Living Lightly in a Wavering World

Making a Mini Greenhouse from Reused Plastic Spinach Containers

2012-02-08T20:47:00.004-07:00

I just had to laugh the other day while reading It's Not Easy to Be Green, a blog written by friend and fellow "green" blogger, Jennifer. In her post about Tiny Houses, she discusses environmentally-correct compromises and how it can be difficult to make the right decisions. Jennifer mentions that while shopping, she "can’t decide between the organic spinach in the plastic box or the loose leaf conventional spinach that can go in a reusable bag ." This is the part the part that made me laugh because the spinach bag vs. container has been a similar dilemma of mine for years.

Due to financial restrictions, I do not buy the local loose-leaf spinach from the Co-Op. Like Jennifer, I have to make compromises. Although I buy many local, organic vegetables, I choose to grow my own spinach and lettuce in the Summer, but purchase imported spinach during the Winter. I'm sorry to admit that I'm far from being a true locavore, but fresh salad is my all time favorite food and I can't imagine going a Winter without it. My grocery store offers pre-bagged conventional spinach or organic spinach in a large plastic container. For years, Mark and I bought the bagged conventional spinach because we thought the large plastic containers were outrageous and waste more materials than the bags. This year, however, I've decided that the containers are probably less impactive than the bags for three reasons: 1) they are made from recycled plastic, 2) they can be reused as containers for storing things, and 3) they can be recycled, whereas plastic bags cannot. But mostly, I want to buy spinach in plastic containers because I want greenhouses for starting my seeds!

One of my gardening goals this year is to try to grow and store as many tomatoes as possible. Growing tomatoes in the heart of the Rockies is challenging and tomatoes have never been a strong crop of mine anyway. Since the last frost in Bozeman is traditionally Memorial Day weekend and first frost could be anytime in September, this means a very short growing season for sensitive plants. Plus, since I technically live on a high desert, Summer nights are usually pretty chilly. Tomatoes don't like cold nights.

I've noticed that in addition to insulating tomatoes plants with Walls of Water, the key to growing tomatoes in Montana is to grow them as big as possible indoors before setting them out in the garden. Most folks buy very large tomatoes to plant in their gardens. I'm not talking about the 6 inch tall seedlings that come in 6 packs. I'm talking about the mature, 12+ inch plants that are sold in deep tubs. These large tomatoes are grown in commercial greenhouses and cost any where from $5 to $20+ each! I can't afford mature plants, so this year, I'm starting tomatoes from seed myself. Although the seed packet instructs to start tomato seeds 2 months before last frost, I started mine on January 30th, so that's 4 months in advance. Hopefully they'll grow big and strong in my apartment before I set them outside.

To make a mini greenhouse for starting seeds, you'll need two large plastic spinach containers. Spinach and lettuce containers come in all shapes and sizes and any shape and size works, as long as you use two that are the same. I filled one container 3/5 the way up with seed starting mix. I didn't punch holes in mine for drainage, so I have to be careful not to over water my plants. You can punch holes in yours if you'd like. I planted 6 seeds, watered the soil lightly, put the lid on the container, and placed it in a sunny, south-facing window. When the seedlings where almost touching the lid, which was today, I removed the lid and placed another container upside-down on top of the container with the soil and seedlings. I carefully cut away the rim of the upside container so that it fit into the rim of the bottom container. The tomatoes will now have a warm, moist growing environment until they are about 6 inches tall. When that happens, they should be healthy enough to grow in the container without the lid. At a certain point, I'll have to transplant the seedlings into larger, individual containers. Another option is to place the upside-down container on top of the bottom container at the beginning instead of temporarily using the lid. The lid can can be placed under the greenhouse to act as a drip pan, should you decide to punch drainage holes in your container.

