining guests, etc? What are the cons of your lawn?
My brother once sold a house he owned because it was too time consuming to maintain the golf course perfect lawn that was expected in the development where he lived. It was a pretty lawn, but other than admiring its green perfection as I walked from my car to his front door I never actually walked on it or sat in a chair gazing at it. This begs the question, what was its purpose and why are we a slave to being a conformist?
I confess I love the smell of fresh mown grass but what is behind this ugly little American dream of a picket fence and pristine front lawn?
The truth is these lawns are toxic, water demanding, monocultures which are ruining ours and the planet’s health. It is estimated that homeowners use 10 times as much chemical treatment in the form of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers in order to maintain a healthy lawn as compared to commercial agriculture. Most of these chemicals wash off into the local water shed contributing to environmental issues such as algae blooms and eutrophication in local lakes and ponds, decreased shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay and the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
The small amount of gasoline we use to power our individual lawn mowers or tractors may not seem to have a significant impact on oil dependency and the dwindling of a finite resource. However, if we consider instead our collective use to mow 40 million lawns, the number quickly escalates. Furthermore, if we take into account that most herbicides and pesticides are derived from petroleum products and synthetic fertilizers from natural gas we can see that our fossil fuel dependency is greater than we originally conceived.
The environmental impact doesn’t end with fossil fuels. If you maintain a lawn you know you need to water it or else it will dry up and turn brown. In suburbia, this is a social no-no except when there is a water ban in effect. Water. It’s amazing to consider that we use possibly the most precious resource on our planet for something so trivial as to keep our lawns green. Our planet is over 70% water but only a fraction of 1% is accessible as fresh, potable water.
For many of us, our lawn occupies prime real estate. It has access to partial to full sun and the land is arable. Why then do we not demand more from this space? We spend time weed whacking, trimming, fertilizing, mowing, and reseeding this space on a regular basis. Is there something else we could use it for? Can we be smarter and more savvy in our use of this land?
Let’s consider 40 million homeowners converting a small portion of their lawn to grow food (0.025 acres). It’s not much land per person when you consider this but collectively, this is 1 million acres of food production. That is a lot of food.
So, I once again repeat my original question, what does your lawn give you in return? Could you plant a few edibles there or perhaps some native flowers and shrubs? Either way it is a win-win for you and our planet. Growing local flora will attract pollinators and wildlife to your yard. If you are interested in creating a wildlife habitat instead of food, I recommend you check out www.nwf.org for more information. Besides, there is no reason you have to decide on food or wildlife, you can combine the best of both to attract beneficial insects to your yard which will protect your harvest.
What are your dreams and ambitions for your yard? Even if it is just the addition of a blueberry bush to your foundation planting it is a monumental movement against the established norm.
Happy Gardening and Eating.
-Susan
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tomatoes and Bisphenol A
At last, the garden is almost completely planted. I’m hoping to grow a lot of food for my family and I’m not sure how long it will last. This year I will be keeping track how long each harvest lasts so I can make better decisions in future years regarding the amount I need to plant. Ideally, I would have enough to last until next year for the items I have decided to grow.
Tomatoes are at the top of my list to try and grow enough of to make it through most if not the entire year. They are highly acidic and therefore a great candidate to can and they freeze well. I really didn’t know how many tomato plants to buy so I settled on eight. Since I wanted to be able to can enough sauce for our household use, I purchased four paste or Roma tomatoes to be used primarily for this purpose but I expect tomatoes from the Early Girls Improved will also make their way into the sauces I put up.
I also purchased three heirloom tomatoes on a whim. How could I resist? There were several dozen varieties at the nursery and they all sounded so good. So I settled on ‘Mortgage Lifter,’ a big tomato to satisfy my husband’s desire to have a large tomato. A tomato called ‘Banana Legs’ which will be yellow and the last heirloom is called ‘Black Icicles’ which will be long and red/black in color. I thought if nothing else they would add some visual pizzazz to salads and other dishes.
In addition to the 11 tomato plants above, I put in four ‘Sun Gold’ cherry tomatoes. They are the absolutely sweetest tomato I have ever eaten. My only problem with this plant is it is so prolific I never know what to do with all the extras I pick. We can’t eat them fast enough. I’ve also found they don’t work well in recipes, they are too sweet. Please share any ideas you have on how to preserve these for future use.
Why am I so interested in trying to supply my own tomatoes for my household? In part, we love tomatoes and nothing compares to the flavor of fresh homegrown. Those things they sell in the grocery stores are nearly flavorless and do not deserve to be called tomatoes. These humble fruit from the nightshade family is a staple for a variety of dishes in my house including pasta dishes, pizza, and chili to name a few. The other reason I am interested is due to the presence of Bisphenol A (BPA) in canned tomato products.
