tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58688562919029945492024-03-13T23:09:52.867-04:00Milkweed DiariesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger233125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-64292171984999337442014-10-29T21:09:00.001-04:002014-10-29T21:33:40.241-04:00Favorites<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UvmBS_NjccA/VFGTtxfsvfI/AAAAAAAAFGc/Gun0lCjBoU4/s1600/20130825_190238.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UvmBS_NjccA/VFGTtxfsvfI/AAAAAAAAFGc/Gun0lCjBoU4/s1600/20130825_190238.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
This is my favorite thing to read right now: <a href="http://mereleighfood.com/" target="_blank">MereLeighFood</a>. Go there. Read. And eat it up with a spoon.<br />
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And here is Maisey before the first frost. One of my favorite creatures in all the world.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-80537654717882078592014-03-23T16:17:00.001-04:002014-03-23T21:19:21.742-04:00On Bumble Bees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gJg_IbQVTNw/UyRPi0alrzI/AAAAAAAAEjI/5X3qjPj3KtU/s1600/bombus+spec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gJg_IbQVTNw/UyRPi0alrzI/AAAAAAAAEjI/5X3qjPj3KtU/s1600/bombus+spec.jpg" height="204" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bombus terricola (left), Bombus pensylvanicus (center) and Bombus auricomus (right), courtesy of the <a href="http://www.xerces.org/" target="_blank">Xerces Society</a>. </td></tr>
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The <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2014/03/on-bees-beauty-and-science.html" target="_blank">wild bee identification class</a> I took at the Organic Growers School earlier this month got me all fired up about bumble bees. I've always loved their presence in the garden, but I've just been a casual observer. I had no idea that there were hundreds of species of bumble bees in the perfectly named <a href="http://bugguide.net/node/view/3077" target="_blank">genus Bombus</a>. It turns out that the bumbling Bombus is hairy, clumsy, loud, and extremely efficient as a pollinator. Bumble bees' size, fuzzy texture, and loud buzz all add to their pollinating prowess - the buzzing actually helps shake loose pollen, which then attaches to their big hairy bodies as they bumble and lurch all over the bloom.<br />
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Sadly, as I've delved deeper into bumble bees, I've learned that a number of formerly common Bombus species are in rapid decline due to habitat destruction, pesticides, invasive species, and climate change.<br />
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I was astonished to learn that bumble bees are used commercially like honeybees as pollinators for large-scale agribusiness operations. According to one study I found (<i><a href="http://www.projectchirp.ca/pdf/bb-plight.pdf" target="_blank">Plight of the bumble bee: Pathogen spillover from </a></i><i><a href="http://www.projectchirp.ca/pdf/bb-plight.pdf" target="_blank">commercial to wild populations</a>, </i><i>Sheila R. Colla, Michael C. Otterstatter *, Robert J. Gegear, James D. Thomson, </i><i>Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, </i>available at www.sciencedirect.com<i>): </i><i>"</i>Since the early 1990’s, private companies have mass-produced and distributed colonies of native bumble bees (<i>Bombus impatiens Cresson</i> in the east and <i>B. occidentalis Greene</i> in the west, although more recently <i>B. impatiens</i> has also been shipped to the west) to large-scale commercial greenhouses for year-round pollination of tomato and sweet pepper. A pollinating force of commercial Bombus can reach 23,000 bees per greenhouse." These large scale commercial bumblebee colonies are apparently one of several factors contributing to native bumblebee decline. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TfK2gaVf8ZQ/UyRQP_cld9I/AAAAAAAAEjQ/XL8z6XIpWKY/s1600/Bombus_pensylvanicus,_female_PaDIL_www.padil.gov,I_SD11191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TfK2gaVf8ZQ/UyRQP_cld9I/AAAAAAAAEjQ/XL8z6XIpWKY/s1600/Bombus_pensylvanicus,_female_PaDIL_www.padil.gov,I_SD11191.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bombus pensylvanicus female courtesy of <a href="http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Bombus+pensylvanicus">DiscoverLife.org</a></td></tr>
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The Xerces Society has a ton of great information about how to protect and conserve bumblebees including this useful publication: <i><a href="http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/conserving_bb.pdf" target="_blank">Guidelines for Creating and Managing Habitat for America’s Declining Pollinators</a>. </i><br />
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Besides the obvious (stop using pesticides and herbicides) there is some really interesting information about how to create habitat. For instance: most bumblebees nest underground, often in abandoned homes of other animals, including rodents and birds. So by killing mice and other rodents, land owners are indirectly decreasing bumblebee habitat. They also like to overwinter in brushy and unmowed areas, woodpiles, grass clumps, hollow logs, dead trees, and debris piles - which means a little bit of mess is great for the bumblebees, yay!<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-niZVuHPCZoA/UyRQ35vtqYI/AAAAAAAAEjY/WjKBNTon0cA/s1600/Bombus_pensylvanicus,I_SD10867.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-niZVuHPCZoA/UyRQ35vtqYI/AAAAAAAAEjY/WjKBNTon0cA/s1600/Bombus_pensylvanicus,I_SD10867.jpg" height="278" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Bombus pensylvanicus courtesy of <a href="http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Bombus+pensylvanicus">DiscoverLife.org</a><br />
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Xerces Society is conducting a <a href="http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/" target="_blank">Citizen Science Project</a> to track the status of five declining Bombus species - of course I will be participating, since the idea of a "Citizen Science Project" gets me all fired up and ready to get out my field guides and magnifying glass and <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/tortoise/works/9398753-neil-degrasse-tyson?body_color=white&p=t-shirt&print_location=front&ref=shop_grid&style=mens" target="_blank">Neil deGrasse Tyson T-shirt</a>. One of this summer's goals will be learning to identify different Bombus species. Nerding out with the Bombus in the garden! Because they're big and slow and harmless, I'm hoping they'll be easier to identify than some of the other beneficial insects I've hunted in years past.<br />
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More bumblebee information can be found at <a href="http://www.bumblebeewatch.org/" target="_blank">Bumblebee Watch</a> and you can see some gorgeous bumblebee photos on the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/sets/72157633925572111/" target="_blank">USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab's flickr page. </a><br />
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Here are a few Bombus greatest hits photos from my garden over the past few years.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oF8LSZaFV3w/UyRiFkkLfXI/AAAAAAAAEjs/zgqj3KyRFp0/s1600/8532_140564406581_7782914_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oF8LSZaFV3w/UyRiFkkLfXI/AAAAAAAAEjs/zgqj3KyRFp0/s1600/8532_140564406581_7782914_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some Bombus getting busy on a sunflower</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TGEOKglud2I/UyRiFemViOI/AAAAAAAAEjo/eKWis0nJ15s/s1600/263539_10150222393001582_2939916_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TGEOKglud2I/UyRiFemViOI/AAAAAAAAEjo/eKWis0nJ15s/s1600/263539_10150222393001582_2939916_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bombus on Bee Balm </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zj3n2qTGzEA/UyRiSiTUoRI/AAAAAAAAEj4/FUBsBFVKaLM/s1600/bombus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zj3n2qTGzEA/UyRiSiTUoRI/AAAAAAAAEj4/FUBsBFVKaLM/s1600/bombus.jpg" height="640" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Echinacea in last year's garden with a bodacious Bombus visitor</td></tr>
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Rock on, Bombus. Long may you thrive and pollinate.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-88540255666284167062014-03-15T08:46:00.000-04:002014-03-15T08:58:58.347-04:00Medicine Made From Flowers<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VbPfGelszUY/UyI_0vzWQ-I/AAAAAAAAEh8/Vb-ornU7PQ8/s1600/ech+flowers+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VbPfGelszUY/UyI_0vzWQ-I/AAAAAAAAEh8/Vb-ornU7PQ8/s1600/ech+flowers+3.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Echinacea purpurea</i> harvested from last summer's garden</td></tr>
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This time of year, it's nice to have some herbal potions around to help fend off germs and stay healthy. I was inspired in August to make a quick batch of Echinacea tincture from flowers and leaves for future use during cold season. <br />
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For years I stayed away from tincture-making because I thought I needed to have a tincture press, precisely measure everything, and probably possess some special knowledge that I did not have. Fortunately in recent years knowing lots of herbalists in the "wise woman" folk tradition has given me confidence to try making simple concoctions like Echinacea tincture on my own. <br />
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Because this herb is tinctured in vodka rather than grain alcohol, it is going to be less potent. Also, I only used leaf, stem, and flower, rather than root, which will make for a milder medicine. The medicinal properties of Echinacea root are stronger than those of the above-ground parts of the plant.<br />
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My plan was to dig up some Echinacea roots after the plants died back in the fall and tincture those too and mix the two tinctures together for a whole-plant medicine, but I haven't gotten around to it, and I've just been using the milder leaf, flower, and stem tincture.<br />
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Here's the (very simple) process I used to tincture my Echinacea:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UPMvNz-GWsE/UyJPMRv9RsI/AAAAAAAAEiQ/NxTXegvPa2I/s1600/269086_10150222393251582_8045371_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UPMvNz-GWsE/UyJPMRv9RsI/AAAAAAAAEiQ/NxTXegvPa2I/s1600/269086_10150222393251582_8045371_n.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harvest flowers, leaves, and stems in the summer when flowers are in full bloom</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ynVjYcjbkyQ/UyI_yeM___I/AAAAAAAAEh0/NXl71tA1zMg/s1600/ech+flowers+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ynVjYcjbkyQ/UyI_yeM___I/AAAAAAAAEh0/NXl71tA1zMg/s1600/ech+flowers+2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rinse off bugs and debris</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W7SQ1Pd7L3Y/UyI92v86iyI/AAAAAAAAEhQ/WSfh-pCupY4/s1600/ech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W7SQ1Pd7L3Y/UyI92v86iyI/AAAAAAAAEhQ/WSfh-pCupY4/s1600/ech.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fill a quart jar with chopped leaves and flowers</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTIxEmVgLYw/UyI9rfVJtmI/AAAAAAAAEhI/8BFlrZFYr6g/s1600/ech3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VTIxEmVgLYw/UyI9rfVJtmI/AAAAAAAAEhI/8BFlrZFYr6g/s1600/ech3.jpg" height="320" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pack everything tightly down into the jar</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jN3NxUSmdLw/UyI-EHeVjhI/AAAAAAAAEhY/OEgtL5gVczA/s1600/ech4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jN3NxUSmdLw/UyI-EHeVjhI/AAAAAAAAEhY/OEgtL5gVczA/s1600/ech4.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover the chopped up flowers, leaves, and stems with organic vodka</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">It was quick and easy to make a quart. Six weeks later, I strained the contents of the jar through cheesecloth and bottled it up in empty tincture bottles.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Rosemary Gladstar has a great little video on tincturing Echinacea - she's using dried root, but the process is pretty much exactly what I did:</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Here's how my tincture turned out:</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LhXIudQ5UpA/UyJS029WkyI/AAAAAAAAEis/Q4H22MpZ0JU/s1600/tinc2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LhXIudQ5UpA/UyJS029WkyI/AAAAAAAAEis/Q4H22MpZ0JU/s1600/tinc2.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">I love thinking about Echinacea in full bloom in the summertime when I dose myself up with a shot of tincture.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L2U_7MrM1z4/UyJPlBDOE4I/AAAAAAAAEic/XOQK1QFqyUo/s1600/264117_10150222393191582_2042177_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L2U_7MrM1z4/UyJPlBDOE4I/AAAAAAAAEic/XOQK1QFqyUo/s1600/264117_10150222393191582_2042177_n.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Echinacea purpurea blooming in my garden last summer</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Sifting through summer photos, I also came across this accidental little 3-second video, which I love because it includes an audio snapshot of the sounds of summer. I love thinking of Echinacea tincture as the essence of summer, captured in a bottle, perfect for fending off winter ailments.</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-52044764417163913932014-03-12T23:10:00.001-04:002014-03-14T11:47:23.625-04:00On Bees, Beauty, and Science<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8C1sORD9tCI/Ux0ahqVoYeI/AAAAAAAAEfs/-OnKVIfBaVI/s1600/blue+orchard+bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8C1sORD9tCI/Ux0ahqVoYeI/AAAAAAAAEfs/-OnKVIfBaVI/s1600/blue+orchard+bee.jpg" height="260" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Osmia lignaria</i> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmia_lignaria" target="_blank">Blue Orchard Bee</a>), a native megachilid bee that nests in holes and reeds</td></tr>
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Growing up, I experienced science classes as irrelevant tedium, something to just try to get through with as little pain as possible. I remember being bored with science classes in elementary school, doing a lot of rote memorization in my high school chemistry, biology, and physics classes, and never having any interest in learning any more than I had to about science.<br />
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Something strange happened in college. To meet my minimum science requirements, sure that I would be suffering through more tedious memorization of numbers, rules, and formulas, I looked for the least boring, most "liberal artsy" of the science classes in the course catalog. I signed up for Evolutionary Ecology and Cosmology and fell in love with both. </div>
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Suddenly, science was fascinating, relevant, and useful. It was tinged with mysticism and magic, and full of beauty and wonder. My two science professors, passionate about their fields of expertise, brought to life for me the science of life and of the cosmos. Evolution and ecology and the mysteries of the origins of the universe fascinated me.<br />
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But it was too late - I was already deep into my major and committed to thinking of science as something arcane, confusing, and dry -- something that belonged to science and math people, not to English majors like me. Those classes, I thought, were just odd diversions, strange aberrations, lucky breaks in my quest to knock out the core courses required for a liberal arts major to graduate.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9hUUYc15ht0/Ux2xK_JrWrI/AAAAAAAAEgY/qB1ntTZ36bM/s1600/RachelCarson_zps164a583d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9hUUYc15ht0/Ux2xK_JrWrI/AAAAAAAAEgY/qB1ntTZ36bM/s1600/RachelCarson_zps164a583d.jpg" height="320" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rachel Carson paying attention</td></tr>
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Many years later, as a gardener and lover of the natural world, I came to feel ripped off. Science is amazing. The universe and the planet are amazing, and science is one of the ways we witness and comprehend all of the wonder of the universe and the Earth. I wish that science classes in elementary school and high school had consisted of bird watching, making compost and studying worm bins, walks in the woods, animal tracking, night field trips with telescopes, and wading in the stream with a magnifying glass.<br />
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I especially regret not studying botany earlier in life, along with all of the life sciences - the studies of the amazing community of life on the planet--entymology, ornithology, zoology, microbiology, and so on.<br />
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So in small ways I've been trying to remedy my ignorance of science for years, and I've made more headway with plants than with other living things, but still feel woefully un-learned. Carl Sagan and <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2011/07/seminal-work.html" target="_blank">Rachel Carson </a>have helped, and field guides, and smart friends, and just spending a lot of time outside in the natural world paying attention.</div>
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So when I get to look at a sweat bee under a microscope and see her back glittering iridescent green, a tiny, magical, shimmering, bejeweled surface invisible to the naked eye, it's an exciting day for me.<br />
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At the <a href="https://organicgrowersschool.org/" target="_blank">Organic Growers School </a>last weekend I had a chance to do just that - at a class called "Meet the Bees," taught by Dr. Jill Sidebottom. I sat next to my new blogger friend <a href="http://girlinanapron.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Rachel</a> in Dr. Sidebottom's bee class, and we totally nerded out. </div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Od9RVIkcypM/Ux0Z4BQSwgI/AAAAAAAAEfo/hCgRFtbuwHE/s1600/20140308_153219.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Od9RVIkcypM/Ux0Z4BQSwgI/AAAAAAAAEfo/hCgRFtbuwHE/s1600/20140308_153219.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Inspecting bees under the microscope</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AlnpVUwObx8/Ux0YDF42hfI/AAAAAAAAEfQ/M-P1TJDMsek/s1600/sweat+bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AlnpVUwObx8/Ux0YDF42hfI/AAAAAAAAEfQ/M-P1TJDMsek/s1600/sweat+bee.jpg" height="240" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Agapostemon sericeus</i> (Sweat Bee), courtesy of Bee Tribes of the World (bugsrus, York University)<br />
-- similar to the emerald green sweat bee I studied under the microscope in "Meet the Bees."<br />
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Dr. Jill has been studying bees and insects sometimes mistaken for bees in Christmas tree fields, thanks to NC Extension (yay, my tax dollars at work!). She showed us a lot of specimens and put us through the paces with bee, wasp, and fly identification (I have a lot to learn, suffice to say).<br />
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The class deepened my love of the bumbling Bombus genus (<a href="http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/brainy-bumble-bees/" target="_blank">Bumblebees!</a>). Bombus species, I learned from Dr. Jill, are excellent pollinators because they are big, hairy, clumsy, and loud. The volume of their buzzing as they perch on the edge or hang out inside of a flower actually helps shake loose pollen, which then collects on their hairy bodies. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-54JhrhIZb6U/Ux0Y2m2lQHI/AAAAAAAAEfY/K2N--70LTIY/s1600/bombus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-54JhrhIZb6U/Ux0Y2m2lQHI/AAAAAAAAEfY/K2N--70LTIY/s1600/bombus.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> Bombus terrestris</i> (a Bumblebee species) courtesy of Wikipedia Commons</td></tr>
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And I have a new appreciation for <a href="http://beeinformed.org/2012/10/sweat-bees/" target="_blank">Sweat Bees</a>. I love that they are shockingly, excessively beautiful in a way that is invisible to the naked eye. Certain Sweat Bees are downright "blingy" in the words of our instructor - iridescent, sparkly, exquisite, and glamorous up close. Seeing some of the members of the genus Agapostemon (Metallic Green Bees) under the microscope, you would think you must be looking at some rare and exotic insect. But it's just a pesky, common, tiny Sweat Bee. Having seen their beauty up close, I know I'll think twice about swatting them this summer.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GU63jbDzIB0/Ux0XBV1kbYI/AAAAAAAAEfE/GM8LE2jADtU/s1600/20140308_151530-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GU63jbDzIB0/Ux0XBV1kbYI/AAAAAAAAEfE/GM8LE2jADtU/s1600/20140308_151530-2.jpg" height="400" width="362" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rachel inspecting bees with a hand lens</td></tr>
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Dr. Jill also shared some great sources of gorgeous photos of birds, bugs, and other natural wonders -- here are a few that live in Facebook world:<br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Digital.Museum.of.Natural.History/info?ref=br_tf" target="_blank">The Digital Museum of Natural History</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SmallWonders.nature" target="_blank">Small Wonders</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/FlowerVisitors?ref=profile" target="_blank">Flower Visitors</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/encyclopediaoflife?ref=profile" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Life</a></li>
</ul>
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Thanks to Dr. Jill Sidebottom for a great introduction to all of the different kinds of bees in this part of the world, and thanks to the Organic Growers School for the chance to play at science!<br />