I've grown various seeds in the exact same homemade greenhoues. Most any type of seed can be started indoors in a homemade mini greenhouse, except for seeds that prefer to be directly planted outdoors. Plastic seed starting greenhouses and flats are available to purchase from gardening stores, but why buy new plastic when you can reuse old plastic? If you do not buy spinach or lettuce from plastic containers, but want to make you own greenhouse, I recommend picking through your local recycling dumpsters for discarded containers. This is how I scored a few plastic containers last year for making my own greenhouses.

By, the way, I'm growing three heirloom tomatoes varieties that are supposed to mature the quickest and be most cold tolerant. They are Glacier, Oregon Spring, and Honeydrop Cherry. I'll continue to blog about their growth and production over the course of the Spring and Summer to let fellow Zone 4 gardeners how they work out.

Homemade Granola: A high-protein breakfast

2012-02-03T17:02:00.003-07:00

Bowl compliments of With These Hands Pottery

Hello all. Just thought I'd share an easy vegetarian breakfast recipe today. I started making my own granola a year ago and Mark and I love the stuff. My recipe is chock-full of seeds and nuts, providing energy that lasts for hours. Homemade granola is cheaper than buying the pre-made kind and almost all of the ingredients are available to purchase from bulk bins. Plus, by making homemade granola, you have the benefit of knowing exactly what's in it (no mystery ingredients or excessive amounts of sugar). To make your own batch, begin with the basic ingredients of oats, butter or oil, and honey and/or sugar. You can then add whichever spices, seeds, nuts, and fruit that you prefer or leave out certain ingredients that you dislike. This granola is great with yogurt or milk/milk alternative.

Homemade Granola Recipe

4 cups rolled oats
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt

6 tablespoons butter or canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup almonds
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

1/3 cup walnut pieces
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup chia seeds
1/3 cup flax seeds
1/3 cup wheat germ

1/3 cup banana chips
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup dried cherries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine oats, cinnamon, and salt in a large baking pan. Melt butter/oil, honey, brown sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla together on the stove. Pour melted mixture over oats then thoroughly mix. Bake oats mixture in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven, add almonds and pumpkin seeds, stir, and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, add remaining seeds and nuts, stir, and return to oven for 10 more minutes. Remove pan from oven and cool before adding dried fruits.

Enjoy!

How to be an Urban Farmer... without actually owning land

2012-01-24T15:45:00.012-07:00

Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed about owning my own farm and living off the land. I'd love to have a small house on a rural piece of property where I could raise chickens, milk goats, and grow a large vegetable garden. That dream, however, isn't my reality as I am currently renting an apartment in the urban-ish town of Bozeman, Montana. In order to make the most of my situation and to appease my farming dreams, I am aspiring to be an urban farmer... despite the crucial fact that I do not own land nor does my apartment have outdoor space for a garden or chickens.

Urban farming has become a trend in progressive areas where eating local food and being environmentally-conscious are meaningful ways of living. I've read many news articles and blogs about people who have successful homesteads on very small urban properties. One of the most popular examples is "The Urban Homestead" in Pasadena, California. As much as I admire and respect The Urban Homestead and other such in-town farmers and strive to follow in their footsteps, I have one major difference with these people: they own their land. And I don't. Land owners, even urban landowners, have the advantage of cultivating property that is strictly theirs. Unless their neighborhoods have restrictions on aesthetics or keeping animals, landowners can transform their home and yard however they want in order to produce food. They can invest in perennial edible plants, compost in their backyard, and keep bees on their roof. Landowners have the freedom and assurance that they can invest time, energy, and money in their land and be rewarded with fresh food. Since I am a renter, I do not have this benefit.

As a non-land-owning urban farmer, its critical to think outside of the box, or rather, outside of the backyard. Despite all of the information on the internet about urban farming, I've found few sources on how to be an urban farmer with without actually owning land. So, I've decided to compile my own list of suggestions. I hope that Living Lightly in a Wavering World blog can eventually become a helpful resource to aspiring non-land-owning urban farmers such as myself. Here's some ideas I've come up with so far:

1. Join a Community Garden. Many communities rent out public gardening plots for a small fee. Tending a community garden plot is a great way to have a garden that's "yours;" a garden that nobody else will meddle with and that you can work on in your own time. There are also community gardens in which there are no individual plots, rather one large garden that everyone works on together. The food grown is handed out equally among members. This type of garden is great for those who have no prior gardening experience or work better under the direction of others.