You know that white lining you see inside the can? It contains BPA. The EPA and other government agencies say the small amount of BPA in cans is not harmful to human health but last year new studies were released which indicated that highly acidic foods (can you say tomatoes?) leaches BPA out of the lining of the cans. Prevention magazine suggested consumers who wished to avoid BPA to buy tomatoes or sauces in glass containers. To do so is an expensive endeavor and I have yet to see tomatoes in a glass container for sale in my grocery store.
So why should we be concerned about BPA? BPA is most notably known for its ability to act like an estrogen in humans and animals, aka an estrogen disrupter. There are numerous studies which link BPA to developmental problems, as well as, mammary and prostate cancer. Most studies indicate most risks are associated when the exposure is in utero or small children. However, new studies suggest that BPA exposure in adults may be linked to the diabetes and obesity epidemic we are now facing as a nation. It also changes brain chemistry from maternal instincts to anxiety. I suggest you check out the following website and its peer reviewed studies for more information on BPA. http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/newscience/oncompounds/bisphenola/bpauses.htm
Okay, the government organizations say our exposure to this chemical is much lower than the exposure limits they have set and therefore it is of little to no concern. This is the same government that decided mammograms for women in their 40s was a waste of money and should therefore not be performed. I am not going to leave it to the government to decide what is safe for me when there are studies out there which indicate that we are exposed through a variety of different sources to the threshold limit set by the EPA for this substance. We have created one big experiment with a myriad of chemicals in our modern world. I think it is too easy to assume that anyone understands what the synergistic effects of all of these things will have on us and the planet. As for me, I’m making efforts to avoid these chemicals we have let loose upon our world and incorporated into our food distribution.
To a chemical free diet
- Susan
Tomatoes are at the top of my list to try and grow enough of to make it through most if not the entire year. They are highly acidic and therefore a great candidate to can and they freeze well. I really didn’t know how many tomato plants to buy so I settled on eight. Since I wanted to be able to can enough sauce for our household use, I purchased four paste or Roma tomatoes to be used primarily for this purpose but I expect tomatoes from the Early Girls Improved will also make their way into the sauces I put up.
I also purchased three heirloom tomatoes on a whim. How could I resist? There were several dozen varieties at the nursery and they all sounded so good. So I settled on ‘Mortgage Lifter,’ a big tomato to satisfy my husband’s desire to have a large tomato. A tomato called ‘Banana Legs’ which will be yellow and the last heirloom is called ‘Black Icicles’ which will be long and red/black in color. I thought if nothing else they would add some visual pizzazz to salads and other dishes.
In addition to the 11 tomato plants above, I put in four ‘Sun Gold’ cherry tomatoes. They are the absolutely sweetest tomato I have ever eaten. My only problem with this plant is it is so prolific I never know what to do with all the extras I pick. We can’t eat them fast enough. I’ve also found they don’t work well in recipes, they are too sweet. Please share any ideas you have on how to preserve these for future use.
Why am I so interested in trying to supply my own tomatoes for my household? In part, we love tomatoes and nothing compares to the flavor of fresh homegrown. Those things they sell in the grocery stores are nearly flavorless and do not deserve to be called tomatoes. These humble fruit from the nightshade family is a staple for a variety of dishes in my house including pasta dishes, pizza, and chili to name a few. The other reason I am interested is due to the presence of Bisphenol A (BPA) in canned tomato products.
You know that white lining you see inside the can? It contains BPA. The EPA and other government agencies say the small amount of BPA in cans is not harmful to human health but last year new studies were released which indicated that highly acidic foods (can you say tomatoes?) leaches BPA out of the lining of the cans. Prevention magazine suggested consumers who wished to avoid BPA to buy tomatoes or sauces in glass containers. To do so is an expensive endeavor and I have yet to see tomatoes in a glass container for sale in my grocery store.
So why should we be concerned about BPA? BPA is most notably known for its ability to act like an estrogen in humans and animals, aka an estrogen disrupter. There are numerous studies which link BPA to developmental problems, as well as, mammary and prostate cancer. Most studies indicate most risks are associated when the exposure is in utero or small children. However, new studies suggest that BPA exposure in adults may be linked to the diabetes and obesity epidemic we are now facing as a nation. It also changes brain chemistry from maternal instincts to anxiety. I suggest you check out the following website and its peer reviewed studies for more information on BPA. http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/newscience/oncompounds/bisphenola/bpauses.htm
Okay, the government organizations say our exposure to this chemical is much lower than the exposure limits they have set and therefore it is of little to no concern. This is the same government that decided mammograms for women in their 40s was a waste of money and should therefore not be performed. I am not going to leave it to the government to decide what is safe for me when there are studies out there which indicate that we are exposed through a variety of different sources to the threshold limit set by the EPA for this substance. We have created one big experiment with a myriad of chemicals in our modern world. I think it is too easy to assume that anyone understands what the synergistic effects of all of these things will have on us and the planet. As for me, I’m making efforts to avoid these chemicals we have let loose upon our world and incorporated into our food distribution.