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PS/update 3/13: Thanks to Christina for sending me another amazing wild bee photo collection:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/" target="_blank"> the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab's Flickr stream</a><u> </u>which includes hundreds of beautiful photos of bees. </blockquote>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ya6YVKo9MwE/Ux2wRUax-YI/AAAAAAAAEgQ/AxuiCjo7aSM/s1600/carl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ya6YVKo9MwE/Ux2wRUax-YI/AAAAAAAAEgQ/AxuiCjo7aSM/s1600/carl.jpg" height="150" width="400" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-13193470816652221612014-03-09T12:44:00.001-04:002014-03-10T10:05:52.420-04:00Amazing Bird Facts<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dtf0PWLrO6Q/UxyUAsbRBOI/AAAAAAAAEeI/JOgpaLkQds4/s1600/golden-crowned-kinglet-bird-nest-pine-vintage-image-graphicsfairysm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dtf0PWLrO6Q/UxyUAsbRBOI/AAAAAAAAEeI/JOgpaLkQds4/s1600/golden-crowned-kinglet-bird-nest-pine-vintage-image-graphicsfairysm.jpg" height="640" width="481" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Golden Crowned Kinglet</td></tr>
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I spent yesterday at the <a href="http://www.organicgrowersschool.org/" target="_blank">Organic Growers School</a> getting inspired, learning things, reconnecting with old friends, and meeting fabulous new people. My two favorite classes were about birds and bees (cue dorky "the birds and the bees" jokes here). </div>
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"Meet the Bees" was a wonderful introduction to identifying pollinators--more on that later. <br />
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In "Introduction to Bird Language" I learned all kinds of amazing facts about birds and how they communicate with each other - both within families and species and among species. Here are 10 of my favorites:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/maps/wall-maps/specialty-maps/bird-migration-in-the-americas-thematic-map" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzJo73pqPJU/UxyWQnxwz5I/AAAAAAAAEeU/q77b0KanUsk/s1600/migration.jpg" height="392" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/maps/wall-maps/specialty-maps/bird-migration-in-the-americas-thematic-map" target="_blank">Migration Paths</a></td></tr>
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<li>Some birds use the stars to navigate, others use magnetic fields, others navigate by memorizing landmarks along their migration path while taking the journey with their family. Some species combine more than one of these methods in navigating migration. Birds that navigate solely by memory and sight will sometimes become non-migratory if separated from their family group - if they haven't made the trip enough times to memorize the route.</li>
<li><span style="text-align: center;">The golden crowned kinglet, barely bigger than a hummingbird, can survive temperatures down to -40 degrees. This tiny, yellow-mohawked bird is rarely seen because they are so small, quick, and tend to spend most of their time very high up in the tops of trees.</span></li>
<li>80% of a Cooper's Hawk's diet is songbirds. Almost always caught in midair. Hawks can fly 60 miles per hour, and kill over 200 songbirds per nesting season. It takes 53 songbirds to raise one Cooper's Hawk chick to 6 weeks old.</li>
<li>Tufted Titmice and Chickadees are dramatic gossips who observe what is going on with other birds and talk loudly about everything they observe, sharing information about predators and other happenings with other species. You can count the "dees" in the chickadee's song to gauge the level of alarm - generally more than five "dees" indicates a higher level of alarm. Also, Titmice and Chickadees will often socialize and even share nests!</li>
<li>Albatrosses sometimes spend six months at a time in the air - eating, breeding, and even sleeping on the wing.</li>
<li>The dawn chorus of songbirds is always happening somewhere on the planet, and has been for millions of years.</li>
<li>Bird language falls into five main categories: adolescent begging calls, territorial aggression, companion calls (to mates or family members), song, and alarm calls. </li>
<li>Cardinals pair bond for life and are constantly checking in with each other through companion calls.</li>
<li>Alarm calls, sounded by many different species of songbird, will follow a predator through the forest, alerting all birds and other small animals to the presence of a threat as the predator moves from place to place.</li>
<li>Some bird language is body language - in addition to vocalizations, birds use non-vocal communication to convey information within and among species.</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LgpZvFehCoU/UxyMqqYNhSI/AAAAAAAAEdY/MbIOIInkiyQ/s1600/coopers+hawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LgpZvFehCoU/UxyMqqYNhSI/AAAAAAAAEdY/MbIOIInkiyQ/s1600/coopers+hawk.jpg" height="640" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cooper's Hawk</td></tr>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SGL17Ky83Rg/UxyYwOoa-WI/AAAAAAAAEeg/HrmPPDgsyig/s1600/titmice+and+chick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9w8e2Wj3tFk/UxyO9q9NLaI/AAAAAAAAEdk/A7feLO-n3OI/s1600/coopers2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9w8e2Wj3tFk/UxyO9q9NLaI/AAAAAAAAEdk/A7feLO-n3OI/s1600/coopers2.jpg" height="640" width="411" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Death by Cooper's Hawk</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SGL17Ky83Rg/UxyYwOoa-WI/AAAAAAAAEeg/HrmPPDgsyig/s1600/titmice+and+chick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SGL17Ky83Rg/UxyYwOoa-WI/AAAAAAAAEeg/HrmPPDgsyig/s1600/titmice+and+chick.jpg" height="400" width="392" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chickadees and Titmice</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rpIn1-Z7WiE/UxyZnn_G8CI/AAAAAAAAEeo/X0tfPOH739M/s1600/audubon_northern_cardinal_print-r17088f7a2383466c8511b7fb8d760d1b_mws_8byvr_512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rpIn1-Z7WiE/UxyZnn_G8CI/AAAAAAAAEeo/X0tfPOH739M/s1600/audubon_northern_cardinal_print-r17088f7a2383466c8511b7fb8d760d1b_mws_8byvr_512.jpg" height="400" width="337" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cardinals</td></tr>
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Thank you, <a href="http://organicgrowersschool.org/" target="_blank">Organic Growers School!</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-37252306812217246892012-11-11T22:21:00.002-05:002014-03-13T08:17:46.522-04:00A Visit to Shelton Laurel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T8zI7qH9MnI/UKBCCA8pdaI/AAAAAAAAEGE/AVfQH8XYRg0/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T8zI7qH9MnI/UKBCCA8pdaI/AAAAAAAAEGE/AVfQH8XYRg0/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+140.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
Christopher and Maisey and I took a much needed weekend trip to the wilds of Madison County, where our dear friend Dana makes her home. Dana (proprietress of the thoroughly enjoyable "<a href="http://dana-dee.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dana Dee</a>") is a mountain medicine woman, homesteader, naturalist, sometimes plumber, writer, and generally one of my all-around heroes.<br />
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She lives in Shelton Laurel, way up in the mountains, near the Tennessee border in what is most definitely the backwoods. Her home is full of good food, medicinal herbs drying, goofy humor, fascinating projects in progress, and comfy places to curl up with a book. </div>
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I love visiting Dana. I love the little shrines to beauty and wonder and family and plants and animals that are everywhere in Dana's world - <a href="http://dana-dee.blogspot.com/2008/03/earth-wakes-up.html" target="_blank">the otter pelt that she tanned</a>, delicate teacups in a beautiful battered old china cabinet, tinctures and syrups and dried roots, little scraps of paper full of notes and poems and tidbits. I also love Dana's clever wit and general hilarity, and her deep appreciation of the absurd. Basically, I just think she hung the moon, as my mom would say.</div>
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Being in the home that Dana created with the help of an all-star cast of friends and roaming the woods around her home place was just lovely.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I67EFO5mGuo/UyGhFBm3vdI/AAAAAAAAEg0/613BkMXfJtg/s1600/dana+teacup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I67EFO5mGuo/UyGhFBm3vdI/AAAAAAAAEg0/613BkMXfJtg/s1600/dana+teacup.jpg" height="400" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great for toddy drinking</td></tr>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gl9quoAjTGg/UKA_n-cOZLI/AAAAAAAAEE8/XSi1SDrZJcc/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zt9k8TaEMXo/UKBFIBboh-I/AAAAAAAAEGs/MYuGTUJd5NE/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+196.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zt9k8TaEMXo/UKBFIBboh-I/AAAAAAAAEGs/MYuGTUJd5NE/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+196.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade medicines</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Tgcsu2I3hc/UKA-tmbQrnI/AAAAAAAAEEk/QvXyifGl6io/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Tgcsu2I3hc/UKA-tmbQrnI/AAAAAAAAEEk/QvXyifGl6io/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+074.jpg" height="323" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little note from Dana's sister Jenna...including tiny usnea tree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild pears for a possible future project growing pear rootstock</td></tr>
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One of my favorite moments was when D. whipped out the candied ginger that she and Sally made from *fresh locally-grown ginger* -- FOR REAL. Dana's friend Skelly grew it at <a href="http://www.buyappalachian.org/listing/aardvark-farm" target="_blank">Aardvark Farm</a> up in Yancey County. Dana and Sally candied it. You really cannot believe how delicious it was.</div>
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Then, just for good measure, they DIPPED SOME OF IT IN CHOCOLATE. I usually try to avoid the all-caps, but there are times when you just have to bring out the all-caps.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_JRvbV9y3Qw/UKA-BTUnLAI/AAAAAAAAED8/t5ZW-IxRTwg/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_JRvbV9y3Qw/UKA-BTUnLAI/AAAAAAAAED8/t5ZW-IxRTwg/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+052.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
We made short work of some chocolate-covered candied ginger.<br />
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The fortunate by-product of this candied ginger project of Dana and Sally's was ginger syrup. As if the candied ginger weren't enough.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JrPj0MLJO_o/UKA_B-Vt6aI/AAAAAAAAEEs/QF8pkFEUq0A/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JrPj0MLJO_o/UKA_B-Vt6aI/AAAAAAAAEEs/QF8pkFEUq0A/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+077.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>We used the ginger syrup to make the best hot toddies ever with some Rebel Yell whiskey.</div>
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As if that weren't enough, Dana made some chicken pot pie.<br />
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We brought some chicken from <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eastforkfarm.net%2F&ei=WlmgUKDxI8qp0AG43YCwDw&usg=AFQjCNGuYcK3X10Rxw3kriVr5ULli5arAQ&sig2=iiOnel_7QExIgdJMf8L7Rg" target="_blank">East Fork Farm</a> and Dana sauteed up some carrots and celery from her garden along with some storebought onions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Softening up the veggies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working on the chicken</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolling out the piecrust</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shaping the crust</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Filling the pie</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinching </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished pot pie</td></tr>
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It was the first chicken pot pie I've eaten in more than 20 years. </div>
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I felt kind of like this guy after eating my first piece.</div>
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Then we got to sit around the fire with Susie and Todd and all of the dogs, laughing about some of our favorite things to laugh about and trading tales.</div>
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In general, a good time was had by all. We brought Maisey, who spent some down time with the pink plush unicorn.</div>
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For breakfast this morning we fried up some Hen of the Woods mushrooms that <a href="http://notastelikehome.org/index.php" target="_blank">our friend Alan</a> found on a recent forage and mixed it with some eggs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hen of the Woods</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild mushroom omlet</td></tr>
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Looking out over Dana's garden, we had a chance to talk a little about the history of Shelton Laurel, including the period known as "Bloody Madison," guerrilla warfare in The Laurel, mountaineer indifference to the Confederate cause, and the horrible Massacre of Shelton Laurel.<br />
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We reflected for a while on the fact that all that most of Shelton Laurel's residents wanted during the Civil War was a little bit of salt to preserve their meat and vegetables.<br />
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Later, Dana showed us her ram pump, which was very impressive. </div>
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She pumps spring water up the hill to her house using only the power of gravity.</div>
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Then we headed over to Leonard's to get a tour of his off-grid homestead. He lives just across the way from Dana on the side of a mountain.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The power shed and bee hives at Leonard's</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water catchment</td></tr>
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Leonard has mad electrical skills and is great at figuring things out and cobbling together systems out of whatever is at hand. When we expressed how impressed we were with his inventor-style innovations, he revealed that Eli Whitney was his 8th cousin.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leonard and his PV system</td></tr>
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Leonard's automatic chicken coop door opener is somewhat legendary - it was great to check it out in person. He's got it set up so that a light sensor triggers a pulley system to close the coop door so that if he's away from home when it's time to close the chickens up at night, it just happens without him when the sun goes down.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dXAkXNkTtfM/UKBGcZTBqHI/AAAAAAAAEHk/I3-1OCRR_FY/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dXAkXNkTtfM/UKBGcZTBqHI/AAAAAAAAEHk/I3-1OCRR_FY/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+251.jpg" height="320" width="257" /> </a><br />
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Also Leonard has an impressive stockpile of beautiful honey from his three hives and a lot of fabulous little customized setups for himself and his animals.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ryc_LGf0aIo/UKBGLSriU8I/AAAAAAAAEHc/SboNlysyfH8/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+246.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ryc_LGf0aIo/UKBGLSriU8I/AAAAAAAAEHc/SboNlysyfH8/s320/phone+pics+11-11-12+246.jpg" height="314" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These are quart jars of honey. There are lots of them.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cat porch</td></tr>
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We had a nice time roaming the woods around Leonard's place with Pixie, his little Blue Heeler, and talking about goats, gardens, and electricity.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A little part of Leonard's woodpile</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Maisey</td></tr>
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By the time it was time to go, we had all three had a healthy dose of respite.<br />
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Thank you Dana and Leonard and Susie and Todd and Hopey and Ruby. And Jenna for letting us borrow your sweet sister for the weekend.<br />
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And thanks for reading, readers...I'm hoping this inspirational trip will get me back in a regular habit of posting here!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HGr2S6G1X8o/UKBZGsOT9jI/AAAAAAAAEIQ/HVCCz34qCHE/s1600/phone+pics+11-11-12+183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HGr2S6G1X8o/UKBZGsOT9jI/AAAAAAAAEIQ/HVCCz34qCHE/s200/phone+pics+11-11-12+183.jpg" height="112" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Favorite little note <a href="http://dana-dee.blogspot.com/2010/08/used-to-be-jenna-and-i-would-pretty.html" target="_blank">from Jenna to Dana</a><br />
Spotted on a bumpersticker<br />
by Susie and Jenna one day<br />
and recorded for posterity</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-18912718296061670132012-09-04T20:19:00.002-04:002012-09-04T20:35:44.976-04:00Nightshade Preservation Projects...and Chickens<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In my attempt to return to the practice of blogging, I'm just going to post a few recent food project pictures.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wapsipinicon Peach Tomatoes</td></tr>
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First up: Fuzzy Peach Tomato Salsa. The velvety <a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1058" target="_blank">Wapsipinicon Peach tomato</a> is so soft, fuzzy, sweet, and delicious. It's a delicate, diminutive treasure of a tomato - terrible for market because it's so tender and easily bruised, but wonderful for the kitchen.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Inside a Wapsipinicon Peach</td></tr>
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The Peach tomato makes great salsa, which you can either waterbath can or just pop in the freezer. I made mine with onions, garlic, a couple of very hot <a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=645(OG)" target="_blank">Aurora peppers</a> and some Mexican gerkin cucumbers I got from Andrea at the market. Yum.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Purple Aurora Peppers</td></tr>
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Every spare moment these days is spent barely managing the ongoing tomato and pepper overload. Tomato sauce is the easiest way to dispense with a large quantity of tomatoes (like the 4 gallons pictured here) quickly.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The 4-gallon stock pot is in constant tomato action most weekend hours.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bring it, basil and garlic.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Victorious! Coping with the tomato and pepper onslaught via sweet pepper hash and tomato sauce.</td></tr>
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I've also socked away a bunch of sweet pepper hash, one of my perennial faves. Here's the recipe:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sweet Pepper Hash</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">12 small onions</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">24 ripe sweet peppers of various varieties<br />2 cups honey<br />2 cups apple cider vinegar<br />2 Tbs Salt</span><br />
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<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Peel the onions and remove the seeds from the peppers.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Chop the vegetables by hand or use a food processor to chop into relatively small pieces.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Put your chopped onions and peppers in a big bowl and sprinkle with the salt.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Pour boiling water over the vegetables and let stand for 15 minutes.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Combine the honey and vinegar in a large pot and bring to a boil.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Drain the peppers and onions and add to the boiling syrup.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Reduce heat and cook slowly for 15 minutes.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Meanwhile, sterilize jars and lids in a boiling water bath</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Pack into sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;">Adjust lids and process for 5-10 minutes in a boiling water bath.</li>
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And then when there are still more peppers, I've resorted to roasting, roasting, roasting. Which makes the house smell amazing but gets tedious around hour 3 or 4 or so.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roasted sweet peppers packed in olive oil ready to be piled <br />
in the freezer with rest of gigantic nightshade stockpile. </td></tr>
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And finally, a longer-term food project: the 6 week-old Welsummers and 15 week-old Speckled Sussexes that just joined the flock. Bringing the total chicken count to fifty-five.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">A Speckled Sussex pullet</td></tr>
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Welsummer babies captured on video below...still photos just can't capture the cuteness of peeping.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwsn611dcxL_ybzJCvrfUf7DZp-awD_gTjrgP7ZC3vDw48mlJxk0JFeFFR3em-RtcCdtPv2qbqV21lFfNYivQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-40361901701986046532012-09-03T13:29:00.000-04:002012-09-03T13:33:49.420-04:00Pimento Cheese!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JCGzNWoY5jA/UETl8hWvDvI/AAAAAAAAEBg/E_vfGjsXmp4/s1600/food+projects+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roasted homegrown pimentos</td></tr>
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After a long, long period of neglect of my beloved Milkweed Diaries, I'm breaking radio silence with a short little ode to pimento cheese. Oh pimento cheese, I love you!</div>
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A classic staple of the American South, this delicious and creamy treat is traditionally made with Duke's mayonnaise and canned pimentos. My slightly pretentious, healthy, homegrown version is made with raw goat cheese and fresh roasted peppers. As I spooned this experimental concoction straight into my mouth fresh from the food processor, I announced to Christopher: "I believe this is the best thing I have ever made." Even in the clear light of day a week later, I'm pretty sure it's true. </div>
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Here's how to make it:<br />
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<li><b>Roast the pimentos. </b>I did this at 450 degrees using the broiler setting of my toaster oven. I drizzled