2. Land Share. Some communities have organizations that connect aspiring gardeners that don't own land with landowners that don't choose to garden, but are willing to share their property with others. If there is no such organization in your area, you can seek out landowners by posting ads on Craigslist, in the paper, or on public bulletin boards. Usually the land owners charge no fee to use their land, but they may charge for water or have other mandates. Land sharing is a great method of free gardening, but the gardener must remember that the landowner could ask them to leave their property at any moment. From my own personal experience, there is no guarantee when gardening on land that is not yours.

3. Container Gardening. Growing in pots, recycled containers, or movable gardens is an easy method of producing veggies on your windowsills, balcony, deck, or small yard. For those living in a city or with no other gardening opportunities, container gardening is a manageable way of growing your own food indoors or out.

4. Be a Squatter. In the book, Farm City, Novella Carpenter shares her experiences tending her farm in downtown Oakland, CA. Novella didn't own the land that she farmed on, but rather squatted illegally on an abandoned property next door. This is a brilliant way of farming if you live in a place with no room to garden. Just like with land sharing, be mentally prepared to be evicted at any time.

5. Work or Volunteer at a Farm. Helping at a farm is great way to be exposed to farming and gardening, with the potential of earning money or acquiring free or discounted food. Most CSA farms around the country are desperately seeking volunteers and workers. Depending on the type of farm you work at, you can learn about animal husbandry, large-scale commercial farming, or sustainable/organic gardening. Maybe you work at a farm for one season in order learn more about farming and later apply that knowledge to your own urban gardening efforts.

6. Be a Farmsitter. For the past six years, I've been a part-time pet/home/farm sitter and through these gigs I've had the opportunity the tend to laying hens, meat chickens, ponies, turkeys, pigs, and vegetable gardens. As a farmsitter, I get to live at the farm for a short period of time, temporarily experience what its like to be a farmer, and learn a little bit about animals, etc. I also usually get to keep the eggs that I collect and help myself to the garden.

7. Urban Foraging & Wildcrafting. Instead of growing food yourself, why not collect food that's already growing on its own? If you're willing to explore your town by bike or foot, you may find apple trees, berry bushes, and other edibles growing in public parks, industrial areas, or abandoned property. You can also ask permission to pick fruit on privately-owned land. In addition, I suggest doing some research on wild edibles and medicinal herbs then take a day trip to the forest or other natural area to collect wild foods.

8. Barter Goods and Services. I think that there are very few farmers out there who are completely self-sufficient. Even those who produce the majority of their own food and products and are very skillful still need to acquire products from others. In traditional farming communities, people trade their surplus goods for goods that they are lacking. This goes for skills and services as well. This past Summer, I traded excess garden lettuce for handmade pottery and rhubarb. Just a few weeks ago, I gave away 25 saved egg cartons to a local chicken keeper in exchange for a dozen organic eggs. The key to bartering is to be creative and brave when seeking out potential trading opportunities. Posting on Craigslist or in the newspaper or joining a local alternative living community are just some methods of finding others to barter with.

9. Work/Trade Opportunities. Last year, I picked strawberries at a local farm and arranged with the owner to give him half in exchange for keeping half. I also worked 5 hours a week at a CSA in exchange for vegetables. Non-land-owning urban farmers need to be open to new opportunities to work on a farm-like settings in exchange for food and for opportunities to learn more about farming. Maybe help an elderly person tend to their garden in exchange for food or help a farmer milk his cows in exchange for milk?

10. Find a Rental with a Yard. I happen to rent an apartment with very little outdoor space, but there are many places to live where there are actually backyards. If you are a renter and are serious about urban farming, it may be in your benefit to spend more money on a rental property that includes space for gardening or raising hens. In many urban areas, rentals with established gardens are being scooped up like hotcakes. Talk to your landlord about planting a garden, putting in raised beds, or keeping chickens. In this day and age, a vegetable garden is an asset to a piece of property.