To a chemical free diet
- Susan
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Small success in eating local
I wanted to share my success in working toward my goal of feeding my family with local, sustainable raised food. I am not a purist in this endeavor. I am trying to achieve a balance of making choices to buy, produce and prepare food from local sources if and when possible and taking into account economics. I live on a budget.
Every little choice we make to eat local helps us decrease our ecological footprint and the ramifications on our planet’s finite sources and support local farmers. Hence, even little steps are big successes. I try to stress to my students that everyone working on the smallest change is part of a huge snowball effect.
There are two constants in our life, milk and eggs. The milk comes from a small dairy just up the road from my house. I walk there to get my milk. No trucks are needed to transport the milk and burn fossil fuels. Just me, my backpack and a good pair of shoes. The eggs are produced by my ducks. I have five females and I normally get five eggs a day. My family drinks a lot of milk because we like it and we regularly eat eggs, hence we decided to raise ducks. Even though I have not indicated here, we often eat eggs for breakfast or sometimes lunch.
Friday night pizza, a success we have been celebrating the last month or so. I just started making mozzarella cheese with the milk from my neighbor’s cows. I make the pizza crust with King Arthur’s flour. The company is out of Vermont and I’ve seen local’vore type places tout King Arthur’s flour but I do not know if the flour itself is raised in Vermont or elsewhere. The flour has another perk besides being from a somewhat local company, it is not bleached. Bleaching flour has ramifications on the ecosystem and potential on us humans. No thank you to bleached flour. Pizza crust is amazingly simple to make. 1/2c water, 2 c flour, 2 tsp yeast, a dash of sugar to get that yeast going and a drizzle of olive oil. Adjust adding water or flour as needed to get a nice dough. Plus you can always spice up your dough depending on how you feel with garlic, oregano or other seasonings.
Saturday and Sunday night we enjoyed strawberry rhubarb ice cream made from local milk and rhubarb from my garden. I had to cheat on the strawberry which was not local. I ran out of local, frozen strawberries in my freezer a few months ago. All in all, it was mostly local.
Sunday morning waffles were made with local eggs and milk, and King Arthur flour. Unfortunately I am feeling a bit too poor to buy real maple syrup. Home repairs must come first prior to indulging in such luxury. Besides, kids use a lot and don’t realize how expensive it is. It saves me from being an ogre or would that be an ogress?
Monday came and we celebrated Memorial Day with supper from our garden. The lettuce and radishes are ready to eat. I pulled a few new onions and picked some of the smallest leaves from the swiss chard I could find. I’ve discovered the smaller leaves are more palatable. Protein was from hard boiled duck eggs, although since they were fresh they were a bit tricky to peel. From the nether regions of the world, I supplemented with just a few cherry tomatoes which are not yet in season here and some olives. There was also fresh bread.
I confess to being most excited about being able to eat from our garden almost exclusively for supper Monday night. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that I was responsible for growing and raising the majority of what we ate and it tasted infinitely better than those prepared salads you buy at the store in a plastic bag.
I have more salads planned for this week to either serve as the main course or to supplement. I will need to start a new row of lettuce and radishes elsewhere in the garden in order to prolong my supply.
I hope you are able to make small changes either by deciding to purchase local milk or eggs or start to plan more local food into your menu. As the gardens mature I am sure our selection of local food will continue to expand.
Happy Gardening and Eating.
- Susan
Every little choice we make to eat local helps us decrease our ecological footprint and the ramifications on our planet’s finite sources and support local farmers. Hence, even little steps are big successes. I try to stress to my students that everyone working on the smallest change is part of a huge snowball effect.
There are two constants in our life, milk and eggs. The milk comes from a small dairy just up the road from my house. I walk there to get my milk. No trucks are needed to transport the milk and burn fossil fuels. Just me, my backpack and a good pair of shoes. The eggs are produced by my ducks. I have five females and I normally get five eggs a day. My family drinks a lot of milk because we like it and we regularly eat eggs, hence we decided to raise ducks. Even though I have not indicated here, we often eat eggs for breakfast or sometimes lunch.