them with a scant bit of olive oil and broiled them until they had begun to pucker and develop black spots on one side and then flipped them and broiled on the other side.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Roasting the pimentos</td></tr>
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<li><b>Let the pimentos rest in a paper bag. </b>This will make them easier to peel.</li>
<li><b>Peel the pimentos. </b>This is the tedious and slightly time-consuming part. Remember, it's worth it. At this point you can store the pimentos in a jar for a day or so if you need to sit the project down til you have time to complete it.</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Mixing in the food processor</td></tr>
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<li><b>Mix the pimentos with fresh raw goat cheese.</b> I used a basic soft goat cheese I had made the night before from our goats' milk using <a href="http://www.cheesemaking.com/" target="_blank">Ricki Carroll's</a> recipe - a raw, cultured goat cheese made with mesophillic culture. Any good mild, cultured goat cheese will do - the slight cultured tang adds a really nice zest. I did the mixing by dumping the pimentos in the bottom of my food processor and gradually adding cheese until the consistency, color, and mix looked right. </li>
<li><b>Enjoy immediately! </b> This cheese stores well in the fridge and also freezes well, but I find it tastes best at room temperature.</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">The final product: Pimento Cheese!</td></tr>
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One important tip: <b>use good pimentos</b> - as fresh as possible. I was inspired to make this by the abundance of pimentos rolling in from our garden this year. I used about 25 homegrown peppers - the beautiful, plump, and prolific <a href="http://www.southernexposure.com/ashe-county-pimento-pepper-sweet-05-g-p-66.html" target="_blank">Ashe County Pimento</a> from the High Country of Western NC via Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ashe County Pimentos</td></tr>
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I also threw in some <a href="http://www.southernexposure.com/doe-hill-golden-bell-pepper-frying-05-g-p-450.html" target="_blank">Doe Hill Golden Bells</a> which are supposedly a bell pepper, but to me look like a small, golden pimento. This seed was also from Southern Exposure, and has been a great addition to our pepper production bed this year. The plants have produced abundantly, and the flavor is wonderful. According to Southern Exposure, this little gem is a pre-1900 family heirloom from the Doe Hill area in Highland County, Virginia.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doe Hill Golden Bells</td></tr>
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<br />This cheese is so delightful spread on toast, noshed upon with crackers, as a garnish on tomato salads, and eaten straight up with a spoon. I froze a ton of it and am envisioning pimento deviled eggs, pimento grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, and all manner of pimento goodness through the months to come. Yum!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-40906730203133749872012-02-05T11:03:00.006-05:002012-02-05T11:20:08.156-05:00Chicken Ethics II: The Sequel<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fESV8w43cN4/Ty6r3gHNc_I/AAAAAAAAD_s/UiWdalruiX0/s1600/harvey2.jpg"></a><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GoM49p8hIqE/Ty6qY5VuBvI/AAAAAAAAD_E/yEjw6BMzOeI/s400/austro%2Bhen.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705685122610497266" /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>One of our Black Australorp hens</i></div><div><br /></div><div>I linked to my <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2012/02/chicken-ethics.html">Chicken Ethics </a>post on Facebook, and the responses and discussion there were so good I wanted to post them here. Special thanks to <a href="http://small-measure.blogspot.com/">Ashley at Small Measure</a> and <a href="http://kristinamercedes.tumblr.com/">Kristina at The Rocking Horse</a> for permission to repost their comments. Thank you to everyone (that's you, Ellen, Desta, Lynn, ahd KJ) for engaging with me on this difficult and complex topic.<br /><br />I'm so grateful to be part of a community where this conversation is happening. I'm reposting exactly as is from FB - so ignore the informal punctuation and etc that is part of the culture of Facebook communication! <div><br /></div><div>Thank you friends </div><div><br /></div><div>~Beth/Milkweed</div><div><br /><br /><b>Kristina Mercedes Urquhart:</b> when i first got into keeping chickens, i wasn't aware of the "disposal" practices that big hatcheries had for male chicks. after our first order of chicks, i quickly learned there were at the very least tiers of humanity with hatcheries...for instance, i wouldn't purchase chicks from TSC for the way they treat the chicks once they had them, and directly ordering from the hatchery is just slightly more humane. but like you Beth, we chose to do things the easy way the first time by buying directly from the hatchery, and lucked out not having received any males.<br /><br />unfortunately, the alternatives to traditional hatcheries are not always available to everyone. first, the issue of straight run. while sand hill is great (and i considered ordering from them the first time around), we couldn't order even the minimum of 15 birds - it was too much for us.<br /><br />obviously, straight run inevitably leaves you with some percentage of males... at the time we were not considering "processing" our own chickens, and certainly don't have the capitol to have 7-8 roosters as pets (nor the space or patience!). for many, if not all, small-scale urban backyard chicken keepers, male chicks are a huge no-no in city limits and if they were to buy straight run, having to figure out what to do with a handful of roosters is beyond their scope of experience.<br /><br />i don't know what the solution is for straight run, but the second major alternative to buying from hatcheries is to buy chicks from a local farm, and that also has its risks. buying locally hatched or raised chicks presents biohazard issues, particularly with marek's disease (which is the #1 reason why we buy vaccinated hatchery birds). you could get vaccines to administer yourself, but that must be done in the first day of life to be effective (and come in packs of 1,000s).<br /><br />the third alternative is to buy started pullets, or laying pullets, which, if you're starting a flock from scratch (no pun intended!) is just fine. but if you already have an established flock and want to add in a few more, this also presents biohazard issues in the form of spreading disease (even birds raised on soil a mile away have still been naturally inoculated to different microbiology in the soil). so, yet another risk.<br /><br />the bottom line (after the longest facebook post i've EVER WRITTEN) is that i have no idea or solution. for ian and me personally, we one day hope to get local, heritage breeding stock, with several genetically diverse roosters, and breed, hatch and raise our own chickens. til then, we take good care of our hatchery chicks and learn the best flock management skills we can.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MfQ5lT59JDo/Ty6r3rwt8_I/AAAAAAAAD_c/sPjLIFepbkE/s400/flock.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705686751053214706" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /><i>Feeding the flock</i></div><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><b>Desta Rudolph:</b> With the rooster I would keep it until it became a problem I also got an accidental male from Eagledove and have become fond of his male presence in the flock it seems to be the prefect equalizer for our little flock<br /><br /><br /><b>Ellen Green:</b> Oy vey, I am getting a headache thinking about this topic. I love my roo, but at the moment he is having his own crisis. Sad that their significant contribution is protection (of a large group), fertilization, and .... a lovely crowing in the morning...More than one breeds fighting.<br /><br />Even if you get older birds, the ugly truth is, there is still a disproportionate number of males hatched. And it needs to be "addressed" -- doesn't that sound nice??? So at what point in the chain do we intervene? As soon as they are born? The process sickens me. Later, when they have at least had the chance to have a life? How do we handle them until then? I am a firm believer that animals raised for food accept that fact, even come into their life with that purpose. Those that embrace veganism would disagree, but I feel it is quality over quantity, and a short life is better than no life...Why would you deny any creature a life, regardless of how short? Eww, does that mean I am for hatch-to-grinder????? No...<br /><br />We had two roos that we raised from day-old chicks, not voluntarily, we thought they were hens... Surprise...They got along well until they were about 9 months old...Then the testosterone kicked in and the fighting began... Men....In the end we had to choose.<br /><br /><b>Lynn Johnson:</b> my first thought was a less eloquent verion of your sharon astyk quote. that death is part of the process of eating, regardless of your diet, though certainly more 'in your face' when eating meat. if it doesn't make sense to raise boy chicks for meat**, then humanely killing them as soon as possible is what feels right.<br /><br />i imagine i will continue to think about it, especially when i have my own beautiful cluckers:)<br /><br /><b>Beth Trigg:</b> Wow, thank you for the conversation, friends. Kristina Mercedes Urquhart I so appreciate your experience and your advice and your super-thorough and thoughtful response....that's the direction we are heading as well - local, heritage breeding stock. Maybe our farm will get to the point of breeding for sale to local chicken-keepers one day, who knows. The Marek's issue is a big one when moving away from the big hatcheries. Ellen and Desta, I'm not opposed to killing some roosters - although it is not Harvey's fate anytime soon. I'm glad for the hawk protection and I like him. If he gets too macho and mean, we'll see - but I've heard that Ameraucanas are terrible meat birds. All of the other breeds we are raising are "dual purpose" - a lot of the traditional homestead heritage breeds were bred with this very issue in mind.<br /><br />My latest one-liner on the subject is: if you're raising chickens for eggs, you're either going to have to kill some chickens or outsource the killing to someone else.<br /><br /><b>Ashley Adams English:</b> Oh, it's SUCH a dicey issue. Kristina Mercedes Urquhart beat me to writing what I'd have written, if I'd been around earlier in the day when you sent this. It's actually a large part of the reason we recently got a cockerel, so that we'd have our own fertile eggs. We've long had a broody Australorp, so between her habits and those of the 3 pullets we picked up with the cockerel (Blue Wheaten Ameraucana's, all of them), we hope to be able to take care of this issue our selves. That said, lots of people taking up chicken-tendering don't have this as an option, as they live in no-roo areas. For such folks, it's simply a matter of either purchasing from no-kill hatcheries (to the best of their abilities) or getting straight runs and re-homing their cockerels (knowing that might very well entail, ultimately, their demise-I can't tell you how many "free" ads I've seen for roos in the Iwanna).<br /><br />As Sharon said, death is inextricably linked to animal husbandry. It's linked to all food, for that matter, really, as she also states. Hank Shaw wrote that "we all have blood on our hands" and that, as a hunter, his is simply visible to him.<br /><br />Also, the protection the roo will ultimately offer the flock is huge. We have loads of predators out here, and lost two birds to a raccoon last year. That said, if he turns out to be mean (he's super sweet and docile right now), as my mother's former roo "George" was (he attacked me years ago and I still have the scar on my leg to prove it), I'll have no issue putting him in a pot.<br /><br />During my classes at AB-Tech, this subject has been raised repeatedly. Telling folks that the big hatcheries cull most males is something I never hesitate to mention. People should know how their birds arrive in their possession, for better or for worse, and then make an informed decision from their. It would be great if the larger hatcheries would keep all of the unwanted males and allow them to age a bit and then process them for food. Either way, though, ultimately, as I said above, animal husbandry involves death. Lots and lots of life, too, but death is in the mix. Death with dignity and mindfulness on the part of the hatcheries is the issue to seek out. I'm so glad you raised this issue on your blog and here, Beth Trigg. It often gets lost in the chicken-keeping love shuffle.<br /><br /><b>Kristina Mercedes Urquhart:</b> you're very welcome Beth! you're right that roosters serve a very beneficial and often critical role on the farm - to protect the hens as individuals, but also your investment. no one gets rich farming, and when you get in the triple digits in birds, i imagine feeding a flock that big gets pricey! i've read that you should average a rooster for every dozen hens or so, even if they're one large flock, you'll need multiple roosters to keep eyes on everyone.<br /><br />Ian and i have considered "processing" our own birds one day... our personal belief is that if you're going to eat meat, it's only fair to understand just how that chicken breast arrived on your table (the reason why i'm also taking up hunting this year, but that's another story entirely!). until we get our own dream farm, we can't do a lot of that in our fairly residential backyard.<br /><br />on another note, for those birds that may not be "fit" for human consumption, we've tossed around the idea of feeding them to our cats and dogs (after a good life and a humane death, of course). i know i'm going to get a lot of raised eyebrows and some folks might stop reading). but the truth is, our domestic pets are carnivores and omnivores by nature (respectively). ian and i feed ours the BARF diet as much as we can (acronym for "biologically appropriate raw food" - and endless google topic). that's a fabulous way to keep the the food loop completely closed on a farm that has working herd dogs or barn cats. just some food for thought! :)<br /><br /><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-42cvWc8kKRU/Ty6r3erqz3I/AAAAAAAAD_U/uO2k5zf6_rY/s400/orangina.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705686747542376306" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px; " /><i>Orangina</i></div><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><b>KJ Laurro:</b> I agree Beth, for if one chooses to eat chicken it is best to raise them ourselves and there is a way in honoring their lives. I also agree with seeing how things work with more than 1 roo. sometimes they do okay and sometimes they do not. I feel I have a responsibility to allow them to live safely and that includes within the flock. I have taken on the responsibility of keeping them all safe.<br /><br />When I walk into the group, it is I who is at the top of the pecking order even with my roos. I talk to them to set the tone. They get along or someone is going to be chicken soup. If I don't want to eat chicken then I keep the flock to a minimum and do not allow them to continue reproducing. It all depends on what each farmer wants.<br /><br />We had some girls that where getting injured by our roo who was a huge buff orph. and wasn't too good at his job of mounting, I had to separate him for a while and tend to healing some of the girls back up. He was a protector and he also was extremely excellent in his manners with me. He was extremely tame even when he came into his own sexually.<br /><br />I think in caring for animals there comes the responsibility of culling... for food, if they are injured beyond help, in pain that can not be alleviated.etc. I do not agree with hatcheries and the killing of male birds just because they are male. I also know of a farm that does not kill any of the animals because they do not eat meat at all. They keep it simple for them and keep the flock from reproducing until needed. They find homes for the few males when they need to. It all depends on the farm.<br /><br />When I have had to cull chickens it was because they had a disease that broke my heart to watch what it did to them physically. They all had it and I had to end their lives. It is not easy. It never is easy. I don't want it to be easy. I thank them every time for sharing their lives with me and bringing me joy.<br /><br />When the day comes that I cull for food, I will do the same. It will be "sacred" and not mindless when I do it. I will be grateful and I will do it in the fastest/painless way I can. To follow such a path in ending a life for food or other reasons is a sacred act for me. I will have them again, but I will not get be a part of a place that culls babies just because they are male and they mass produce them. I am not interested in mass produced birds and think a lot of health issues happen from it. I thank you for a place to share how I feel.<br /><br /><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fESV8w43cN4/Ty6r3gHNc_I/AAAAAAAAD_s/UiWdalruiX0/s400/harvey2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705686747926328306" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /><i>Harvey</i></div><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><b>Beth Trigg:</b> I am so grateful to participate in this conversation with you all - Ashley Adams English, I am so glad you are out there facilitating honest conversations about this in your classes. I feel lucky to be part of a community where people are willing to look at these hard issues head on with eyes open. Kj Laurro, thank you for sharing your own perspective.<br /><br />Producing my own food has radically shifted my perspective on the world in so many ways. I never thought I would be thinking about "culling" and killing chickens myself, but it is a very short path from eggs to meat.<br /><br />I am hopeful that with all of the consciousness and caring that's out there now about food we will transition to a system that makes more sense. We ARE transitioning, and I believe this conversation is part of that process.<br /><br /><b>KJ Laurro:</b>I would love for more of us to become even more aware. I have sometimes wondered how different it is those of us who cull our own chickens for meat and those who go out and hunt and use the meat for food? I only think that leaves me with the question of how fast the animal dies when someone goes hunting. That is what is first and foremost in my life whenever it is time to cull: "what is the fastest way for them?. I do it where the others can't see or hear what is happening.<br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-45678773519166299192012-02-04T12:35:00.015-05:002012-02-04T14:26:53.518-05:00Chicken Ethics<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yNgMhM1u5E0/Ty2E-FU3RBI/AAAAAAAAD-0/A-1ZK6WLXxI/s1600/wyandotte.jpg"></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WvPR3j2WTNQ/Ty2EuNtcBgI/AAAAAAAAD-o/I1_xM0_17ow/s1600/IMG_4598.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WvPR3j2WTNQ/Ty2EuNtcBgI/AAAAAAAAD-o/I1_xM0_17ow/s400/IMG_4598.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705362232437376514" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 400px; " /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iThXtYmbqps/Ty2B8IbNYSI/AAAAAAAAD-U/_pPkWWeXN5k/s1600/austro.jpg"></a><div>This is Harvey, our accidental Ameraucana rooster.* His life began as a "packing peanut" thrown in with a hatchery order of pullets (female chicks). <div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Last year, when we decided to get serious about chickens, we ordered 25 pullets from Eagledove Greenhouse, a locally-owned garden center that offers brooding services. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since a lot of beginning chicken-keepers don't feel confident doing their own brooding (taking care of the chicks for the first few weeks of their lives, mimicking the care of a mother hen), this is a great service offered by a wonderful local business that we wanted to support. Eagledove also fed organic chick starter, which was a great bonus. Win-win, right? Supporting a local business, getting started with chickens, organic layers ready to kick-start our yard egg sideline at the tailgate market.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's where the story gets complicated. Our friends at Eagledove ordered our chicks from Mount Healthy, a hatchery in Ohio, who shipped the chicks via the postal service. </div><div><br /></div><div>I admit that I chose not to look too deeply into Mount Healthy, or spend too much time thinking about what happened to all of the male chicks with the thousands of female chicks being shipped out every day. I knew it wasn't likely to be a train of thought that ended up in a happy place. </div><div><br /></div><div>I had already been plotting out future chick orders from <a href="http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/">Sand Hill Preservation Center</a>, which ships only "straight run" (unsexed) chicks because they are a no-kill hatchery. I remembered having heard bad things about hatchery practices and it didn't take a lot of brainpower to figure out that if Sand Hill was a "no-kill" straight run hatchery, that the alternative to "no-kill" is "kill." I was feeling kind of overwhelmed with life at the time that we decided to place our order, though, and decided for once just to go with what was easy and not spend a ton of time researching where these chickens were coming from.</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yNgMhM1u5E0/Ty2E-FU3RBI/AAAAAAAAD-0/A-1ZK6WLXxI/s400/wyandotte.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705362505064727570" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /><i>One of our pullets, a lovely Silver-Laced Wyandotte</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>All 25 of our heritage breed chicks arrived, plus one extra. At six weeks old, these little chickens were integrated into our existing flock of 7 Buff Orpintons, and then we added 10 2-year-old Black Australorps that we bought for a good price from a neighboring farm. </div><div><br /></div><div>At some point in the past month, I began to feel pretty confident that the extra chicken was a rooster. At the same time, I started working on our next chick order (this time we'll be ordering from Sand Hill and brooding them ourselves) and thinking more deeply about roosters. </div><div><br /></div><div>I decided to go ahead and look behind the curtain and see how many (if any) of the big commercial hatcheries were "no-kill." </div><div><br /></div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GdAdYxkRcro/Ty2B72UMQNI/AAAAAAAAD-M/yKQGIH1T3u0/s320/speckles.