11. Guerrilla Gardening. There is a fantastic fad these days to throw "seed bombs" in industrial areas, neglected properties, and other ugly urban spaces to help beautiful the area and add green life. Usually the seed bombs are non-edible flowers, but what if guerrilla gardeners planted vegetables instead? I've thought of planting random vegetable seeds and seedlings around town with the idea of letting them fend for themselves over the Summer, then returning in the Fall to possibly harvest the food. Of course, the vegetables could very well die, but then again you could actually grow a significant amount of food on property that is not yours. Be careful to plant only flower seeds in areas where the soil might be contaminated and save edible plants for areas with safer soil.

Now that I am going on my third year of urban farming, I've realized that the key to success is that there is no one solution. "Urbansteading" requires a combination of different tactics and it will probably take years to figure it out. Some years will probably be better than others. My first season, I started out slowly with one community garden plot. Last year, I had the community garden plot, a land share garden, did some wildcrafting and bartering, and helped out at a farm. This season I hope to expand my urban farming ambitions even further. Meeting people, making connections, and creating community is important. With an open mind, creativity, and some hard work, urbansteading without actually owning land can be seen as a challenge rather than a problem.

Are you an aspiring urban homesteader or farmer? Do you have your own clever ways of growing a little bit of food at home? Please share your own tips and suggestions here!

How to Freeze Fresh Herbs

2012-01-18T20:32:00.014-07:00

While fresh dill, sage, and rosemary are easy to dry, I've found that its best to freeze leafy herbs such as parsley, basil, and cilantro. Freezing is a quick and easy method of storing fresh foods. Over the course of the Summer, I picked parsley from my garden and froze a total of two gallon freezer bags full, which I'm able to use all year long in meals that call for fresh parsley. Freezing is also a great way to stock up on fresh herbs that are on sale at the store. If you purchase some basil for a recipe, but cannot use the entire bundle before it goes bad, freezing the remainder is an easy way to preserve it for future use.

I've had good success using the ice cube method. I just plop a few frozen parsley cubes into soups, sauces, and other meals that I'm cooking. I haven't tried thawing them out and using them "fresh," although a friend of mine froze cilantro via the ice cube method, then thawed the cubes, drained the water and added the cilantro to fresh salsa. She said it tasted great. My herb cubes contain about 2 tablespoons of herbs. If you're making recipes that call for specific amounts of herbs, you may want to measure the amount that your ice cube tray holds. Enjoy!

1. Wash herbs, but do not dry.

2. Chop finely.

3. Pack densely into empty ice cube tray.

4. With faucet running at a slow trickle, fill each tray cube to top with water. The leafy herbs will probably fluff above the water a bit, which is fine.

5. Place tray in freezer until frozen.

6. Pop out frozen herb cubes from tray and store in a plastic bag in the freezer.

Do you know where your water comes from?

2012-01-06T09:07:00.019-07:00

One of my favorite places to recreate in Bozeman is Sourdough Canyon, a winding dirt road that follows a creek and leads to Mystic Lake and the Gallatin Mountain Range. The road, located on National Forest Land, is closed to all motorized vehicles and being only a 10 minute drive from downtown, is a popular place to hike, run, mountain bike, horseback ride, and nordic ski. I usually venture up the canyon at least once a week, in every season.

The road is carved onto a steep mountainside and as I ride my bike or ski up and down, I often peer over the edge of the trail to Bozeman Creek down below. Since moving to Bozeman two years ago, I have known that Bozeman Creek is our city's water source, but I never thought about it too deeply. It wasn't until last week, after skiing up the canyon and taking some photos of the snow conditions and the ice-covered creek, did it really dawn upon me that the beautiful water in Bozeman Creek is the water that I drink. The crystal-clear, mountain run-off water is the very same water that I use for bathing, washing my clothes, washing the dishes, and flushing my shit.