Friday night pizza, a success we have been celebrating the last month or so. I just started making mozzarella cheese with the milk from my neighbor’s cows. I make the pizza crust with King Arthur’s flour. The company is out of Vermont and I’ve seen local’vore type places tout King Arthur’s flour but I do not know if the flour itself is raised in Vermont or elsewhere. The flour has another perk besides being from a somewhat local company, it is not bleached. Bleaching flour has ramifications on the ecosystem and potential on us humans. No thank you to bleached flour. Pizza crust is amazingly simple to make. 1/2c water, 2 c flour, 2 tsp yeast, a dash of sugar to get that yeast going and a drizzle of olive oil. Adjust adding water or flour as needed to get a nice dough. Plus you can always spice up your dough depending on how you feel with garlic, oregano or other seasonings.
Saturday and Sunday night we enjoyed strawberry rhubarb ice cream made from local milk and rhubarb from my garden. I had to cheat on the strawberry which was not local. I ran out of local, frozen strawberries in my freezer a few months ago. All in all, it was mostly local.
Sunday morning waffles were made with local eggs and milk, and King Arthur flour. Unfortunately I am feeling a bit too poor to buy real maple syrup. Home repairs must come first prior to indulging in such luxury. Besides, kids use a lot and don’t realize how expensive it is. It saves me from being an ogre or would that be an ogress?
Monday came and we celebrated Memorial Day with supper from our garden. The lettuce and radishes are ready to eat. I pulled a few new onions and picked some of the smallest leaves from the swiss chard I could find. I’ve discovered the smaller leaves are more palatable. Protein was from hard boiled duck eggs, although since they were fresh they were a bit tricky to peel. From the nether regions of the world, I supplemented with just a few cherry tomatoes which are not yet in season here and some olives. There was also fresh bread.
I confess to being most excited about being able to eat from our garden almost exclusively for supper Monday night. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that I was responsible for growing and raising the majority of what we ate and it tasted infinitely better than those prepared salads you buy at the store in a plastic bag.
I have more salads planned for this week to either serve as the main course or to supplement. I will need to start a new row of lettuce and radishes elsewhere in the garden in order to prolong my supply.
I hope you are able to make small changes either by deciding to purchase local milk or eggs or start to plan more local food into your menu. As the gardens mature I am sure our selection of local food will continue to expand.
Happy Gardening and Eating.
- Susan
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Caterpillars. It's what's for dinner.
We all have our memorable mistakes and last year was probably one of my most spectacular. Last summer, as I hurriedly attempted to get supper on the table I dashed out to gather some broccoli spears which were slightly past their prime. Little did I know the consequences of my actions until I was scooping steamed broccoli unto my daughter’s plate when I saw them, little steamed caterpillars which had previously been disguised as stalks. Yikes!
The event was so horrific my daughter swore off broccoli for the rest of the summer. Even my stomach was a bit queasy from the experience but being a frugal New Englander, my husband and I picked through the remaining broccoli to make sure there were no more caterpillars before consuming the broccoli.
Despite this cooking fiasco, I still find it distressing when I read in my gardening magazines and books to squash parsley worms, tomato hornworms and cabbage moths. Okay, the later which I found in my broccoli last year I won’t shed too many tears over. Besides, my ducks will consider them a delicacy but the others I think I am willing to find room in my yard and garden to share.
Nowadays, many gardeners have learned that parsley worms are actually the humble beginnings of the black swallowtail butterfly. Butterflies are the fairies of the garden. It pains me to hear that some people are using pesticides or squishing these caterpillars. Fortunately there has been a lot of education in this area in recent years and with the increased interest in butterfly gardens, gardeners now recognize these caterpillars for what they are.
However, I just put down a current magazine which advised gardeners to be on the look out for and squash tomato hornworms this coming month because they later turn into hawk moths which are also commonly known as sphinx moths or hummingbird moths.
I love these moths and have never considered these caterpillars a problem in my garden. I find it fascinating to watch their golden forms flit about the garden like miniature hummingbirds. Indeed on several occasions I’ve been asked what those tiny golden hummingbirds are in my or a friend’s garden. Their behavior is very similar to a hummingbird. They beat their wings so fast you can not see them, they hover as well as sip the nectar from flowers.
I’m not sure I could pick these, knowing what they turn into, and feed them to my ducks. I know I couldn’t squish them. I hate slugs, but I can't squish those either. Perhaps if my garden was being over come by them I would feel differently but they have not been a problem in the past. I will be watchful for these caterpillars by checking for their telltale signs of striped leaves and black droppings in the garden. I’ve also done some reading about natural predators and believe that these caterpillars may not have risen to the level of destructive nuisance in my garden due to the fact that I regularly purchase predatory wasps to keep down the flies in the barnyard.
This is a nice surprise. The wasps have been keeping the number of caterpillars down to a reasonable level; I do not see very much damage and it allows for a few caterpillars to mature to moths. It is a nice balance, one which could not have been achieved if I had opted to use synthetic pesticides to kill insects in my yard and garden.