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705359168140755154" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 184px; " /><i>A Speckled Sussex pullet</i></div><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I knew we wanted to order from Sand Hill anyhow because of their focus on heritage breed genetics. I had been reading a lot about heritage poultry and learning that the big commercial hatcheries don't pay nearly as much attention to preserving heritage breed qualities as smaller-scale heritage breeders do. In fact, many don't consider hatchery birds to meet the technical definition of "Heritage Breed." I won't go down that rabbit trail too far here, but suffice to say that just as with the definition of the word "heirloom" in the vegetable world, there's a lot of controversy about the use of the word "heritage" in the livestock world. <a href="http://albc-usa.org/heritagechicken/definition.html">The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy</a> is a good place to start if you're interested in that rabbit trail.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back to the subject at hand: commercial hatcheries and their rooster practices. There is a ton of bad information out there on this subject. By "bad," I mean: incomplete, inaccurate, and outright untrue. One of the things you will find if you just start googling "no-kill hatchery" is a series of claims on various forums that various hatcheries are "no-kill." For instance,<a href="http://forums.homestead.org/forum_posts.asp?TID=16936&title=meyer-hatchery"> here's a post on homestead.org</a> stating in no uncertain terms: "Both Meyer and MyPetChicken are no-kill hatcheries." The poster even goes on to explain: "This means that like most hatcheries, most of their customers want hens, not roosters. Rather than kill the roosters that they are unable to sell as day old chicks, they send them to livestock auctions."</div><div><br /></div><div>"Wow," I thought, "could a big hatchery like Meyer really be a no-kill facility?" It turns out not so much. Following up on the homesteading.org post, I came across this grisly news story from a newspaper in Ohio (where Meyer is based): <a href="http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/10/2_ohio_hatcheries_violate_live.html">Two Ohio Hatcheries Violate Livestock Care Standards by Suffocating Chicks</a>. I won't get into the details here, but suffice to say, it takes a high degree of animal suffering to violate the paltry standards that exist for animal welfare.</div><div><br /></div><div>And for anyone who clicked through to the story, the next surprise is already out of the bag, but guess the name of the <i>second</i> Ohio hatchery cited by the state Department of Agriculture. Yep, none other than Mount Healthy. Which is where our chicks came from.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings me back to Harvey. It would appear that Harvey was spared a pretty awful death (crushed and/or smothered by hundreds of other chicks stuffed alive in a garbage bag) by getting slipped in to our pullet order by an employee at Mount Healthy. I'm glad. Having him around will enable us to make more Ameraucanas without having to order from a hatchery, although our birds will surely be, like him, more along the lines of "Easter Eggers" than top-of-the-line Ameraucanas. </div><div><br /></div><div>But of course that doesn't address the much bigger problem of roosters. Which is part of an even bigger discussion about the ethics of "extra males" in the world of animal husbandry. </div><div><br /></div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dPig9H4lU5o/Ty2AjVf2-qI/AAAAAAAAD98/FgYxOKiE41o/s320/Felix.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705357647502834338" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 170px; " /><i>Little Felix, the first goat kid born on our farm, a buckling. Our solution to the "extra males" problem in his case was a buck trade with another local farm - he'll help diversify the gene pool in their herd and little Merlin, who came to us in the trade, will help diversify ours.</i><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>It's a topic about which Sharon Astyk has written about beautifully in her post, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2010/01/extra_males_dealing_ethically.php">"Blood on Our Hands: Dealing Ethically With the Problems of Husbandry"</a>. I heartily recommend reading Astyk's whole article, but will excerpt a really excellent bit here: </div><div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"But we're still a long way from fully grasping that agriculture itself is steeped in death, and that we can't escape that reality as long as we depend on it. We'd be steeped in death even if we were all to become vegans (which is unlikely in the extreme) as domesticated livestock breeds went rapidly extinct because there was no reason to raise them anymore, and we lost the sound and sight and relationship that tie us to these animals that we have chosen for domestication - and that chose us as well. Even if we were vegan we'd be steeped in death as combines behead rabbits and roll over the nests of ground nesting birds. We'd be steeped in death as we increasingly mined scarcer soil minerals that we used to get from animal manures.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The truth is, we can't get out of death - or its corollary, life. These animals we rear get to live because of what we eat as well. They get their day in the sun, their breeds continue and go forward because we eat them or their products. The truth is that there is no full escape from the problem of death here - there is only the careful consideration of the material conditions of both life and death."</i></div></div><div><br /></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iThXtYmbqps/Ty2B8IbNYSI/AAAAAAAAD-U/_pPkWWeXN5k/s320/austro.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705359173002027298" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 176px; " /><i>A mature Black Australorp hen and other members of our flock</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><div>This discussion is important not only for people who raise chickens -- either commercially or on the backyard scale or somewhere in between (like us). We aim to have a flock of about 100 by the end of this year, so we're a little beyond the backyard scale, but certainly tiny compared to "real" chicken farmers. It's also important for people who eat eggs or chicken, especially if you're concerned about where your food comes and the ethics of animal welfare.</div><div><br /></div><div>As backyard chicken-keeping has become increasingly popular in the past five years, people have begun raising chickens on a home scale presumably at least in part because they care about where their food comes from. I'm curious if and how this issue has been discussed in backyard chicken circles--I haven't seen it, but I have really not been deeply involved in those networks. Here's an article from The Oregonian that spells it out pretty clearly, including the responses of hatcheries to questions about the issue: <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2010/01/pet_talk_as_backyard_chickens.html">As backyard chickens increase in popularity, roosters' fate is nothing to crow about</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I end this post uncertain, just having laid some of the issues out. I'm curious to hear how other chicken-keepers have thought about these things. We'll be ordering some quantity of straight-run chicks from Sand Hill in the spring, and will likely have both roosters and pullets for sale. That said, we haven't decided if we would be willing to sell roosters to someone who's going to butcher them. I'd honestly rather do that ourselves here on the farm, where we can trust that it will be a quick, humane death. But that's a subject for another time.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>*<i>Harvey is named after <a href="http://www.themodernhomestead.us/">Harvey Ussery</a>, who has written eloquently on the subject of the ethics of roosters and chicken breeding, among other topics covered in great depth in his excellent book, <a href="http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_smallscale_poultry_flock">The Small-Scale Poultry Flock</a>, which I reviewed in an earlier post. Ussery hates the use of the word "rooster" to describe male chickens - that's your teaser to entice you to read more in his book.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-55993175359562033912012-01-28T08:00:00.019-05:002012-01-28T18:33:30.125-05:00Winter Reading<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o_Wiv6CG5iA/TyQJcBbyz_I/AAAAAAAAD9Q/3cryty9kSm4/s1600/harvey.jpg"></a>Chalk it up to being raised by a librarian. No matter how busy, tired, or overextended I am, I'm always reading at least a book or two or five or six. Even if it is just a page or two in the last few bleary, half-conscious minutes before I fall asleep, reading happens almost every day.<div><br /></div><div>Reading is sort of a basic element of life for me, like eating well or getting enough sleep. And I'm talking about reading <i>books</i>, though I spend plenty of time reading things on the internet tubes too of course. My bedside table has always been more of a bedside book cascade, with stacks of novels, poetry, and nonfiction piled up for my reading pleasure. </div><div><br /></div><div>In recent years, I've read a lot more nonfiction than anything else - essays, practical guides to everything under the sun, books about politics and history and food - but fortunately my sister Mary keeps me supplied with fiction. She works at a used book store. Can you sense a theme in my family? </div><div><br /></div><div>My mom is a retired librarian who reads voraciously. She read to us all from the time we were in utero, and someone once described entering my childhood home as "being in danger of being hit by a falling book."</div><div><br /></div><div>Even though I've been ridiculously overextended with off-farm work these days, I've squeezed in some really satisfying reading lately. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here are a few recent favorites.</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aqFk-icCd5A/TyP3XYUhQcI/AAAAAAAAD8U/Ny9cJNrarCA/s200/Resilient%2BGardener_Small.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702673534218748354" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 200px; " /><div><a href="http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_resilient_gardener/"><u>The Resilient Gardener</u></a></div><div>Carol Deppe</div><div><br /></div><div>I love this book. Carol Deppe's quirky, opinionated, and garden-geeky personality comes through on every page. Her informal, conversational tone and cheeky attitude make for a quick and enjoyable read. I felt like I was chatting with the author in her kitchen while she popped up some popbeans (special strains of garbanzos she's selected for their ability to pop like popcorn). Or maybe hanging out with her in her garden watching her flock of Ancona ducks chow down on banana slugs nearby.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't agree with all of Deppe's methods or opinions, and some of the approaches she discusses are geared toward the particular climate of the place she lives (Corvallis, Oregon). But I came away from her book with immense respect for the author's perspective. She has spent years experimenting and meticulously documenting her experiments. The level of detail in her book is amazing. I have read a lot of gardening books over the years that make vague, grand claims about various techniques and methods without getting down to brass tacks. </div><div><br /></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WnaVGb8t8CY/TyP9NQhW4PI/AAAAAAAAD8w/aWM583KSmWY/s200/Ducks%2B067.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702679957396185330" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 200px; " /><div><i>Khaki Campbells on our farm: slug-eaters extraordinaire....but how?</i></div><div><br /></div><div>For example, I can't tell you the number of times I've heard people talk about using ducks to control slugs in the garden. But how? How do you prevent them from eating all of your greens while their hunting for slugs? How do you get them to stay in the garden if there's somewhere they'd rather be? What about their high-nitrogen manure - how do you avoid a projectile application of duck manure to every plant in the garden? Ducks in the garden are a nice idea, but as we've spent more and more time with <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2011/08/duck-tales.html">our small flock</a>, we've begun to question how practical the idea of using them in the garden really is.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Enter <i>The Resilient Gardener. </i>Deppe begins her section "Ducks for Garden Pest Control" like so: "That ducks are supreme for garden pest control is widely recognized and mentioned in many books and articles. Exactly how to use the ducks and still have a garden left afterwards never quite seems to be mentioned. This section is a summary of my experience." She describes her method of using portable fencing to create temporary duck pens adjacent to the garden or even just <i>near</i> the garden to control slugs. With years of experimentation and careful observation under her belt, she offers the most detailed and helpful overview of ducks in the garden that I've ever seen.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Deppe's basic premise is that we need to garden not just as a hobby but as a way of life, and as a way to prepare for hard times. She points out that many gardeners (and garden blogs and garden writers, I might add) are focused on expensive inputs, equipment, and gadgets and what I would call "glamour crops" rather than learning to grow basic, everyday food to support themselves and their communities. </div><div><br /></div><div>She puts it this way: "Traditionally, gardeners have played a major role in sustaining themselves, their families, and their communities through hard times of many kinds. Would you be able to do likewise?"</div><div><br /></div><div>After investigating that question herself for many years, Carol Deppe has a wealth of highly-detailed and practical information to share. From growing your own feed for chickens and ducks to soil fertility and seed-saving, <i>The Resiliant Gardener</i> is packed with useful information. I know I will be referring back to this book for years to come.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also appreciate Deppe's perspective as a gluten-free gardener and her insight as a plant breeder - she manages to weave these aspects of herself into her book in a way that seems to make perfect sense. She thinks of special dietary needs, for instance, as a personal variation of "hard times" - and continually returns to the framework of preparing for hard times. She mentions climate change, peak oil, natural disasters, and economic instability, but doesn't dwell on the catastrophic possibilities. </div><div><br /></div><div>Instead, she places her faith in gardeners:</div><div><br /></div><div>"I believe that the potential role of gardeners...is more important today than ever before. In times past, a large portion of the population knew how to grow and preserve food and could survive on what they could grow and preserve. In the United States today, only about 2 percent of the population farms, and they farm largely in ways that are totally dependent upon imported oil and gas, electricity, irrigation, roads, national and international markets, and an intact financial and social infrastructure. In many kinds of mega-hard times, those farms would not be functional, and the knowledge of how to farm in those ways would be useless. In...the future, what food we have may be the result of the knowledge and skills of <i>gardeners</i>. I challenge all gardeners to fully accept their role as a source of resilience for their communities in mega-hard times, and to play and adventure in good times so as to develop the kinds of knowledge and skills that would most matter."</div><div><br /></div><div>You can visit <a href="http://www.caroldeppe.com/">Carol Deppe's website</a> for more....I just signed up for her newsletter and am looking forward to following her further adventures in resilient gardening.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5o5xqiPN_Kk/TyP3Xo_Y_yI/AAAAAAAAD8g/YN6YNtqg5TU/s200/a%2Bnation%2Bof%2Bfarmers%2Bcover%2Bpic%2B%25282%2529.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702673538693529378" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 133px; height: 200px; " /><a href="http://www.newsociety.com/Books/N/A-Nation-of-Farmers">A Nation of Farmers </a></div><div>Sharon Astyk & Aaron Newton</div><div><br /></div><div>A related book that's been on my bedside table for about a year is <i>A Nation of Farmers</i>. I've been dipping into <i>A Nation</i> here and there over the months, but got inspired to get serious and really read it when my friends on the staff and board of the <a href="http://organicgrowersschool.org/">Organic Growers School</a> started buzzing about it.</div><div><br /></div><div>My friend Ruth Gonzalez <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mynewsletterbuilder.com%2Femail%2Fnewsletter%2F1411188291&h=BAQEhIf9FAQHCtJRQ2aJi8fKAI6Wk7oGT57DZ4dxltRAs1g">wrote a great piece on <i>A Nation of Farmers </i> for the Organic Growers School e-newsletter recently</a> with some fabulous old-timely photographs of front-yard farmers. I'll keep it brief here and refer you to Ruth's more in-depth article. </div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>A Nation of Farmers </i>proclaims itself "a call for more participation in the food system" and draws a clear distinction between "farming" as it is mostly practiced today and the kind of farming that the authors believe can transform our food system and thereby "stop the harm industrial agriculture is doing." </div><div><br /></div><div>Astyk and Newton envision a food system made up of small-scale polyculture, with millions of small farms, homesteads, and gardens raising both animals and vegetables, providing for community needs. Calling to mind the image of a farmer that most children have, they point out: "What you dreamed of, if you were anything like most children, is the kind of small, mixed farm that hardly exists anymore. It would have some animals, a big garden, pasture, orchard, and fields. This is the farm of children's books, the farm of stories, and 75 years ago, this was the farm of reality. But gradually, as we all grew older, such farms disappeared from the landscape." In contrast, the authors point out wryly, "you probably didn't imagine yourself debeaking chickens, building a hog manure lagoon, or riding in a giant tractor while spraying Roundup." </div><div><br /></div><div>The premise that the authors return to again and again is that "It turns out that the old sort of farm, the one we dreamed of as children, really is the best way to feed the world. Small-scale polyculture that mixes animals and multiple plant crops together is vastly more productive that industrial row crops."</div><div><br /></div><div>In a way I see Deppe's <i>Resilient Gardener </i>and <i>A Nation of Farmers </i>as espousing the same message, one that's dear to my heart: gardeners can save the world. The line between a small farm and a big garden is a fine one, and I believe that Deppe's "gardeners" and Astyk and Newton's "farmers" are the same people - those of us growing food on a small scale for ourselves and our communities all over the world. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Nation </i>is more about the politics -- the why-- while <i>Resilient</i> is more about the how. I recommend them both as good companions to one another.</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FumFYjr_79w/TyQJb49XZGI/AAAAAAAAD9A/QhOzgeX7GFM/s200/Meat-book.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702693402908779618" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 140px; height: 200px; " /><div><a href="http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/meat:paperback/reviews">Meat</a></div><div>Simon Fairlie</div><div><br /></div><div>On the subject of small-scale polyculture farm systems that raise both animals and plants, another book that's rocked my world recently is Simon Fairlie's <i>Meat. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Its cover, which looks like a somewhat cheesy hippie cookbook or maybe a children's book of the sort <i>A Nation of Farmers</i> references, belies the dense, academic nature of the book. </div><div><br /></div><div>Fairlie's work is deeply detailed, thoughtful, and meticulously researched. He challenges some of the long-time core assumptions of the food justice and ethical eating movements and answers the question, "should we be farming animals" with a resounding "yes." </div><div><br /></div><div>In my own transition in the past few years from vegetable grower to small-scale poultry and dairy goat keeper, seeing the ways that animals and vegetables are complimentary parts of a small farm or homestead system, I've experienced a dramatic shift in how I think about domestic animals that have been traditionally raised for food. </div><div><br /></div><div>My experience as a producer of both vegetable and animal foods has given me a very different perspective on food, and in particular on foods from animal sources (milk, eggs, and meat). Producing vegetables, I've witnessed how animal inputs are essential to organic vegetable production, and thought about the fact that vegans eating only plant-based foods are quite possibly eating plant tissue that was fed with animal inputs (blood meal and manure, to name two). I've also killed thousands of insects as a vegetable grower, which has contributed to my shifting perspective on killing and food production. My experience producing eggs and milk has helped me understand the way that small-scale meat production is related in an essential way to sustainable dairy and egg operations. </div><div><br /></div><div>Reading Fairlie's book was perfectly timed for me. I started reading it the week that I ate my first chicken in 22 years. After 20 years of strict vegetarianism and 2 years of adding fish back into my diet, I bought a whole, pastured, organic chicken from my friend Val's farm and ate it. I expect I'll write more on this subject soon, but suffice to say: it has been a big transition in my life back to the world of the omnivore. Simon Fairlie's respectful, careful, and thoughtful book has been a real gift in this transition. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the ethics of food.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o_Wiv6CG5iA/TyQJcBbyz_I/AAAAAAAAD9Q/3cryty9kSm4/s200/harvey.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702693405183889394" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 200px; " /><a href="http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_smallscale_poultry_flock#">The Small-Scale Poultry Flock</a></div><div>Harvey Ussery</div><div><br /></div><div>Speaking of eggs and meat, I am thrilled in my first year of chicken-keeping to discover Harvey Ussery's amazing manual, <i>The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>This post is already on the extra-long side, so I won't go into great detail about this book, but suffice to say it is thorough, detailed, funny, smart, and grounded in immense respect and care for the animals that he's describing. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ussery wastes no time in dispensing with the myth of industrial "organic" and "free-range" eggs and chicken and then gets down to the business of detailing exactly how to raise your own small flock. He covers topics I have never seen in other poultry how-to books, and like Carol Deppe, allows us to benefit from his many years of innovation, observation, and experimentation with poultry.</div><div><br /></div><div>Not for the faint of heart or for those more on the "chickens as pets" side of the divide that runs through the chicken-keeping world, Ussery's book includes detailed (and graphic) information about butchering and processing chickens. </div><div><br /></div><div>Returning to the theme of Fairlie's <i>Meat</i>, Ussery's book reminded me that we are not really being honest with ourselves if we think we can have eggs without chickens dying. Chicken lovers ordering day-old chicks from hatcheries are either contributing to male chicks being killed at the hatchery (if ordering pullets only) or will have some extra roosters to deal with down the line (if ordering "straight run" or unsexed chicks). In terms of true sustainability with farm and homestead systems, the issue of culling has to be addressed. We can either outsource it, which is what we're doing if we buy female chicks from a hatchery, or we can be responsible for it ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's a lot more to say on this subject, a topic for another time, but for now I will leave you with a hearty recommendation of Harvey Ussery's book and the website he maintains with all sorts of interesting information, updates, and articles (<a href="http://www.themodernhomestead.us/">The Modern Homestead</a>). </div><div><br /></div><div>So that's my wrap-up of my winter reading list...with a big thank-you to Ann Trigg for cultivating in me a love of the written world, and for some really great Christmas presents this year from <a href="http://www.chelseagreen.com">Chelsea Green</a>.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-67274320873060196312012-01-03T22:29:00.017-05:002012-01-04T10:35:58.616-05:00On Milk: Dear 16 year-old Me<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i_gqS4YbGrs/TwPQ68YZ-ZI/AAAAAAAAD4g/oWqdN54FB9E/s1600/potatoes%2Bau%2Bgratin%2B004.JPG"></a><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-poJsoG7QXT8/TwPLkAd2f2I/AAAAAAAAD4E/GWh4IOcPSxs/s400/Mama%2Band%2BBaby%2B2-14%2B2011-04-12%2B004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5693618173387374434" /><i>Mona and baby Moonpie, two of our beloved Nubian dairy goats</i><div><br /></div><div>Dear 16 year-old me,<div><br /><div>Hey you, pulling your PETA literature out of the family mailbox on the rural route. Good for you. You're doing your best to do the right thing. I'm proud of you for realizing that food is important, and for grasping that the way most of the food you've been eating is produced is brutal, unhealthy, and morally repugnant. </div><div><br /></div><div>Good job saying goodbye to your beloved quarter-pounder with cheese. I'm proud of you for believing with all of your heart that our small, daily actions are important and that personal decisions have the power to create social change. You are right. You will probably be happy to know that your 38 year-old counterpart still believes in that power. I so appreciate your passion and your conviction, and your desire to know the truth and do the right thing. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Specifically, you're right about the meat industry as it exists. The meat and milk and eggs you can find on the shelves of your supermarket in the late 1980s are beyond bad. But what you don't know now is that by the time you're in your thirties, the range of food options available to you will be very different. And your perspective will be more nuanced and complex. Things will have changed, and <i>you </i>will have changed. We could have a long conversation about meat, animals, vegetables, and health - I would love that and it would be spirited, contentious, and fun. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe I'll continue to write to you here in this format that wasn't invented (the blog) on something called the internet, which was just a glimmer in Al Gore's eye back when you were reading Peter Singer's <i>Animal Rights. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><i></i>But for now, there's one thing in particular I hear you saying that I'd like to respond to: "humans are the only animals that drink another animal's milk." I know you think it's disgusting and unnatural, and it's also wrapped up in your new-found insight into factory-farmed dairy - where sick, exhausted milk cows are hooked up to milking machines, pumped full of antibiotics and hormones, and living miserable lives. Twenty years later, there are still articles circulating on Facebook (something else that hasn't even been dreamed of yet - Mark Zuckerberg is probably in preschool) about how unhealthy and unnatural milk consumption is for humans.</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ML1xUcuE66A/TwPQrZ_g5UI/AAAAAAAAD4U/_GmvJDnUS3g/s400/Yogurt%2B009.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5693623798056674626" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /><i>Yogurt from our goats' milk</i></div><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><div>But here is the answer that pops into my head twenty years later to your impassioned, heartfelt, and true statement: </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes. Humans are the only animals that drink the milk of another animal. We are the only animals that do many of the things that we do. Let me name a few: cultivate gardens, plant seeds, cook, build fires to keep warm. There are many more examples. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the things that we do that no other animals do are destructive and morally questionable. You and I do some of them anyway. An example in this category would be driving in cars on highways. Some of the things we do that no other animal does are not destructive or morally wrong just because they are unique to us. For example, we plant potatoes. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Would you be surprised to know, dear teenaged me, that the you of the future owns dairy animals? Our animals our healthy and happy, we milk by hand, and we drink the milk raw. I also plant potatoes, something no other animals do. I believe that the milk our goats produce, like the vegetables we grow in our gardens, is healthier and more nutritious than food you can find on supermarket shelves. </div><div><br /></div><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i_gqS4YbGrs/TwPQ68YZ-ZI/AAAAAAAAD4g/oWqdN54FB9E/s400/potatoes%2Bau%2Bgratin%2B004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5693624064985921938" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /><i>Potatoes au gratin with our goat milk and goat cheese. Cooked on a woodstove - note that no other animals chop firewood, construct woodstoves, or invented the cast iron skillet. Or have cameras or "The Joy of Cooking."</i><div><i><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></i><div>Oh dear sweet, sharp, scrappy, strident, loving, and well-intentioned me, here is what I'd most like to say to you: be as gentle with yourself and others as you are with the planet. Be open to change. Be open to changing your mind. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you could know that after 20 years of strict vegetarianism and intermittent veganism you would suffer from debilitating health problems that very likely were caused or exacerbated by your diet, would you still make the same choices? Maybe so. And maybe those choices were the right ones at the time. Looking back, I think they probably were given your options at the time. But as clearly as you know that factory-farmed meat and dairy and eggs are wrong, I know that raising animals for eggs, milk, and meat can be part of an ethical way of life. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>And as for milk, I say YES, humans stand alone as a species in having domesticated other animals in order to drink their milk and make cheese, yogurt, whipped cream, and butter from it. I'm so glad we do! Milk in its natural state - not factory-farmed, processed, and lifeless but fresh from the goat (or cow) is good food. Protein. Fats. Healthy bacteria. You can read a lot about it these days when information is so very accessible compared to the way it was in the late 1980s. (<a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/search?q=raw+milk">Here are a few things</a> I've posted in recent years involving milk.)</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm fascinated by the history of this relationship between humans and our domesticated animals, and grateful to be part of the continuing tradition of caring for these animals well on a small, homestead scale. </div><div><br /></div><div>So there you have it, 16 year-old self. You will one day make butter. No other animal does that. And you will love that butter and know how good for you it is. You will know the animals that produce the milk you use are happier in your dairy-loving care than they would be just about anywhere else. And you will believe with all of your heart that it benefits the planet for people to produce their own food, including raising dairy animals for milk. </div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, and you'll get to see R.E.M. live four or five times in the future (which is now my distant past), the prospect of which I know is pretty thrilling to you. Enjoy! </div><div><br /></div><div>Love you!</div><div><br /></div><div>~B</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-90428256250089529322011-12-23T11:44:00.008-05:002011-12-23T13:17:18.882-05:00Thoughts on the Season<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3CFnYOiTJ4/TvTFWWH1gjI/AAAAAAAAD30/oMqBZ9i7HnI/s1600/newgrange.jpg"></a><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jlS6AesgT-0/TvS9fF9sQ3I/AAAAAAAAD2w/nm_iELaM68U/s400/christmas_goat.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689380571150304114" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 307px; height: 400px; " /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I've been collecting thoughts on the season that have been accumulating around the edges of my consciousness for the past few weeks.</div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Here are a few of them:<div><br /></div><div>"Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion. Let’s just call that what it is: A material blasphemy of the Christmas season."</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>~Jim Wallace <i>from</i> <a href="http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/15/real-war-christmas-fox-news">"The Real War on Christmas," <i>Sojourners</i></a></div><div><br />"But I can’t escape this: we have cut ancient trees to give the children big houses. We poison the fields to give them bread. We manufacture toxins to give them plastic toys. We kill village children to give our children world peace. For the sake of the children, we amass wealth by ransacking the world where they will have to live. What kind of love is this?"<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>~Kathleen Dean Moore from <a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/newsfrom187/entry/6662/">a beautiful and moving reflection in <i>Orion, </i>"What Kind of Love is This?"</a></div><div><br />And. </div><div><br /></div><div>In spite of all this, we still celebrate the return of the sun, the passage of the darkest days of winter and the hope that exists in dark, sad times for the return of light and life:</div><div><br /><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gF_X6R5myRs/TvTFF7-yTWI/AAAAAAAAD3o/GiFL78JsgEc/s400/havel.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689388935066832226" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 201px; height: 151px; " />"Hope is not a prognostication — it's an orientation of the spirit. Each of us must find real, fundamental hope within himself. You can't delegate that to anyone else. Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy when things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something to succeed. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It's not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is this hope, above all, that gives us strength to live and to continually try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now. In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, and, finally, without hope."</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>~Vaclav Havel, from an essay I have returned to several times over the years, including on the occasion of Havel's recent death, "<a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/vaclav-havel-hope-6619552?src=soc_fcbk">Never Hope Against Hope</a>."</div><div><div><br /></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3CFnYOiTJ4/TvTFWWH1gjI/AAAAAAAAD30/oMqBZ9i7HnI/s400/newgrange.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689389216962019890" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 185px; height: 272px; " /><div>I've returned too to <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2009/12/welcome-sun.html">my ruminations on the solstice from two years ago</a> ... <i>a time to notice and know darkness, a time to honor the dark, a time to honor the dead. It is a time to sit with the painful and the difficult things, with loss, with despair. It's the dead of winter.</i></div><i><br />And: it is the birthday of the sun--the birthday of light in the midst of the darkest time of year. A turning point, the return of the light, a time of transformation, a time of hope, and a time of rebirth.<br /><br /></i><div><i>In many ancient traditions, Winter Solstice is a time to honor the way that life emerges from death, light emerges from dark in the cycles of the natural world. A time to look forward to Spring and Summer and the bright, hot months when everything will be in fruit and flower, imagining what will come to be. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nXTxKZWGeO8/TvTDzcxNJqI/AAAAAAAAD3Q/lh43ZrhX98Q/s400/SantaWildman.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689387517939099298" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 228px; height: 400px; " /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>And finally, my favorite recent variation on the theme of pagan origins of modern seasonal traditions, "<a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2002-12-26/news/santa-is-a-wildman/">Santa is a Wildman</a>" by Jeffrey Vallance.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Happy Christmas, happy Solstice, sweet bright blessings for these dark days.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YVOWzlWMj3Y/TvS-eMriZUI/AAAAAAAAD3A/8w0V9uLFH28/s400/axial_tilt.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689381655284966722" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px; " /></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-39703001666605854922011-11-13T08:25:00.013-05:002011-11-13T11:56:20.027-05:00On the economy of plants and hard virtues<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ktvaokd0iLM/Tr_VNLFhNII/AAAAAAAAD1Y/hNu-Da2kNyk/s1600/wendell2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zniuzi-i8-A/Tr_M0VnAioI/AAAAAAAAD1I/ZwnEdnld5Ak/s320/wendell.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674479255036136066" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px; " /><div><div><i>I am at home. Don't come with me. </i></div><div><i>You stay home too.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>From "Stay Home" by Wendell Berry</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>On Wednesday night, I went next door to <a href="http://www.warren-wilson.edu/external_index.php">Warren Wilson College</a> to see Wendell Berry with Christopher and my parents. The crowd at the college chapel where Mr. Berry spoke was so huge that we ended up watching and listening with a couple of hundred other people on a live feed from another building on campus. In his deeply humble and entirely unpretentious way, Mr. Berry read one of his short stories, <i>At Home</i>, and then answered a few questions from students.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>At Home</i> is a story of small details, a beautiful embodiment of Wendell Berry's ethic and way of life. His reading was slow, deliberate, and quiet. For me, listening to the story required a disciplined effort to slow my mind down and be still and patient. The pace of the story, and of Wendell Berry's whole way of being, was so radically slow compared to the pace of computers, cars, and smartphones in the world in which I usually live. Berry's words were so evocative and his pace so meditative that I almost felt like I was dreaming. </div><div><br /></div><div>"He could not distinguish between himself and the land," Berry writes of the central character in "At Home." I emerged from "At Home" with a deep calling to my own home and land, to which I have been gradually becoming more and more inextricably connected over the past five years. Will there come a time when I can no longer distinguish myself from the land? I hope so.</div><div><br /></div><div>After the reading was finished, Mr. Berry responded to questions from students - I first wrote "answered questions" and then realized that he was reluctant to provide "answers" in most cases, but instead gave subtle, thoughtful responses, often lightened with wry humor.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was jotting notes as he spoke, still moving somewhat slowly after being immersed in the world of Berry's short story, but here are a few of my favorite moments:</div><div><br /></div><div>In response to questions from students about how we can find our way out of the ecological predicament we have created: "Problem solving is not applying the maximum force as relentlessly as possible. It requires patience, resignation, and other hard virtues." And later, "No one knows the answer. Don't trust anyone who says they do. The answer will have to be lived out." And finally, "We are working from the inside, necessity is working from the outside. The world is not going to continue to yield what we have come to expect of it."</div><div><br /></div><div>In response to a question about how "people of faith" might be involved in the environmental movement: "It's hard to think of a person who doesn't have faith in something. The human mind is by nature faithful."</div><div><br /></div><div>He encouraged students to "Get your language right. Call things by their right names." He talked about health in communities, referencing Aldo Leopold's concept of "land community" (a concept he fleshes out in more detail in his essay "Conservation and Local Economy").</div><div><br /></div><div>When asked about Occupy Wall Street, he reminded us that "great public movements must be accompanied by local, small, private acts." He also noted that when we are told, "inform yourself," we should remember that "to inform is to shape inwardly." </div><div><br /></div><div>He talked about making local food economies "that will be the kindest to the home landscapes of the world."</div><div><br /></div><div>At the end of the evening, Mr. Berry repeated twice what he called one of his "articles of faith": "Things aren't going to get so bad that someone who is willing can't make it a little better." </div><div><br /></div><div>That is the kind of hope, small and persistent, that I can feel resonating in my heart and bones. Thank you, Wendell Berry.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>More from Wendell Berry:</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ktvaokd0iLM/Tr_VNLFhNII/AAAAAAAAD1Y/hNu-Da2kNyk/s320/wendell2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674488477801067650" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 320px; " /></div><div><i>"We must see that it is foolish, sinful and suicidal to destroy the health of nature for the sake of an economy that is really not an economy at all but merely a financial system, one that is unnatural, undemocratic, sacrilegious, and ephemeral. We must see the error of our effort to live by fire, by burning the world in order to live in it. There is no plainer symptom of our insanity than our avowed intention to maintain by fire an unlimited economic growth. Fire destroys what nourishes it and so in fact imposes severe limits on any growth associated with it. The true source and analogue of our economic life is the economy of plants, which never exceeds natural limits, never grows beyond the power of its place to support it, produces no waste, and enriches and preserves itself by death and decay. We must learn to grow like a tree, not like a fire."</i></div><div><br /><div><br /><div><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=1BbJisI9WO4C&lpg=PA332&dq=%22we%20must%20see%20that%20it%20is%20foolish%20sinful%20and%20suicidal%20to%20destroy%20the%20health%22&pg=PA332#v=onepage&q&f=false">Read a longer excerpt from Berry's essay "Conservation and Local Economy," here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.vtcommons.org/sites/default/files/back-issues/vol.3_July_2005.pdf">Read the essay "Word and Flesh" here</a>.</div><div><br /><a href="http://www.grist.org/article/engler-berry">Read a profile of Wendell Berry in "Grist" here</a>.</div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-43158401674670491302011-10-28T13:32:00.009-04:002011-10-28T15:20:24.308-04:00Occupy the Pantry. . .<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IcZBeuBp4sg/Tqrt93nfIeI/AAAAAAAADuY/Wl88-89Yyq4/s1600/occupy%2Bthe%2Bpantry%2B003.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IcZBeuBp4sg/Tqrt93nfIeI/AAAAAAAADuY/Wl88-89Yyq4/s320/occupy%2Bthe%2Bpantry%2B003.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5668604728156561890" /></a>. . .and the fridge, and the cupboards, and the stovetop, and the plate. And while we're at it, let's <a href="http://www.grist.org/food/2011-10-21-occupy-the-pasture">occupy the pasture</a> and the hen house and the dairy barn and the vegetable garden.<div><br /></div><div>Watching the Occupy Wall Street movement crop up, proliferate, and bloom over the past few weeks has been good for my soul. </div><div><br /></div><div>Enough has been written about corporate control of food systems and how it serves the 1% while harming the planet, our health, and workers. I don't need to add my own long diatribe here. Suffice to say that the multinational for-profit food industry is part of the problem that OWS is rallying against. Industrial agriculture and the food policy it has spawned by way of corporate control of our political process contributes to hunger, pollution, and the destruction of small farms and farmland.</div><div><br /></div><div>So taking control of your own food supply and working for community food justice is part of the solution. And it feels good to be aware of doing that one small part while a bigger movement grows all around us. I like thinking of planting lettuce in our winter gardens and gathering eggs in the morning and canning tomato sauce as actions in solidarity with the Occupiers all over the world. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some of my favorite posts on related notes:</div><div><ul><li><a href="http://www.familyeats.net/food?page=1">Occupy Your Kitchen</a> (great post with lots of tips for wresting your food supply from corporate control by Laura Everage/Family Eats)</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://transitionvoice.com/2011/10/occupywallstreet-from-your-kitchen/">Revolution Begins In Your Kitchen: Occupy Wall Street from Your Kitchen </a>(Lindsay Curren at Transition Voice)</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.grist.org/food/2011-10-21-occupy-the-pasture">Occupy the Pasture</a> (Steph Larsen at Grist)</li></ul><div><br /><br />Along the same lines, check out this great Ted Talk on gardening as a revolutionary, subversive activity: </div><div><br /></div><div><iframe width="380" height="240" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ezuz_-eZTMI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>Roger Doiron reminds us, among other things, that "food is a form of energy...but it's also a form of power. And when we encourage people to grow some of their own food, we're encouraging them to take power into their own hands. Power over their diet, power over their health, and some power over their pocketbooks. And that's quite subversive because we are also necessarily talking about taking that power away from someone else -- from other actors in society who currently have power over food and health. You can think about who some of those actors might be." I also love his statement that "gardening is a healthy gateway drug to other forms of food freedom."</div><div><br /></div><div>To wrap it all up, here's a great quote from the ever-amazing, Frances Moore Lappé, one of my heroes, whose <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/163403/food-movement-its-power-and-possibilities">recent article in <i>The Nation</i></a> I highly recommend:</div></div><div><br /></div>"At its best, [the food] movement encourages us to “think like an ecosystem,” enabling us to see a place for ourselves connected to all others, for in ecological systems “there are no parts, only participants,” German physicist Hans Peter Duerr reminds us. With an “eco-mind” we can see through the productivist fixation that inexorably concentrates power, generating scarcity for some, no matter how much we produce. We’re freed from the premise of lack and the fear it feeds. Aligning food and farming with nature’s genius, we realize there’s more than enough for all."<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>~Frances Moore Lappé, "<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/163403/food-movement-its-power-and-possibilities">The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities</a>"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-38803466385757441172011-10-25T07:01:00.002-04:002011-10-25T07:11:53.344-04:00Seed Saving Season<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-40asPZDEQX4/TqYJI67W2PI/AAAAAAAADs8/2diDUvBaSuU/s1600/harvests%2B023.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span">My kitchen is piled high with seeds drying on screens and sheets of newspaper at the moment, along with the end-of-season glut of imperfect peppers and tomatoes. We had our first killing frost on Friday night, and everything that needs to be kept warm and dry is now crammed into our tiny seven-hundred-and-something square foot house. Being surrounded by seeds feels very comforting somehow, though. All of that potential under one roof.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mNKjzGPYT9c/TqYD9RykUYI/AAAAAAAADrg/aj81N9gRhGE/s320/seeds%2B022.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667221532374749570" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qMRiA9tNGUE/RyYBYW0_0BI/AAAAAAAAABE/ZrmuFeySUBg/s1600/P1010022.JPG">Tithonia</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nSQU8k641zg/TqYFEaCrudI/AAAAAAAADrw/CgCyTpOeIXs/s320/seeds%2B014.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667222754360539602" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 314px; " /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>Look out for lingering pollinators</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0gM6Q--HaTk/TqYJHgK-q4I/AAAAAAAADsw/S_ayhtH3V8I/s1600/harvests%2B027.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0gM6Q--HaTk/TqYJHgK-q4I/AAAAAAAADsw/S_ayhtH3V8I/s320/harvests%2B027.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667227205592066946" /></a><a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2008/09/hymn-to-hibiscus.html">Red Zinger hibiscus (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Hibiscus sabdariffa, also known as red sorrel or roselle)</span></a> drying for seed and tea<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lH8ywR4JLiM/TqYFF58HBxI/AAAAAAAADsg/6QCLTW1jEqY/s1600/seeds%2B012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lH8ywR4JLiM/TqYFF58HBxI/AAAAAAAADsg/6QCLTW1jEqY/s320/seeds%2B012.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667222780102772498" /></a>Texas Sage seeds drying (although why I bothered, I don't know - they self-seed so prolifically that saving seed is really gilding the lily, so to speak...I'll have some seed to give away and trade).</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-748T9PlhxJ4/TqYFFa796nI/AAAAAAAADsY/AiDsaH7suCM/s1600/seeds%2B006.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-748T9PlhxJ4/TqYFFa796nI/AAAAAAAADsY/AiDsaH7suCM/s320/seeds%2B006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667222771780676210" /></a>Zinnias</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9PCv1FjPXtA/TqYFEoX2_aI/AAAAAAAADr8/cmiPMDSA8gs/s1600/seeds%2B008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9PCv1FjPXtA/TqYFEoX2_aI/AAAAAAAADr8/cmiPMDSA8gs/s320/seeds%2B008.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667222758207454626" /></a>Calendula<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nSQU8k641zg/TqYFEaCrudI/AAAAAAAADrw/CgCyTpOeIXs/s1600/seeds%2B014.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mNKjzGPYT9c/TqYD9RykUYI/AAAAAAAADrg/aj81N9gRhGE/s1600/seeds%2B022.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-40asPZDEQX4/TqYJI67W2PI/AAAAAAAADs8/2diDUvBaSuU/s1600/harvests%2B023.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-40asPZDEQX4/TqYJI67W2PI/AAAAAAAADs8/2diDUvBaSuU/s320/harvests%2B023.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667227229954169074" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div>Zinnia seeds drying on a screen</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gLJhUfPQOmQ/TqYFFL_KM8I/AAAAAAAADsI/sNgtG0FQGGQ/s320/seeds%2B002.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667222767767532482" /></div><div>Those beautiful Red Zinger calyxes again</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-54587576921579229812011-10-24T20:02:00.006-04:002011-10-24T20:25:35.870-04:00Amaranth<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UxQ2k-cGlz0/TqX9NG6kA2I/AAAAAAAADrQ/erq3O3zD55E/s1600/harvests%2B016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoXGOruGaJQ/TqX82tq3LxI/AAAAAAAADqg/RFnYLk3XnsY/s1600/amaranth%2B001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UxQ2k-cGlz0/TqX9NG6kA2I/AAAAAAAADrQ/erq3O3zD55E/s1600/harvests%2B016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UxQ2k-cGlz0/TqX9NG6kA2I/AAAAAAAADrQ/erq3O3zD55E/s320/harvests%2B016.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667214107752006498" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 282px; " /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoXGOruGaJQ/TqX82tq3LxI/AAAAAAAADqg/RFnYLk3XnsY/s1600/amaranth%2B001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoXGOruGaJQ/TqX82tq3LxI/AAAAAAAADqg/RFnYLk3XnsY/s1600/amaranth%2B001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nx0jzTKqiZM/TqX9Mq8pvSI/AAAAAAAADrI/_XTJbcss1Dg/s1600/harvests%2B019.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nx0jzTKqiZM/TqX9Mq8pvSI/AAAAAAAADrI/_XTJbcss1Dg/s1600/harvests%2B019.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a>I harvested amaranth this week and it was so gosh darn photogenic that I just had to post some photos. I can't get enough of its beautiful colors and textures.<div><br /><div>I blogged about <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2010/11/amaranth.html">growing, harvesting, threshing, and using amaranth last year around this time</a> but this year I'm just going to post these photos.</div><div><br /><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nx0jzTKqiZM/TqX9Mq8pvSI/AAAAAAAADrI/_XTJbcss1Dg/s320/harvests%2B019.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667214100244577570" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " />Luscious. The varieties we grew are Mercado, Golden Giant, and Burgundy, all heirlooms. </div><div>Something about these photos just really does it for me. They just feel like the essence of this beautiful Fall to me. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you are not into the full-on supermodel of homescale grain production photoshoot, just click over to the <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2010/11/amaranth.html">more practical post from last year here</a>. But here are some more photos for those of you who feel me on this.</div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UxQ2k-cGlz0/TqX9NG6kA2I/AAAAAAAADrQ/erq3O3zD55E/s1600/harvests%2B016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoXGOruGaJQ/TqX82tq3LxI/AAAAAAAADqg/RFnYLk3XnsY/s1600/amaranth%2B001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoXGOruGaJQ/TqX82tq3LxI/AAAAAAAADqg/RFnYLk3XnsY/s320/amaranth%2B001.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667213723018145554" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2010/11/amaranth.html"></a><a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2010/11/amaranth.html"></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UxQ2k-cGlz0/TqX9NG6kA2I/AAAAAAAADrQ/erq3O3zD55E/s1600/harvests%2B016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UxQ2k-cGlz0/TqX9NG6kA2I/AAAAAAAADrQ/erq3O3zD55E/s1600/harvests%2B016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VcxCmQHQwTI/TqX9MjK9O2I/AAAAAAAADq4/bPHpmj6BnY0/s1600/harvests%2B017.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 147px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VcxCmQHQwTI/TqX9MjK9O2I/AAAAAAAADq4/bPHpmj6BnY0/s320/harvests%2B017.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667214098157091682" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kaP8q_RZR3E/TqX820rLOGI/AAAAAAAADqs/AIqPy9lYOeU/s1600/harvests%2B013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kaP8q_RZR3E/TqX820rLOGI/AAAAAAAADqs/AIqPy9lYOeU/s320/harvests%2B013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667213724898506850" /></a><br /><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-40382520670940260122011-10-22T12:54:00.021-04:002011-10-22T17:44:02.986-04:00Pickled Peppers Two Ways<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mPh4HzHB0c0/TqMCQp94OZI/AAAAAAAADqQ/8_icNBa7JPI/s1600/stocking%2Bup%2B%25282%2529.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zi8AjtyZM3E/TqL8PQjpF_I/AAAAAAAADpg/zm0Z5Qj5hmg/s320/Peppers%2B007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666368620258203634" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /><div></div><div><div>Even with hoophouse protection, pepper season is over. It was a great year for peppers in our garden, probably the best pepper season in the past five years, but all good things must come to an end. We had our first killing frost last night, and the temperatures dropped low enough to blitz the last of the peppers and tomatoes that had been barely hanging on in our unheated high tunnel. <div><br /></div><div>So it was time to pick the rest of the fruits, lay the unripe ones out to finish ripening on the kitchen table in the sun, and preserve the rest. I usually fall back on my tried-and-true <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2008/10/fall-kitchen-and-garden-projects.html">Sweet Pepper Hash</a> recipe for preserving peppers, but I had already put away such a tremendous stockpile of Sweet Pepper Hash this year that it was time to diversify.</div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mPh4HzHB0c0/TqMCQp94OZI/AAAAAAAADqQ/8_icNBa7JPI/s320/stocking%2Bup%2B%25282%2529.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666375241328769426" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 299px; " /></span><div>I tried out two new pickled peppers recipes, both of which look very promising. Both recipes are based on ones I found in "Stocking Up," a classic Rodale publication by Carol Hupping Stoner of which I have a treasured 1977 edition. (The entire book is amazingly available online here: <a href="http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/JF/418/07-292.pdf"><i>Stocking Up: How to Preserve the Foods You Grow Naturally</i>, Carol Hupping Stoner, Rodale Press, 1977</a>.)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Here are the recipes:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Pepper Pickling Method #1:</b></div><div><b>Pickled Whole Peppers</b></div><div><ul><li>4 quarts whole, ripe long peppers (these can be hot peppers like Hungarian or Banana, or sweet frying peppers - I used <a href="http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/ark_product_detail/jimmy_nardellos_sweet_italian_frying_pepper/">Jimmy Nardellos</a>)</li><li>1 1/2 cups salt</li><li>4 quarts plus 2 cups water</li><li>2 Tbs prepared horseradish</li><li>4 cloves garlic</li><li>10 cups apple cider vinegar</li><li>1/4 cup honey</li></ul><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-30Tc0G1pCuI/TqL8PFz1hqI/AAAAAAAADpM/qh-4NHZcEqY/s320/Peppers%2B001.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666368617373337250" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div><i>Jimmy Nardellos after soaking in salt water for 18 hours, ready for packing into jars.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><ol><li>Cut two small slits along the long sides of each pepper</li><li>Dissolve salt in 4 quarts of water. Pour the salt water over the peppers and let stand for 12 to 18 hours in a cool place, covered.</li><li>Drain, rinse, and drain again thoroughly.</li><li>Combine 2 cups water and all remaining ingredients except the honey and bring to a simmer. Add honey.</li><li>Pack peppers into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Pour boiling pickling liquid over peppers, ensuring that the 1/4 inch headspace remains. Adjust sterilized lids and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.</li></ol><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XfTwdIWywzM/TqMAczLVm6I/AAAAAAAADqA/RVIRURe7jRc/s320/peppers%2B011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666373250936314786" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 276px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><i>Whole pickled peppers after processing</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><div><div><div><b>Pepper Pickling Method #2:</b></div><div><b>Pickled Sweet Pepper Strips</b></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Wash, stem, and core peppers, and slice lengthwise into strips. Steam blanch the strips for 2 minutes, then plunge them into ice water to cool. Drain.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pack the cooled strips into hot, sterilized pint or half-pint jars. Cover them with a boiling syrup made from 1/2 part honey to 2 parts apple cider vinegar. Leave 1/4 inch headspace. Cap with sterilized lids and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.</div></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2TtMbwpvgFs/TqL8PR16zAI/AAAAAAAADpU/Q97CO7EUCyI/s320/Peppers%2B004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666368620603296770" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span><div><i>Red bell pepper strips ready for steam blanching, canning pot boiling on the woodstove</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uShKIv7lKhA/TqL8PiaAOGI/AAAAAAAADpw/1a7wWYH7p5o/s320/Peppers%2B010.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666368625049614434" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><div><div><div><i>The finished product</i></div></div></div></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The second recipe is much quicker, easier, and less involved than the first, so if you're looking for a speedy way to deal with a pepper onslaught, I recommend pickling them in strips. It turns out looking really lovely, too, especially when you mix red, orange, and yellow peppers. The pickled whole peppers didn't turn out looking as glamorous as I thought they would, I think because the horseradish makes for a little cloudiness. I'm sure the horseradish could be left out for a clear, pickling liquid that better shows off the pretty peppers.</div><div><br /></div><div>We grew about 20 varieties of heirloom and open-pollinated sweet peppers this year, plus a few seasoning peppers and hot peppers mixed in. My long-time favorite sweet peppers are Jimmy Nardello, Corno di Toro, and Kevin's Early Orange, and they did not disappoint. But Chocolate Bell and Quadratto di Asti Rosso were standouts this year too, and we will grow them again. </div><div><br /></div><div>Peppers are a great lesson in patience in the garden, starting out from seeds indoors as early as February and only really coming into their prime in September or even early October. The big, ripe bells always feel like treasures to me after all the months of waiting. </div><div><br /></div><div>Having enough peppers to preserve for the winter feels like such abundance. Store-bought out of season peppers are such a luxury item, pricey both in terms of cost to the customer and cost to the planet. To have a few jars of peppers stashed away on the shelf feels like real wealth--what better riches than beautiful, bright, sweet peppers on a dark winter day!</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-57720534543412971232011-10-04T17:58:00.007-04:002011-10-04T18:07:36.838-04:00Bean SeasonI spent the afternoon shelling dry beans with my sister Mary. The heirloom varieties we grew are just so lovely, so I had to post a few shots.<div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Calypso beans</i><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GFxbthJIaVo/TouB3RlYABI/AAAAAAAADm4/cx0QiAza9TE/s1600/Dry%2Bbeans%2B004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GFxbthJIaVo/TouB3RlYABI/AAAAAAAADm4/cx0QiAza9TE/s320/Dry%2Bbeans%2B004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659760143334113298" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><i></i><i></i><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Lina Cisco's Bird Egg beans</i></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vupp0nKz3X0/TouB3USAbbI/AAAAAAAADmw/jgPrfCozZVo/s1600/Dry%2Bbeans%2B003.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vupp0nKz3X0/TouB3USAbbI/AAAAAAAADmw/jgPrfCozZVo/s320/Dry%2Bbeans%2B003.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659760144058183090" /></a><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><br /></i></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i>Ireland Creek Annie's beans</i></span></i></div><div><i><br /></i><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdN4xIlblfY/TouB3B032PI/AAAAAAAADmo/W5OF6z_gpHU/s1600/Dry%2Bbeans%2B002.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdN4xIlblfY/TouB3B032PI/AAAAAAAADmo/W5OF6z_gpHU/s320/Dry%2Bbeans%2B002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659760139104147698" /></a><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>And </i><i>our old standby, <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2008/06/trail-of-tears-beans.html">Cherokee Trail of Tears beans</a></i></div><div><i><br /></i><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yHJFlIaYTUE/TouB3NZkxRI/AAAAAAAADmg/Ke-r0tQkr40/s1600/Dry%2Bbeans%2B001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yHJFlIaYTUE/TouB3NZkxRI/AAAAAAAADmg/Ke-r0tQkr40/s320/Dry%2Bbeans%2B001.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5659760142210876690" /></a><i><br /></i> </div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-57080659078960410732011-09-29T11:16:00.010-04:002011-10-01T09:21:34.884-04:00Up-Cycled Freezer Contents<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AA99u0g6ZPk/ToSo7Eh35JI/AAAAAAAADmI/M1ky-nWTJYI/s320/catsup%2B006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657832764665750674" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /><div><i>Homemade ketchup from last year's frozen cherry tomatoes</i></div><div><br /></div><div>It's a time of transition here on the farm, appropriately enough in this Equinox season. Two friends who have been living here for the past year are moving away, two new farm residents are arriving, the garden is winding down, we have only one more tailgate market day in the season, and everything is starting to feel cooler, slower, and quieter. <div><br /></div><div>Our new neighbor-friends suggested going in on a bulk meat purchase from the<a href="http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~farm/"> WWC farm next door</a>, which has motivated me to clean out our freezer. Since I went way overboard preserving vegetables last year when we had more produce than we could possibly sell or consume, the freezer was still full of jars of whole cherry tomatoes, wild blueberries, salsas, pestos and etc. It got to the point with the cherry tomato overload last summer that I was just rinsing them and stuffing them in half-gallon jars whole. And there quite a few of those jars still hanging out in the freezer by the end of tomato season this year (that being now).</div><div><br /><div><i>This is what 10 quarts of frozen cherry tomatoes looks like:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HVTZPVPQUto/ToSoHaLxOyI/AAAAAAAADlw/rLKPqcxxIY0/s320/kitchen%2Bproject%2B004.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657831877125421858" /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Soooo, it was time for "out with the old." I made some super-delicious <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=mother%20earth%20news%20juice&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CC0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motherearthnews.com%2FRelish%2FReal-Food%2FHow-To-Make-Fresh-Fruit-Juice-From-Berries-Recipe.aspx&ei=XK2ETvzOJsi1tweE3NBL&usg=AFQjCNG2lrrUAyckJUOpohducruquO9ahQ&sig2=XGPJx2HqvRBWhYAeKJzblw">juice</a> from all of the wild and tame blueberries piled up in the freezer, and am chipping away at the pesto, but what to do with gallons and gallons of thawed cherry tomatoes?</div><div><br /></div><div>How could I use them without having to deal with all of the skins? I sure wasn't going to blanch and peel them all - that would have been a full-time job for a few days. Maybe something involving a trip through the food mill to get rid of all of the skins and seeds...something like <b>ketchup!