I realized that the pristine water in Bozeman Creek is an incredible resource for people our city. It is worth protecting and preserving at all costs.

Mark and I consider ourselves to be environmentally-conscious people and try to be mindful of our water consumption. We typically run one load of laundry a week, follow a strict "If its yellow let it mellow" policy, and wash our dishes by hand because, even though we're not entirely certain, it seems to use less water than the dishwasher. We wash our car maybe once a year, if that, and don't have a lawn to water. I do, however, water two vegetable gardens, which arguably is the most practical use of fresh water. With all of my water conservation efforts, I do have one major downfall: long, hot, steamy showers. Hot showers are so relaxing and I often draw out the rather simple chore of cleaning myself to a luxurious 10 minute-long event.

Even though it feels terribly difficult, my New Year's Resolution is to take shorter showers. With the beautiful water of Bozeman Creek in mind, I will strive to consolidate my bathing experience and turn the water off while lathering my hair or shaving my legs. A shorter shower is really the least I can do to preserve Bozeman Creek. Imagine if everybody in Bozeman used as much water as they wanted and, god forbid, the creek dried up?

It would be difficult for me to get the word out, but I wish that everyone around the world would take on one simple New Year's Resolution:

Find out where your water comes from. Get online a do a quick Google search if you have to. Does your water come from a creek, a lake, or a reservoir? Does it come from underground -- from a drilled well located in your backyard or from an aquifer? How far does your water travel before it reaches your home? Does it come from the town next door or from an entirely different state?

After you've successfully located your water source (and aced your resolution, congrats!), I have two more easy assignments for you:

Do a Google image search of your water source. Find a photogragh of the creek, lake, or reservoir that your water originates from. If your water comes from underground, try to envision all of the layers of dirt and rock your water runs through before it reaches the Earth's surface or try to picture the expansiveness of the aquifer.

Visit your water source. If your water source is not too far from where you live, spend a day visiting it. Send a a beautiful afternoon picnicking along the reservoir, hiking along the creek, or swimming in the lake. While you're there, try to really connect with the fact that the water that you consume in your daily life comes from that beautiful water. If your water comes from a well, do you know where it is located on your property?

For myself, realizing that the water I use at home comes from the immaculate creek that I love to ski and bike beside caused me to reflect upon my water consumption. I only can imagine that for others, after identifying your water source, viewing a picture of it, then spending a day alongside it, you will also begin to think of your water in a new light and will be more inclined to preserve it. You could start flushing your toilet only when the contents are brown (an increasingly common water conservation practice). You could take shorter showers. You could stop watering your lawn or instead, dig up your lawn and plant a vegetable garden or an edible landscape. After identifying your water source, you may also be more diligent in conserving water during heavy rains or floods, as waste water and raw sewage often flows into lakes, creeks, or seas during high run-off periods.

Do you know where your water comes from? What do you do to help protect and preserve your water source?

Stocking the Pantry

2011-12-27T13:02:00.006-07:00

I made pancakes the other morning and was tickled to have a choice of three different homemade fruit preserves to top them with: Cherry Rhubarb Jam, Apple Butter, and Crab Apple Jelly. Since they all taste so good, I divided my big pancake into thirds and helped myself to a bit of each topping; Mark did the same. Having such a lovely assortment of homemade preserves in my cupboard (which by the way, should last until Summer), has inspired me to make a list of all of the fresh food I was able to preserve, freeze, and store this year. 2011 was my most successful year to date in terms of gardening, foraging, hunting, and preserving food then being able to keep it around for a while. I'll count it all out and try to beat this number in 2012.

1. Cherry Rhubard Jam. I purchased the all-natural sweet cherries from an orchard in Paradise Valley, Montana and combined them with locally-grown rhubard, which I acquired by bartering for my garden lettuce.

2. Apple Butter. This Fall, I rode my bike across town to a remote corner of a Middle School parking lot and filled my backpack with really good apples. I combined these with a bag of apples that I picked from the yard next door. I made the apple butter in my crockpot, which I think used less energy than doing it over the stove.