If you are interested in identifying the caterpillars you find in your garden I highly recommend purchasing a guide to help you determine what sort of butterfly or moth they turn into. I picked one of these up at the local bookstore a few years ago and my daughter and I have had great fun trying to identify the caterpillars so we could learn what they later transform into.
And by all means, check your broccoli closely when you harvest it.
Happy Gardening.
-Susan
The event was so horrific my daughter swore off broccoli for the rest of the summer. Even my stomach was a bit queasy from the experience but being a frugal New Englander, my husband and I picked through the remaining broccoli to make sure there were no more caterpillars before consuming the broccoli.
Despite this cooking fiasco, I still find it distressing when I read in my gardening magazines and books to squash parsley worms, tomato hornworms and cabbage moths. Okay, the later which I found in my broccoli last year I won’t shed too many tears over. Besides, my ducks will consider them a delicacy but the others I think I am willing to find room in my yard and garden to share.
Nowadays, many gardeners have learned that parsley worms are actually the humble beginnings of the black swallowtail butterfly. Butterflies are the fairies of the garden. It pains me to hear that some people are using pesticides or squishing these caterpillars. Fortunately there has been a lot of education in this area in recent years and with the increased interest in butterfly gardens, gardeners now recognize these caterpillars for what they are.
However, I just put down a current magazine which advised gardeners to be on the look out for and squash tomato hornworms this coming month because they later turn into hawk moths which are also commonly known as sphinx moths or hummingbird moths.
I love these moths and have never considered these caterpillars a problem in my garden. I find it fascinating to watch their golden forms flit about the garden like miniature hummingbirds. Indeed on several occasions I’ve been asked what those tiny golden hummingbirds are in my or a friend’s garden. Their behavior is very similar to a hummingbird. They beat their wings so fast you can not see them, they hover as well as sip the nectar from flowers.
I’m not sure I could pick these, knowing what they turn into, and feed them to my ducks. I know I couldn’t squish them. I hate slugs, but I can't squish those either. Perhaps if my garden was being over come by them I would feel differently but they have not been a problem in the past. I will be watchful for these caterpillars by checking for their telltale signs of striped leaves and black droppings in the garden. I’ve also done some reading about natural predators and believe that these caterpillars may not have risen to the level of destructive nuisance in my garden due to the fact that I regularly purchase predatory wasps to keep down the flies in the barnyard.
This is a nice surprise. The wasps have been keeping the number of caterpillars down to a reasonable level; I do not see very much damage and it allows for a few caterpillars to mature to moths. It is a nice balance, one which could not have been achieved if I had opted to use synthetic pesticides to kill insects in my yard and garden.
If you are interested in identifying the caterpillars you find in your garden I highly recommend purchasing a guide to help you determine what sort of butterfly or moth they turn into. I picked one of these up at the local bookstore a few years ago and my daughter and I have had great fun trying to identify the caterpillars so we could learn what they later transform into.
And by all means, check your broccoli closely when you harvest it.
Happy Gardening.
-Susan
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Rhubarb, Who knew?
Monday marked the first harvest from this year’s garden. The stalwart perennials of the garden are due praise and bring an early spring cheer to the impatient gardener – rhubarb and asparagus. My daughter has affectionately dubbed it a stemable due to the fact that you don’t eat the fruit as you do with most garden vegetables, instead you eat the stem of this plant. While Barbara Kingsolver has her tranquils, I’ve got my stemables.
I harvested rhubarb from the two plants growing in one of my raised beds. It was just enough to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for my father. It’s one of his favorite desserts.
There’s more rhubarb to harvest. Contrary to popular garden lore, this perennial will continue to produce all summer if harvested carefully. When I was growing up my parents, like most people, would wait until the plant was full and then harvest the stalks, leaving only a few behind to keep the plant alive. That was it, one bountiful harvest of rhubarb and then the wait until next year. Not that I minded as a kid. My mom is a wonderful woman but not a great cook. What kid wants to eat lumpy, mushy green goo? One harvest was more than enough for me as a kid. My dog didn’t find it particularly appealing either.
As a young adult, I too began my tending of this plant in the same way. Okay, I probably harvested it for several weeks in order to keep a fresh supply of rhubarb stalks and ended with freezing what I did not immediately consume. However, that was it, once again, a short harvest.
My attitude toward rhubarb changed over a decade ago when I was watching Roger Swain from the Victory Garden. Not only did he break the rhubarb stalks at the base as opposed to cutting them, he advised harvesting a little at a time. With a smaller harvest, one can continue to harvest the plant throughout the entire summer and thereby ensure an almost continuous supply of rhubarb in the kitchen.
Who knew? And why was this such a closely held secret? Maybe it was because most people were sick of it after the first harvest and could only eat so many pies.