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Last year in the final throes of tomato overload, I made a big batch of <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2010/11/green-tomato-catsup.html">green tomato ketchup</a>, which we savored all through the winter. It made an especially delicious dressing for salad or fish when mixed with a little <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-mayonnaise.html">homemade mayonnaise</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>All of those jars of cherry tomatoes got me thinking that the different flavors of all of the varieties -- smoky White Currant, sweet Sungold Select, tangy Black Cherry, and tomato-y Peacevine would make a delightfully complex and savory ketchup. Plus, I could throw in some last-year's frozen salsa to spice it up - all of the ingredients in the salsa (onions, peppers, parsley, garlic) are frequently included in catsup recipes, so all the better. More freezer space freed up, more flavorful ketchup.</div><div><br /></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><i>The tomatoes and onions starting to cook</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><i><br /></i></span></span></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OFSoyDh9GD8/ToSose3lljI/AAAAAAAADl4/12RgJXeYTBg/s320/kitchen%2Bproject%2B011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657832514038109746" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b><br /></b></span></div><div>So here's the recipe:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><b>Cherry Tomato K</b></span><b>etchup</b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; "><b><br /></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><ul style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 2.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 2.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4; "><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">10 quarts cherry tomatoes (fresh or frozen)</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">2-3 cups chopped onions, to taste</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Sweet and/or hot peppers, parsley, oregano (optional) to taste</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">1 Tbs black pepper</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">1 Tbs dry mustard powder</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">1 1/2 Tbs high-quality salt</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">1 quart apple cider vinegar</li><li style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">1 cup honey</li></ul><div><ol><li style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Combine tomatoes and onions in a pot with everything except the honey.</li><li style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Pour the vinegar over the vegetables and cook for 4 hours over low heat, stirring occasionally.</li><li style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Put the mixture through a food mill.I use a secondhand <a href="http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Canning_and_Preserving___Food_Mills___The__Foley__Food_Mill___H620971">Foley food mill</a> which works like a champ.</li><li style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Return to the pot and bring to a boil again, and allow to boil until ketchup has achieved desired thickness. Be forewarned: This takes a LOOONG time! It's good to start the ketchup in the morning and let it cook down on low heat all day long, stirring and keeping an eye on it through the day. A good project for a rainy day.</li><li style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Add honey.</li><li style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0px; ">Pour into hot, sterilized jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.</li></ol></div></span></b></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><i>Cooking down, down, down!</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZDsPnHxZbw/ToSoss_a2nI/AAAAAAAADmA/Du8wCSG_AhQ/s320/catsup%2B001.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657832517829057138" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The final product - yum! It came out very smoky and spicy, almost verging on barbecue sauce, but still with the classic ketchup balance of sweet and vinegary. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4KjJq-W6I9o/ToSr03rPoXI/AAAAAAAADmU/ZFjsAs4xYio/s320/ketchup%2B002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657835956671062386" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 172px; " /><div><i><br /></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Viola. Freezer space freed up, delicious condiment stockpiled for the winter. </div><div><br /></div><div>And a little something for the nerds among us: <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=catsup%20ketchup&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldwidewords.org%2Fqa%2Fqa-ket2.htm&ei=I6yETqa3DYKftwf6p7hI&usg=AFQjCNGrv0NuFd_YZ0gBwYgqble3S64Rlg&sig2=djycBQno5cQzeRhQFrTrTw">"A confusion has long existed over how to spell and say the name of the condiment 'ketchup', with several different forms recorded..."</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-11766735062798985862011-09-04T14:50:00.036-04:002011-09-04T16:22:32.140-04:00Fall Garden<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQP0tigfzrQ/TmPcMlP5IUI/AAAAAAAADlk/lGCxxSyv0uU/s1600/August%2B12%2B045.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a>Even though it was still in the 80s today, the garden looks like fall and the fall projects are in full swing. 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<br /></div><div>Autumn Joy Sedum in bloom, with a few Red Spider zinnias mixed in:</div><div>
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<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QBc9bncwM1k/TmPSw0g5s7I/AAAAAAAADk0/-bYIwzuvWkU/s320/Fall%2B013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648590093824930738" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VBtj7apCODs/TmPSPB3wuqI/AAAAAAAADkU/HHrWcMjIyAw/s1600/Fall%2B050.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hxgx6swlcdw/TmPPC1GV-EI/AAAAAAAADiU/frCgqWidO54/s320/Fall%2B014.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648586005173106754" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">
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<br /></div><div>All Blue potatoes:</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQP0tigfzrQ/TmPcMlP5IUI/AAAAAAAADlk/lGCxxSyv0uU/s320/August%2B12%2B045.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648600466368045378" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></div><div>Keyhole bed put to sleep for the winter:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">
<br /></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yGniq-lQ-2s/TmPSwcXFlSI/AAAAAAAADkk/4uM1W42BBFs/s1600/Fall%2B055.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yGniq-lQ-2s/TmPSwcXFlSI/AAAAAAAADkk/4uM1W42BBFs/s320/Fall%2B055.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648590087341315362" /></a>
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<br /></div><div><i>
<br /></i></div><div><i>
<br /></i></div><div><i>Seashells </i>Cosmos in bloom ... I am in love with the frilly, tubular petals:</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MB6CItH9-no/TmPSOu6iKnI/AAAAAAAADkE/uxBWPCmnUNg/s320/Fall%2B048.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648589508206275186" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VBtj7apCODs/TmPSPB3wuqI/AAAAAAAADkU/HHrWcMjIyAw/s320/Fall%2B050.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648589513294920354" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">
<br /></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ggH03qWCNnU/TmPSPCbCEBI/AAAAAAAADkc/G59J79Ba11o/s1600/Fall%2B051.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ggH03qWCNnU/TmPSPCbCEBI/AAAAAAAADkc/G59J79Ba11o/s320/Fall%2B051.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648589513442856978" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VBtj7apCODs/TmPSPB3wuqI/AAAAAAAADkU/HHrWcMjIyAw/s1600/Fall%2B050.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a>
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<br /></div><div>Winter squash bonanza...</div><div>
<br /></div><div>...Neck Pumpkins...including a 9-pounder on top...</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hSGYK4LcVtM/TmPcMac0K5I/AAAAAAAADlU/KkAcRuG6PVM/s320/August%2B26%2B017.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648600463469456274" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
<br /></span></span></div><div>...<a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2009/09/meditation-on-gratitude-thelma-sanders.html">Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato squash</a>...</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">
<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-22pO-cFt7vo/TmPcMWvlLuI/AAAAAAAADlc/uxQwTN3vmag/s320/August%2B12%2B007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648600462474424034" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></div><div>...and top to bottom: Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash (buttercup), Paydon Acorn, and Zeppelin Delicata...</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ujVTmmfD-34/TmPcMKZEkzI/AAAAAAAADlM/fl1MxTYhfVA/s320/August%2B26%2B022.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648600459158786866" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div>
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<br /></div><div><a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2008/09/hymn-to-hibiscus.html">Red Zinger Hibiscus</a> (Hibiscus sabdariffa, also known as red sorrel):</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TZKU85-h2Js/TmPQC-MDLJI/AAAAAAAADi0/mUUBhHpIgWU/s320/Fall%2B026.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648587107124587666" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pzJ3FHgETq8/TmPQ6MQCaxI/AAAAAAAADjc/zdnnPq94RPM/s320/Fall%2B038.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648588055792216850" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">
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<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "> Tried and true <i>Sensation</i> cosmos:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">
<br /></span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kgDCnVOmUcE/TmPSO8uMfhI/AAAAAAAADkM/jHLun6HBI3Y/s1600/Fall%2B045.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 197px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kgDCnVOmUcE/TmPSO8uMfhI/AAAAAAAADkM/jHLun6HBI3Y/s320/Fall%2B045.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648589511912619538" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v5eMSuozGnI/TmPRwOR9lbI/AAAAAAAADj0/1i4R6pKmGVE/s1600/Fall%2B044.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v5eMSuozGnI/TmPRwOR9lbI/AAAAAAAADj0/1i4R6pKmGVE/s320/Fall%2B044.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648588984050095538" /></a>
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<br /></div><div>Sunflowers and friends:</div><div>
<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IJ7YpMO3OUw/TmPRWXS_ItI/AAAAAAAADjs/Uk6dSDoOC88/s1600/Fall%2B042.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IJ7YpMO3OUw/TmPRWXS_ItI/AAAAAAAADjs/Uk6dSDoOC88/s320/Fall%2B042.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648588539793711826" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_3liga0JcEU/TmPPU_UtVkI/AAAAAAAADic/4TX2iINCJTw/s320/Fall%2B020.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648586317155358274" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U9_XqCMB33Y/TmPPxGZRx4I/AAAAAAAADis/YXjgene3R_0/s320/Fall%2B022.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648586800089909122" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CRPNyHTe7us/TmPPVKxDXvI/AAAAAAAADik/c85mRYg0RWY/s320/Fall%2B017.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648586320227032818" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); ">
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<br /></div><div>Marshmallow in bloom, with one honeybee per flower:</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o1eE3QO-j0c/TmPQ56E0KuI/AAAAAAAADjU/d4m5hARKHxQ/s320/Fall%2B037.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648588050913307362" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">
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<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Cosmos <i>Mona's Orange </i>and <i>Memories of Mona:</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">
<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fIV18aEPiOk/TmPQgg5S0yI/AAAAAAAADjE/eGPUyRVQBRk/s320/Fall%2B029.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648587614657368866" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uqStTDDmI7E/TmPQQDAY3fI/AAAAAAAADi8/wSd8UltfUYk/s320/Fall%2B027.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648587331756154354" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 320px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s9mRJu0ExOo/TmPQ56wPEAI/AAAAAAAADjM/A6TWgg_-if4/s320/Fall%2B033.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648588051095425026" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">
<br /></span></span></div><div>Ready for radishes to emerge:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">
<br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lYqaqnIq-wY/TmPOed7FkTI/AAAAAAAADh8/ObzmjJg2P7w/s320/Fall%2B007.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648585380476588338" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">
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<br /></div><div>Mullein and sumac drying...</div><div>
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<br /></div><div>And a couple of my favorite fall gardening references:
<br /></div><div><ul><li><a href="http://www.abebooks.com/Ashton-Jeff/author/3633299">The 12-Month Gardener</a></li><li><a href="http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/">Four Season Farm</a></li></ul></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Happy fall, and can I get a "hell yeah" for the forecast for the next week -- highs in the high-60s/low-70s and RAIN!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-25356203707953296512011-08-21T10:03:00.017-04:002011-08-25T13:57:56.330-04:00Duck Tales<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kh4Ds6uMoy8/TlEcZuOGsiI/AAAAAAAADhk/UxrRNcxyp3I/s1600/Ducks%2B004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Fm7wMfKC8E/TlERiaArdPI/AAAAAAAADgk/s4jdNrJFZoM/s320/Ducks%2B005.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 302px; height: 320px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643311090867336434" /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nNpMeX46QX8/TlEbajnuWmI/AAAAAAAADhc/Fe4dr1WJK4g/s1600/Ducks%2B061.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Why ducks? Why <i>these </i>ducks? Read on, gardeners, slug haters, and egg lovers...</b></span><div>
<br /></div><div>I'm finally getting around to posting a little something about our newest farm residents: 14 laying ducks.<div>
<br /></div><div>We've been looking for a local source for heritage breed laying ducks for a long time, and finally found a breeder about an hour west of here who had exactly the breeds we were looking for: Khaki Campbells and Silver Appleyards. At some point I wouldn't mind adding a few Welsh Harlequins to the flock if we can find them nearby. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>We have been wanting to add ducks into the mix at our place for a couple of reasons - first, they are excellent hunters of slugs and snails, and do far less damage in the garden than chickens. As you would guess, looking at their webbed feet and round bills compared to the pointy beaks and claw-like feet of chickens, they waddle and scoop instead of pecking and scratching. And the breeds that were historically kept for eggs are excellent layers, with some breeds actually out-laying chickens. Converting slugs to eggs: could it get any better? </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Campbells and Appleyards are both excellent layers and active foragers, and both on the <a href="http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html">American Livestock Breeds Conservancy watch list</a> as historic breeds at risk of extinction. The ALBC is an amazing resource if you're interested in rare and historic breeds. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>If you're new to the concept of heritage breeds, consider this: heritage breeds are to animals as heirlooms are to vegetables. Just as heirloom vegetables and fruits are more suited to home gardens and small farms than plant varieties bred for modern industrial agrobusiness, heritage breeds are much better suited to small, home-scale livestock operations than the modern breeds that have been bred for factory farms and large-scale production. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>The ALBC explains: "<i>These breeds are threatened because agriculture has changed. Modern food production now favors the use of a few highly specialized breeds selected for maximum output in a controlled environment. Many traditional livestock breeds have lost popularity and are threatened with extinction. These traditional breeds are an essential part of the American agricultural inheritance. Not only do they evoke our past, they are also an important resource for our future.</i>"</div><div>
<br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DELfxQYm0Is/TlEYiEl_o5I/AAAAAAAADgw/dYVx_D-dYLU/s320/Ducks%2B067.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643318781699662738" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 320px; " /></span><div>Of all duck breeds, <a href="http://albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/campbell.html">Campbells</a> are the most famous for their prolific egg production, laying an average of about 300 eggs per year. The most productive Campbells have been known to lay in the neighborhood of 340 days a year, which is pretty darn impressive. </div><div>
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<br /></div><div><a href="http://albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/silverappleyard.html">Silver Appleyards</a> are less prolific layers, averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 eggs per year, and were bred as a dual purpose (meat and egg) duck. They are among the most critically endangered breeds, with the ALBC's 2000 census of domestic waterfowl in North America finding only 128 breeding Appleyards on the continent. I love the Appleyards because they're gorgeous and bold, a nice contrast to the subtle, smart, and curious Campbells.</div><div>
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<br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Wv2MLoR98jA/TlEbaBLKHCI/AAAAAAAADg8/wfdbpxqRFPg/s320/Ducks%2B029.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643321941877726242" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span><div><i>Maybelline and Bill Murray with a Campbell cohort</i></div><div><i>
<br /></i></div><div>I impulsively added another pair to the flock just because of their gorgeous appearance: Maybelline and Bill Murray are a pair of <a href="http://albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/welshharlequin.html">Welsh Harlequin</a> x <a href="http://albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/rouen.html">Rouen</a> crosses, and lovely to look at. She's a superb layer and they have big personalities that are great to have around - Bill Murray is definitely the elder statesman of the flock.</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nNpMeX46QX8/TlEbajnuWmI/AAAAAAAADhc/Fe4dr1WJK4g/s320/Ducks%2B061.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643321951124347490" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 275px; " /></span><div>I love heritage breeds for the same reason I love heirloom vegetables - they exist because of a long, careful chain of stewardship over many generations, and they were selected and valued for their usefulness to people producing food at a small home-scale level. Just like heirloom vegetables, they represent the care and nurturing of countless people down through the ages who have given their time and energy to preserving and improving their genetics. Just like heirloom vegetables, they hold within their living bodies a vital genetic heritage. And as heritage breeds become extinct, genetic diversity is lost forever.</div><div>
<br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><div>Keeping heritage breeds is important in the same way as growing heirloom vegetables. Again from ALBC: "<i>The need for livestock conservation is urgent. Throughout agricultural history, each generation has taken its turn as steward of the genetic trust. Our generation is now in danger of bankrupting this trust and leaving little for the future. Each day, some breeds move closer to extinction. Each extinction reduces the diversity within the livestock species and the biodiversity of the Earth.</i>"</div></div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WeUYG3wSapo/TlEbaSt3PdI/AAAAAAAADhM/ilC9j-5ygr4/s320/Ducks%2B057.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643321946586693074" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; " /></span><div>Also, it's just fun. I love sitting down at the duck yard in the morning with my cup of tea and watching the flock waddle, forage, quack, splash, and flap. That's some good down home entertainment, right there - on par with pitching our lawn chairs out by the goat barn and watching the goats play. Who needs TV?</div><div>
<br /></div><div> Click over to <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/beth.trigg/Ducks?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLaj-Nnq4sDPIA&feat=embedwebsite">Picasa</a> for the rest of the photos:
<br /><table style="width:194px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/beth.trigg/Ducks?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLaj-Nnq4sDPIA&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kJlJEY4QJsg/Tk-6Ob03KiE/AAAAAAAADeo/C5pCT5AzDSw/s160-c/Ducks.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px">Heritage <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/beth.trigg/Ducks?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLaj-Nnq4sDPIA&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Ducks</a> at Red Wing Farm</td></tr></tbody></table>
<br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-55207611073885876462011-08-07T22:30:00.011-04:002011-08-16T14:44:47.527-04:00Experiments in Cheesemaking<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8AJwu0i9PH8/Tj_PtsxJMfI/AAAAAAAADbk/ntdFYXzKGcc/s1600/2011-09-26%2B001%2B009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jg2xmMzt3D8/Tj_OtMGFI9I/AAAAAAAADbI/ZNpeo8QgHjA/s400/2011-09-26%2B001%2B002.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 304px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638452534227313618" />Since Foxy has come into her milk and baby Felix has gone to his new home at Double G Ranch, we've had lots of goat milk to spare and I've been experimenting with simple cheeses.