3. Crab Apple Jelly. I picked the crab apples (in the rain!) from a tree in the small park across from City Hall. Some of the jars of jelly jelled nicely, but some jars didn't and instead is a thick, sweet juice. Mark loves this juice and has been pouring in a little bit into our homemade electrolyte drinks for flavoring.

4. Dried Rose Hips. I picked a bunch of big rose hips from a bush in my alley. I still have 2 jars of rose hip "jelly" from last year, so I this year I borrowed Jennie's dehydrator and dried them. I plop one or two in my hot tea and komucha tea for a Vitamin C boost.

5. Frozen Raspberries. Mark and I picked a bunch of raspberries from our friends' bushes while they were away on vacation. I baked with most of them right away, but froze two gallon-sized freezer bags. I've been using them a handful at a time in smoothies, but we may make a dessert with them at some point. I have one bag left.

6. Frozen Service Berries. Mark and I foraged these berries from wild bushes located right in town. We picked 10 quarts and used most of them in desserts, but froze a gallon bag and have been using them in smoothies. Unfortunately, most of them are now gone.

7. Frozen Sour Cherries. I painstakingly picked 2 quarts of sour pie cherries from our friends' backyard. Even though they took hours to pick, I lucked out and didn't have to pit them because they were ripe enough for me to pick to fruit-part off of the tree, leaving the pit and stem still attached. A couple of weeks ago, I used them to make my first-ever Cherry Cheesecake. It was sinful! I have one remaining quart of cherries.

8. Frozen Parsley. I planted the parsley in Fall 2010, it survived the Winter, then grew all through Summer and Fall of 2011. Growing parsley is great because you can cut most of the sprigs off, then it grows back in. With this method, it can be harvested every other week. I continuously cut the parsley, chopped it up finely, then froze in it ice cube trays. I collected a total of two gallon bags of parsley cubes. I plop 2-5 cubes into soups, stews, and any other dish that calls for fresh parsley. At my current rate, it should last until Spring when I grow parsley again.

9. Pickled Beets. Unfortunately this Summer, my beet growing was marginal, but fortunately, other people grew an over-abundance of beets and donated them to the Food Bank. I was entirely thrilled to collect from the Bank many pounds of locally-grown beets on two different occasions, which I used to make 8 quart jars of pickled beets. Yum!

10. Beets. Like I said, I wasn't able to grow many beets this Summer but did grow enough to keep a small bag of them in the fridge. Fresh beets last a long time in the refrigerator. I actually ate roasted garden beets with dinner last night.

11. Potatoes. I was also not thrilled with my potato production this year, but managed to grow a 2 1/2-foot-cubed box-full. At our normal potato eating rate, my garden potatoes should last another month before I have to begin to buy them.

(Note: These squashes are much smaller than they appear.)

12. Winter Squashes. This year I grew New England Pie Pumpkins, Blue Hubbard Squash, and Salmon Falls River Squash. They also did not grow well, but since we usually only eat one squash a week or less, my garden squashes should last us quite a while. Jennie has also generously given me local squashes that she acquired. The pumpkin pie I made at Thanksgiving was delicious.

13. Onions. My onion production was poor this season. I did however grow enough to last me, with normal usage, through November.

14. Garlic. By far, garlic was the most productive crop at my big garden. Not only did Mark and I eat garlic scapes almost everyday for a two-week period during the Summer, I managed to dig up about 150 garlic bulbs. They are quite small because I didn't water them enough, but I still have enough to last me several more months!

15. Carrots. I grew enough carrots in my two gardens to last me until November. Not great, but not terrible, I guess.

16. Frozen Rhubarb. As mentioned earlier, I acquired a bunch of local rhubarb by bartering, then cut it up and froze it. I originally had two bulging gallon bags of rhubarb, then used one bag in the Cherry Rhubarb Jam. I now have one gallon bag left, which I'll use in desserts at some point.