I confess to having a terrible sweet tooth. Pie all summer – really? There's no lumpy green goo in my kitchen but wonderful recipes.
I have had great success keeping my plants productive throughout the growing season. Although I admit people look a bit weird at me still when I say I have fresh rhubarb from the garden. They normally stop me and say something like ‘isn’t that just a spring time plant?’ or ‘it can’t be any good now.’
Whoever told us we could only harvest this plant in spring was woefully wrong. The key is harvesting it regularly. Otherwise, the larger stems become holey, tough, and rather disagreeable to eat; this is mainly due to the fact that these old stems lacks flavor. It is also important to snap off the emerging flower stalk and force the plant to channel its energy into new leaf stalks as opposed to reproducing.
All in all, it’s a pretty easy garden plant to maintain and managed in this way it will produce into the fall. It’s one of the star performers in my yard.
For those of you who have never tried eating rhubarb, it needs sugar. Lots of sugar. So what exactly do you do with rhubarb besides making pie? I suggest poking at the internet for some recipes but here’s some of the ways I use it.
I boil it down, without sugar, into a sauce. I then use it in recipes for chocolate cake or brownies in place of oil or butter. Many people substitute applesauce for oils and butter. Give this a try. Rhubarb is fantastic in chocolate recipes!
My family loves my homemade strawberry rhubarb ice cream, a flavor you can’t buy in a carton in the store.
Pink goddess salad dressing is very nice on a salad.
An unlikely dish of 3c of rhubarb, 2c of sweet onions, 6 sausages, 2T oil, a little sprinkle of salt and sugar each cooked together is very nice as a humble casserole.
One recipe I read about this year was to slice the stalks into 4 inch long piece, add a small amount of maple syrup and bake in the oven. When it is finished baking, top it will a sliver of dark chocolate. Also on my list to try this summer is a rhubarb-tomato sauce per a recipe I found. It should be interesting.
Happy Gardening.
I harvested rhubarb from the two plants growing in one of my raised beds. It was just enough to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for my father. It’s one of his favorite desserts.
There’s more rhubarb to harvest. Contrary to popular garden lore, this perennial will continue to produce all summer if harvested carefully. When I was growing up my parents, like most people, would wait until the plant was full and then harvest the stalks, leaving only a few behind to keep the plant alive. That was it, one bountiful harvest of rhubarb and then the wait until next year. Not that I minded as a kid. My mom is a wonderful woman but not a great cook. What kid wants to eat lumpy, mushy green goo? One harvest was more than enough for me as a kid. My dog didn’t find it particularly appealing either.
As a young adult, I too began my tending of this plant in the same way. Okay, I probably harvested it for several weeks in order to keep a fresh supply of rhubarb stalks and ended with freezing what I did not immediately consume. However, that was it, once again, a short harvest.
My attitude toward rhubarb changed over a decade ago when I was watching Roger Swain from the Victory Garden. Not only did he break the rhubarb stalks at the base as opposed to cutting them, he advised harvesting a little at a time. With a smaller harvest, one can continue to harvest the plant throughout the entire summer and thereby ensure an almost continuous supply of rhubarb in the kitchen.
Who knew? And why was this such a closely held secret? Maybe it was because most people were sick of it after the first harvest and could only eat so many pies.
I confess to having a terrible sweet tooth. Pie all summer – really? There's no lumpy green goo in my kitchen but wonderful recipes.
I have had great success keeping my plants productive throughout the growing season. Although I admit people look a bit weird at me still when I say I have fresh rhubarb from the garden. They normally stop me and say something like ‘isn’t that just a spring time plant?’ or ‘it can’t be any good now.’
Whoever told us we could only harvest this plant in spring was woefully wrong. The key is harvesting it regularly. Otherwise, the larger stems become holey, tough, and rather disagreeable to eat; this is mainly due to the fact that these old stems lacks flavor. It is also important to snap off the emerging flower stalk and force the plant to channel its energy into new leaf stalks as opposed to reproducing.
All in all, it’s a pretty easy garden plant to maintain and managed in this way it will produce into the fall. It’s one of the star performers in my yard.
For those of you who have never tried eating rhubarb, it needs sugar. Lots of sugar. So what exactly do you do with rhubarb besides making pie? I suggest poking at the internet for some recipes but here’s some of the ways I use it.
I boil it down, without sugar, into a sauce. I then use it in recipes for chocolate cake or brownies in place of oil or butter. Many people substitute applesauce for oils and butter. Give this a try. Rhubarb is fantastic in chocolate recipes!
My family loves my homemade strawberry rhubarb ice cream, a flavor you can’t buy in a carton in the store.
Pink goddess salad dressing is very nice on a salad.
An unlikely dish of 3c of rhubarb, 2c of sweet onions, 6 sausages, 2T oil, a little sprinkle of salt and sugar each cooked together is very nice as a humble casserole.