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<br /></div><div>The simplest goat cheese, which you can make without any special ingredients or equipment, is made by heating the milk to 180 degrees and adding something acidic (such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice), allowing the curds and whey to separate, and then draining the whey (liquid) off of the curds (solids) in a fine mesh strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth. </div><div>
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<br /></div><div>Then you can hang the cheesecloth up to drain for as long as you want - the longer it drains, the drier the cheese. This is the standard "farm cheese" that Christopher used to make with the milk from his goats fifteen years ago in Tennessee, and I learned the recipe from him. I love the tangy taste and crumbly, dense texture of this simple cheese. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>The only disadvantage I find with this simple cheese is that it yields a relatively small amount of final product, with a large quantity of whey left over after the cheese is made. So for a gallon of milk, you might end up with something like a cup and a half of cheese. Plus, I love variety, and wanted to try some other fresh cheeses. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>So I saved up to order from the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.cheesemaking.com">New England Cheesemaking Supply Company</a> and on Thursday my "box of bacteria" arrived via UPS.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Mail ordering cheese cultures is a bridge strategy - eventually, I'd like to make my own mother cultures which I can keep on hand for cheesemaking, but I'm a novice and readymade, pre-packaged cheese cultures allow me to try out different methods and recipes and learn the ropes without a tremendous amount of trial and tribulation. "Direct set" cultures are particularly appealing as relative shortcuts to homemade cheese.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The first cheese I tried with storebought cultures was a plain chevre. There are tons of approaches to making chevre (<a href="http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/chevre.htm">here are a couple from Fias Co Farm</a>) but this time I used <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Home-Cheese-Making-Recipes-Delicious/dp/1580174647">Ricki Carroll's</a> basic chevre recipe.</div><div>
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<br /></div><div>I started with a gallon of fresh goat milk and ended up with enough cheese that I reserved several cups to use as plain chevre and made a 12-ounce batch of experimental fruit and nut cheese with the dried fruit and nuts that I happened to have around the kitchen. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>The plain, unadulterated chevre is super-delicious - very different from the "vinegar cheese" that we had been making. It has the smooth, creamy, buttery texture that is typical of chevre and a very mild, neutral taste. With a tiny sprinkling of salt or just alone, it is divine. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>The little experimental flavored batch turned out to be kind of over the top, too good to be true. Here's how to make it:</div><div style="font-weight: bold; "><b>
<br /></b></div><div style="font-weight: bold; "><b><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GWTjDVNU28E/Tj_OtmmYecI/AAAAAAAADbY/qoV-BIvQl9Y/s400/2011-10-03%2B001%2B002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638452541342120386" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></b></div><b>Fig, Apricot, Walnut, and Almond Chevre</b><div>
<br /><div>You will need:</div><div><ul><li>1 gallon fresh goat milk</li><li>Handful of walnuts and almonds, soaked</li><li>Handful of dried figs and apricots</li><li>1 packet of direct set chevre culture (<a href="http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/140-Chevre-DS-5pack.html">available here from New England Cheesemaking Supply</a>)</li></ul></div><div><div>
<br /></div></div></div><div><ol><li>Heat the milk to 86 degrees. Add the starter culture and stir.</li><li>Cover ant let sit at room temperature (not below 72 degrees) for 12 hours. </li><li>Line a colander with butter muslin (a fine-weave cheesecloth). Gently ladle the curds into the colander. Tie the corners of the muslin into a knot and hang the bat over the sink or a pot to drain for 6-12 hours until the cheese reaches your desired consistency. </li><li>Set aside as much cheese as you like at this point to use as plain chevre. Fill a 12-16 ounce container with the cheese that will become fruit and nut flavored. </li><li>Drain the soaked nuts and chop them in the food processor with the dried fruit. This will make a dry, crumbly paste of figs, apricots, and nuts. </li><li>Mix the fruit and nuts into the cheese and viola! Fancy, gourmet-style cheese that would cost you ten or twelve bucks at the farmers market or posh grocery store cheese department,</li></ol><div>I didn't weigh or measure the cheese before I dove in, but Ricki Carroll says this recipe makes 1.5 pounds, and that seems about right. The total yield was much greater using cultures than making my farm/vinegar cheese with the same volume of milk, and the milk was barely heated at all, making this a raw milk cheese.</div></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Making cheese from fresh milk is one of the most ancient food preservation methods. In the days before electricity and UPS, cheese was either aged in environments where the desired microbial life already existed (such as a certain cave that would produce a particularly flavorful cheese), even before people understood the microbiology behind the process, or "mother cultures" were kept alive to inoculate each new batch. Fresh, unpasteurized milk has a relatively short shelf life without refrigeration, not so with cheese.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Fresh (as opposed to aged) cheeses tend to be soft and mild, like chevre. Cheeses requiring aging are typically harder in both senses of the word. It turns out that fresh cheese is a pretty simple kitchen project - certainly easier and less involved (and less sweaty) than canning, for instance. My first forays into cheesemaking have been satisfying, easy, and delicious...so, dear reader, tune in later for further adventures in cheese. Maybe I will even get around to aging some cheese -- but for now we are eating the fresh cheese so fast that it's hard to imagine mustering that kind of patience. </div><div>
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-6015871241284701952011-07-30T20:08:00.019-04:002011-08-01T10:51:18.962-04:00Bachlelorette's Liqueur<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ot3KseCezwo/TjShZOK_baI/AAAAAAAADas/06YBeSpPvZg/s1600/Brandied%2Bpeaches%2B008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yWta64lF3YU/TjShLuo9NTI/AAAAAAAADaM/1gTD5fb7JoQ/s400/Peaches%2B002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635306256617780530" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><div>Christopher is out of town, and in addition to having a "lost weekend" with my sister Mary and going out for mixed drinks with my ladyfriends, I am taking advantage of having the house to myself by engaging in a number of complicated, messy kitchen projects (for instance, <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-mayonnaise.html">learning to make mayonnaise</a>).<br /><div><br /></div><div>My parents, who are also out of town (separately), dropped off a big basket of peaches just before they hit the road for two weeks. Their peach tree has started producing like crazy in the past couple of years, and my world is a better place because of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The confluence of these two events has led me to experiment with peach preservation. However it is hot as holy hell here right now, as it is pretty much everywhere else in the United States, and I cannot bring myself to endure canning. The other day I heard someone say, "Satan called, he wants his weather back." That pretty much sums up how it's been feeling here, and I am not about to fire up the stove and stand over steaming pots in the middle of the worst heat wave anyone can remember. </div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vaUcRO65V5U/TjSdfbXlHuI/AAAAAAAADaA/DRmCie6WLDM/s400/preserving.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635302196995497698" /></div><div>So I turned to this book, <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2010/08/book-review-transatlantic-gift-economy.html">which I raved about in more detail last year</a>, for assistance. </div><div><br /></div><div>I found a great heat-free recipe for "Officer's 'Jam' or Bachelor's Liqueur" which is basically what is known in the South as Brandied Peaches, but without the canning. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here it is. Since I'm bachin' it this week, I changed the name.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Bachelorette's Liqueur, or Brandied Peaches Sans Heat</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Ingredients:</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Peaches</div><div>Good Brandy</div><div>Sugar (roughly the same quantity as the fruit or less)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><ol><li>Cut fruit into pieces and remove pits. Layer it into a stoneware pot or a crock with a lid. After each layer, add sugar (I used far less sugar than fruit). Do not stir.</li><li>After all the layers are in the crock, pour in enough brandy to submerge everything. I topped this off with a plate that fit down inside the crock to prevent any air exposure for the fruit. </li><li>You can keep adding fruit as it ripens throughout the season, just keep topping with sugar and adding brandy. Again, do not stir.</li><li>Mrs. Defacqz of Switzerland who submitted the recipe to Terre Vivante says that the mixture should be allowed to sit for at least 6 months, and is really best after a year.</li></ol></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ocuKkdmA9ck/TjShYw4SQII/AAAAAAAADac/4aHitE8uEtQ/s400/Brandied%2Bpeaches%2B003.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635306480557244546" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BaoLwQ81cYQ/TjShLhUf2_I/AAAAAAAADaU/O551K5B8f5c/s400/Brandied%2Bpeaches%2B002.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635306253042310130" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m29NcuLOW2g/TjShYwXS2YI/AAAAAAAADak/pmgrgH5jsPg/s400/Brandied%2Bpeaches%2B006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635306480418871682" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ot3KseCezwo/TjShZOK_baI/AAAAAAAADas/06YBeSpPvZg/s400/Brandied%2Bpeaches%2B008.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635306488420330914" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></div></div></div><div><div>I'm letting it sit in my 2-gallon crock, alongside the <a href="http://milkingweeds.blogspot.com/2011/07/adventures-and-misadventures-in.html">apple cider vinegar</a> in the next crock over.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm guessing it's going to be ridiculous over some vanilla ice cream. I'm not sure if I can wait six months.</div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5868856291902994549.post-26989144772710581062011-07-29T14:32:00.022-04:002011-08-01T10:51:32.569-04:00Making Mayonnaise<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3PFnSdHYk6A/TjMKwqsTU9I/AAAAAAAADZg/Zs8vGxhsq-s/s1600/mayonaise%2B006.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-frxBzstgSF0/TjMESdAKBwI/AAAAAAAADYM/j48zJPoTzzY/s400/chicks%2Bjuly%2B2011%2B003.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634852273840064258" /><i>The source of all mayonnaise</i><div><i><br /></i>Our household consumes a huge quantity of mayonnaise. This is mostly because of Christopher, who believes that mayonnaise makes everything better, and often serves himself such a large portion of mayo that it appears more like a side dish than a condiment. Naturally, with plenty of fresh eggs from the chickens and a great local source of cheap organic extra virgin olive oil, I decided it was time we start making our own mayonnaise.<div><br /></div><div> Years ago, I made some aioli to serve with fresh asparagus and it was a triumphant kitchen moment. I had a vague memory that it involved whipping for a long time, and pouring in the oil very, very slowly. My friend Kathryn makes mayonnaise sometimes, and I remembered her saying she used a blender. I did a little googling and found <a href="http://www.justhungry.com/2006/02/basics_mayonnai.html">this excellent recipe for "Homemade Mayonnaise Without Tears"</a> which recommended using a mixer with whisk attachments. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't have whisk attachments, but I figured that couldn't be that big of a deal, so I grabbed some eggs and got started. </div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of hours and four appliances later...I had achieved mayonnaise. But it was not easy, let me tell you. I share this story in the hopes that it may spare some future mayonnaise maker from the frustrations of mayonnaise failure.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EN2WMqIQoGg/TjMGQ_pXBoI/AAAAAAAADYY/zfFvdCLtreY/s400/mayonaise%2B004.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634854447803205250" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I started out with my grandmother's Sunbeam Mixmaster. It seemed like a reasonable choice given the "No Tears" recipe, plus it is glamourous and I always like getting it out for kitchen projects.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div>I do not recommend a mixer like this for mayonnaise-making. The beaters only hit the center of the bowl, leaving the edges unwhipped/unblended, and the whole Sunbeam operation was a colossal failure. I ended up with an oily, un-emulsified, very un-mayonnaise-looking mixture. It looked like raw egg yolks and oil blended together. Which is what it was. </div><div><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6V0s_s-cu1Y/TjMGmeR3cyI/AAAAAAAADYg/MViPH-pKanY/s400/mayonaise%2B005.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634854816803418914" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Next I switched to the hand blender (aka immersion blender). This is a tool that I love and that a number of people in the googleverse recommend for mayonnaise making. I almost burned up the motor, and created a foamy yellow oily substance. I kept whipping, waiting waiting for that magic moment of emulsification, but it never happened.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3PFnSdHYk6A/TjMKwqsTU9I/AAAAAAAADZg/Zs8vGxhsq-s/s400/mayonaise%2B006.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634859389980726226" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div>At this point, fortunately I found several references saying that<a href="http://www.cuisine-french.com/cgi/mdc/l/en/apprendre/trucs_astuces/sauces/reussir_mayo.html"> failed mayonnaise could be substituted for oil to make a new batch</a>, so I saved the failed batch and moved on to appliance number three, the hand mixer. This seemed like it would solve the problem of not reaching the edges that I had encountered with the Sunbeam, and incorporate much more air than the hand blender/immersion blender.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IE22dgJGBw4/TjMJOFtCEpI/AAAAAAAADYs/sO1Nwg4vf64/s400/mayonaise%2B010.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634857696424497810" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; " /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Wrong. No magic mayonnaise moment. </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally I switched to the trusty Osterizer. </div><div><br /></div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hQ_PVjEiB7E/TjMJOzT6ZSI/AAAAAAAADY8/lGTroNwiXFs/s400/mayonaise%2B013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634857708667168034" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; " /><div>Why did I not use the blender to start with?</div><div><br /></div><div>I followed the directions in <a href="http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/making-homemade-mayonnaise-is-not-my-gift">this recipe</a> precisely (with one small exception, see #2 below) including beating the eggs for one full minute in the blender before beginning to add the oil (in my case oil/egg failure mixture) and adding it at an excruciatingly slow pace.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Co0jykcBfU/TjMJOtbENRI/AAAAAAAADY0/bVKCwFgmH4c/s400/mayonaise%2B011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634857707086558482" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; " /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Finally. Mayonnaise success. The magic moment of emulsification.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><b>Here are a few tips for my fellow novice mayonnaise makers to spare yourself time and struggle:</b></div><div><br /></div><div><ol><li>Use a blender. Don't bother experimenting with mixers of any sort. They don't work.</li><li>Use the whites of the eggs too. Most of the recipes I looked at called for separating the eggs and using only the yolks. In the end I used whole eggs, including whites. Correlation is not causation, so it's possible that using whites too had nothing to do with my success, but when I used the whole eggs, it worked. I think keeping the whites made the mayonnaise a more familiar and thereby more appetizing color, too.</li><li>Whip the eggs on high for at least one full minute before adding any oil.</li><li>Add the oil with excruciating, ponderous, agonizing slowness. Drips to very slow, thin drizzles only.</li></ol><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T83p6FVQ1QA/TjMJWWwfSFI/AAAAAAAADZM/dkpt3H9428g/s400/mayonaise%2B017.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634857838441351250" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span>In closing, I would like to say: how did people EVER do this before electricity?!? At some point in between appliances, in my search for ways to salvage the failed mayonnaise, I found <a href="http://intlxpatr.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/mayonnaise-aioli-and-rouille/">this lovely post</a> about how French vendors just whip up little batches of mayonnaise by hand using only a whisk and a bowl, just right there on the spot on the street to accompany orders of french fries. It was totally demoralizing to read this as I struggled with my four appliances and runny yellow oil and egg substance.</div><div><br /></div><div>The ridiculous number of appliances employed, dirty dishes produced, and electricity expended probably don't justify just over a pint of mayonnaise. I can report, however, that it was immensely satisfying to finally see that creamy, thick, delicious substance appear like magic out of nothing but eggs, salt, and oil.</div><div><br /></div><div>All the dishes, appliances, electricity - that's tuition, as my dad would say. Now I know, and there will be no stopping me in the pursuit of mayonnaise.</div><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LQvVnkbV8JE/TjMJWunS1YI/AAAAAAAADZU/jQqETKgqy14/s400/mayonaise%2B018.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634857844845237634" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><i>Ridiculous number of dirty dishes produced in The Mayonnaise Lesson.</i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><i><br /></i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9