17. Red Cabbage. I grew four red cabbages in my garden this year, which last in the refrigerator in plastic bags for months. I use small amounts of red cabbage at a time in salads and stir-fries. My garden cabbages will last until January before I have to begin buying them at the store.

18. Fermented Sauerkraut. I combined green cabbages from my garden with locally-grown cabbages acquired from the Food Bank to make a gallon jar full of homemade fermented sauerkraut. I think I made enough this year to last me until next season.

19. Frozen Venison. Mark killed two deer this year and butchered them himself (Blog about hunting coming soon). Now that we have drastically reduced our meat consumption, we hope to stretch out the venison until next Fall. We had to buy a deep freezer to accommodate the venison, but we believe it to be a good investment as we hope to continue to store meat, fruit, and veggies in it for years to come.

20. Canned Tomatoes. I acquired about 10 pounds of overly-ripe, organic, locally-grown tomatoes from the Food Bank. I spent an evening cooking them down and canning them. It only made 4 quarts, which I used up quickly. It was an interesting experiment because it really showed that I'd need to grow and can LOTS of tomatoes in order to continue eating crushed tomatoes at our regular rate.

21. Radishes. I grew a lot of French Breakfast Radishes in both of my gardens this year. Since radishes germinate and grow best in cooler weather, I harvested hundreds of them in early Summer, but grew none the rest of the season. Mark and I certainly couldn't eat hundreds of radishes all at once, so I washed, dried, then stored them in a sealed plastic bag in fridge. This way, I was able to add radish to our salads all Summer long.

22. Frozen Green Beans. About a third of my Community Garden Plot this year was bush beans, so when I left for Montana for three weeks just as the beans were ready to pick, I was afraid I was going to sacrifice the crop. Fortunately, my friend, Jennie, tended the garden while I was gone and I encouraged her eat as much as possible so that none of the garden veggies would go to waste. Jennie said that the bush beans were so prolific that she was able to eat lots of fresh beans, freeze some for herself, and even freeze a two gallon freezer bag full for me. I'm so lucky that she did this for me as I'll be able to put a handful of garden beans into my soups and stir-fries for months to come.

23. Frozen Zucchini. Raw zucchini can be shredded, bagged, and stored in the freezer. The frozen zucchini can then be added to zucchini bread, soups, sauces, etc. This is a great way to use up zucchini because it takes away the mystery of how to use it and also adds a secret vegetable to many meals.

So, that's twenty-three different foods that I was able to put away for future use. Most only lasted a few months, but some will last the whole year. I am worlds away from self-sufficiency, but for now, I am happy to see any sort of savings in food and to be able to eat at least one local organic food everyday, all year long.

I know that some of my regular readers have done some canning, gardening, and storing of their own. How many different varieties of food were you able to put away, at least for a little while? Did you make any exciting canned goods? What was your bumper crop or acquired food that will last you the longest?

Giant Mutant Parsnip

2011-12-11T14:09:00.003-07:00

Before the rest of this giant parsnip is used up in stews, I feel I should pay homage to this mutant vegetable by taking photos and blogging about its enormity.

Four parsnip plants unintentionally grew in my garden this past Spring. I had planted the parsnip in the Summer of 2010, however, the seeds did not germinate that Summer and instead decided to make their presence in 2011. The plants were as big as bushes and I had to pull all but one to make room for other vegetables in my small, 100 square-foot plot. Even though the three that I pulled had very small roots, I decided to leave one parsnip in for the summer as a experiment to see if its root might grow into an edible size.

Oh, did it grow. I was shocked when I began digging it out in October. It was so deep and large that it took nearly half an hour to uproot. Its circumference at its top is 14 inches and it was originally over 2 feet long. The above photo is only the top portion of the root; I've been gradually chopping away pieces of it to use in soups and stews. The most amazing feature of this freak parsnip is that it actually tastes good. I would figure that a parsnip almost 4x larger than normal would taste woody and bitter, but it instead tastes sweet and tender. I'm glad I left it in!