One recipe I read about this year was to slice the stalks into 4 inch long piece, add a small amount of maple syrup and bake in the oven. When it is finished baking, top it will a sliver of dark chocolate. Also on my list to try this summer is a rhubarb-tomato sauce per a recipe I found. It should be interesting.
Happy Gardening.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Onions and an early start
As a novice gardener, I always started my vegetable plantings after the last hard frost. Here in Southern New Hampshire, the common planting date is June 1 or if you adhere to local folklore, after the full moon in May. My first venture into the garden began with all my plantings in June. In the past few years, I've been more adventurous and chosen the full moon of May as the frost free date with much success.
Imagine my dismay last year when I ordered onion starts from a catalog and they came at the beginning of April. What was I supposed to do with them? I still had snow in parts of my yard. I crossed my fingers and set each onion into one of my raised beds. Somewhat miraculously they sprouted new green growth and quickly began growing at a time of the year that I had previously thought was too early to plant.
This year, my onions yet again arrived in early April. With less tremidation this year I planted my onions and have been rewarded with signs of vigorous growth despite the cool weather which has regularly dipped below freezing.
In addition to onions, I am experimenting with other cold hardy crops. I have two rows of radishes and a row of mixed leaf lettuce which have both sprouted and most bear true leaves. I will be planting more rows of both of these crops at regular intervals in order to keep a continuous harvest until it is too warm to grow these fast maturing crops. I would have planted peas but I was unable to find seeds when I bought my radish and lettuce seeds.
From a local mom and pop business I purchased 2 six packs of broccoli and 2 six packs of brussel sprouts and 1 pack of swiss chard. All of which were planted this past weekend. These plants can take a light frost or so they say, but some readings indicate the broccoli might 'button' or in layman's terms have small heads if it is too cold. I have no past experience with planting this early so it will be interesting to watch and learn. Nor have I ever grown sprouts or chard in my garden. I always try to grow at least one new vegetable each year. My husband and I love to eat brussel sprouts but I haven't the faintest idea what to do with chard except salad. Everyone seems to grow it so I was wondering what I was missing out on. This will prove to be both a gardening and culinary experiment.
At the very least my 'Rainbow Light' swiss chard will be a decorative addition in front of my peonies along the walk up to my house. The sprouts have been planted in both a raised bed with the broccoli and the other half was tucked behind the peonies as I venture into edible landscaping.
One reason for planting these vegetables early is the hope that they will establish themselves earlier in the season and begin to bear fruit earlier. I am hoping for a longer harvest season and in the case of the onions, a longer time for them to plump up big and round. Although I expect I will be raiding them in the next month to harvest some as new onions.
This year will most certainly be a learning experience as I push the early planting date for some crops, and see how much I can incorporate into the traditional flower border.
Happy Gardening.
Susan
Imagine my dismay last year when I ordered onion starts from a catalog and they came at the beginning of April. What was I supposed to do with them? I still had snow in parts of my yard. I crossed my fingers and set each onion into one of my raised beds. Somewhat miraculously they sprouted new green growth and quickly began growing at a time of the year that I had previously thought was too early to plant.
This year, my onions yet again arrived in early April. With less tremidation this year I planted my onions and have been rewarded with signs of vigorous growth despite the cool weather which has regularly dipped below freezing.
In addition to onions, I am experimenting with other cold hardy crops. I have two rows of radishes and a row of mixed leaf lettuce which have both sprouted and most bear true leaves. I will be planting more rows of both of these crops at regular intervals in order to keep a continuous harvest until it is too warm to grow these fast maturing crops. I would have planted peas but I was unable to find seeds when I bought my radish and lettuce seeds.
From a local mom and pop business I purchased 2 six packs of broccoli and 2 six packs of brussel sprouts and 1 pack of swiss chard. All of which were planted this past weekend. These plants can take a light frost or so they say, but some readings indicate the broccoli might 'button' or in layman's terms have small heads if it is too cold. I have no past experience with planting this early so it will be interesting to watch and learn. Nor have I ever grown sprouts or chard in my garden. I always try to grow at least one new vegetable each year. My husband and I love to eat brussel sprouts but I haven't the faintest idea what to do with chard except salad. Everyone seems to grow it so I was wondering what I was missing out on. This will prove to be both a gardening and culinary experiment.
At the very least my 'Rainbow Light' swiss chard will be a decorative addition in front of my peonies along the walk up to my house. The sprouts have been planted in both a raised bed with the broccoli and the other half was tucked behind the peonies as I venture into edible landscaping.
One reason for planting these vegetables early is the hope that they will establish themselves earlier in the season and begin to bear fruit earlier. I am hoping for a longer harvest season and in the case of the onions, a longer time for them to plump up big and round. Although I expect I will be raiding them in the next month to harvest some as new onions.
This year will most certainly be a learning experience as I push the early planting date for some crops, and see how much I can incorporate into the traditional flower border.
Happy Gardening.
Susan
Friday, April 22, 2011
Purpose of this blog
Instead of jumping right in and starting to write I have been taking some time to think about the focus of this blog. Most importantly I've been asking myself, what do I expect this to accomplish?
There are a few answers. The focus of this blog is to think about food and reexamine my and our cultures relationship with our food. I have made several gardening goals and will be experimenting to see how many meals I can stretch a farm fresh chicken purchased from a local farmer.
This is not a recipe blog but I'd be happy to pass along tasty ones I find and learn what you love to cook. It is important to know how to cook and enjoy the food you raise.
My focus is on knowing where my food comes from and occasionally look at the problems with our current food system. I feel if we are mindful of our actions or understand the benefits of eating food which we are aware of how it was raised or know the individual we bought it from, we will in the end be eating healthier. Honestly, I don't know anyone who raises chocolate or corn chips so that will most certainly be a boon to my waist line. :)
The blog is for more than that though. It is for reflection, inspiration and to keep me honest in my endeavors. I do not plan to become a food fanatic of only eating what I grow, cook or can buy locally but I'd like to put these thoughts in the forefront of my day because afterall we eat at least 3 times a day. Isn't it worth thinking about what we are eating? There is more than calories, fat content, sodium and corn syrup to consider. My belief is if we are eating some of our local foods we will be ruling out more of those unhealthy options.
Also we communicate best through stories and relate better to other individual's successes and failures than we do a textbook.
I expect my posts will vary ranging from farm chores, stories to information but the central topic will always be related to food and why local is the best option for us and our world.
Cheers
There are a few answers. The focus of this blog is to think about food and reexamine my and our cultures relationship with our food. I have made several gardening goals and will be experimenting to see how many meals I can stretch a farm fresh chicken purchased from a local farmer.
This is not a recipe blog but I'd be happy to pass along tasty ones I find and learn what you love to cook. It is important to know how to cook and enjoy the food you raise.
My focus is on knowing where my food comes from and occasionally look at the problems with our current food system. I feel if we are mindful of our actions or understand the benefits of eating food which we are aware of how it was raised or know the individual we bought it from, we will in the end be eating healthier. Honestly, I don't know anyone who raises chocolate or corn chips so that will most certainly be a boon to my waist line. :)
The blog is for more than that though. It is for reflection, inspiration and to keep me honest in my endeavors. I do not plan to become a food fanatic of only eating what I grow, cook or can buy locally but I'd like to put these thoughts in the forefront of my day because afterall we eat at least 3 times a day. Isn't it worth thinking about what we are eating? There is more than calories, fat content, sodium and corn syrup to consider. My belief is if we are eating some of our local foods we will be ruling out more of those unhealthy options.
Also we communicate best through stories and relate better to other individual's successes and failures than we do a textbook.
I expect my posts will vary ranging from farm chores, stories to information but the central topic will always be related to food and why local is the best option for us and our world.
Cheers
Friday, April 1, 2011
Welcome
Spring is the time for new beginnings although many would argue January 1st was the time to begin anew. I contend it is Spring when the slumbering earth slowly awakens and pushes its bright green leaves up through the soil and trees unfurl their leaves. This is the time of new beginnings.
As I scan my gardens with hopes for the season ahead, I recognize I am one small part of a growing movement, one which grows in part their own food, supports local farmers and sustainable practices.
When I say small part, I mean small, very small, but nonetheless a firm believer in this movement and by no means a new one. There are individuals out there who are doing much more than me. I hope to be able to join their ranks someday.
The goal of this blog is to connect to other like minded individuals, share stories, advice and be part of a larger group of individuals in the community.
If you are a gardener, farmer, localvore, follower of the slow food movement or in anyway interested in raising or buying food which is nutritionally healthier, produced using sustainable methods and wish to support your neighbors, I welcome you to my blog. I look forward to reading yours.
As I scan my gardens with hopes for the season ahead, I recognize I am one small part of a growing movement, one which grows in part their own food, supports local farmers and sustainable practices.
When I say small part, I mean small, very small, but nonetheless a firm believer in this movement and by no means a new one. There are individuals out there who are doing much more than me. I hope to be able to join their ranks someday.
The goal of this blog is to connect to other like minded individuals, share stories, advice and be part of a larger group of individuals in the community.
If you are a gardener, farmer, localvore, follower of the slow food movement or in anyway interested in raising or buying food which is nutritionally healthier, produced using sustainable methods and wish to support your neighbors, I welcome you to my blog. I look forward to reading yours.
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