In other gardening news, I just put in my 2012 seed order to FedCo. In addition to my ordinary vegetable preferences, I hope to grow a number of different vegetables that I've never grown before: celery, sorrel, lovage, hot peppers, patty pans, sugar snap peas, delicata squash, and a few "alternative" greens that are in categories of their own. I also plan to make a better effort this Summer in growing tomatoes. Tomatoes have historically been a weak point for me and especially now that I am gardening in Montana, I am skeptical that the are worthy of the space and effort. I do, however, see people all over town growing superior-looking tomatoes and I guess I'll just have to join the masses and buy a dozen Walls of Water. Unfortunately, it seems that the key to growing tomatoes in the heart of the Rocky Mountains is a lot of plastic. Also to hopefully ensure my tomato success, I plan on starting the seedlings indoors in January. This will help to save money since large tomato seedlings bought from a greenhouse cost $5 and up.

By the way, parsnip seeds did make it into my 2012 FedCo order. I'm excited for the new gardening season!

When life hands you lemons...

2011-12-06T19:28:00.011-07:00

Make lemonade. Upon hearing this saying, most of us of course think of its allegorical meaning: Make the best of what you've got or Make some positive out of something negative. But what if we rethink of this figure of speech in more a literal, food-related way?

In this day and age of global economics and cheap transportation, we can eat tomatoes and watermelon during the winter, oranges in Alaska, Spanish wine in Montreal, fresh tuna in Kansas, and bananas in Norway. In most Western supermarkets, you can purchase any food item you want, any time of year. Making a recipe that calls for limes, jicama, srtiped sea bass, and persimmon? No problem. Want to make a fresh salad in the dead of winter made with tomatoes, cucumbers, Greek olives, and feta? You can have that, too. Maybe an allegory for the new millennium should be: When life hands you beans, make lemonade anyway.

For those of us who are striving to eat fresh, local, naturally-produced foods, we find that its only possible to make lemonade when we actually have lemons. And although making meals only with ingredients that you have on hand can be difficult at times, it can also be a fun challange. With the popular Community Supported Agriculture movement, CSA members choose to pay a lump sum of money up front to local farmer in exchange for weekly boxes filled with fruits and vegetables that are ripe and ready to pick that week. CSA members can't choose what vegetables they want in their box; if you want to eat tomatoes, but it is early Spring, you're out of luck. A CSA member may receive a box full of bok choi, sorrel, daikon radish, and tarragon one week and may get green beans, lettuce, and cucumbers another. It can be baffling to get a box full of bok choi and daikon radish, but the challenge is rewarding after you've created a new and exciting dinner.

Another method of challenging yourself to cook with what's on hand is to go as long as possible without running off to the supermarket. Most folks have non-perishable food in their cupboards that has been sitting, unused for quite some time. When my fridge and pantry starts to look empty, I find that I still have a lot of food on hand. What could I make for dinner with quinoa, polenta, a can of beans, frozen zucchini, and broccoli stumps? With a bit a creativity, I've often made delicious meals with misfit ingredients.

In an effort to save money on food and to be more resourceful in general, I've been making weekly trips to my local Food Bank. My friend, Jennie, introduced me to this idea. The Food Bank in my town has a section that is open to the public and anybody, regardless of their economic status, is encouraged to take as much food as they want. Local businesses donate huge amounts of food that they over-ordered or is slightly expired. There is often so much perishable food that regular Food Bank recipients can't take it all and it is offered to the public in hopes that it will be eaten before it spoils. Every week I find different foods and every week I find at least one organic option (which is generally the type of food I choose to take). Among the more exciting foods I've taken for free: locally baked bread made from organic Montana wheat, fresh organic herbs, organic milk & cream, overly ripe bananas (great for freezing and using in smoothies), lemons and limes, a pomegranate, and a plethora of fresh vegetables donated by local farms and gardeners.

This week from the Food Bank, I took 2 quarts of Organic Valley buttermilk that expired a few days ago, several loaves of locally-baked artisan bread made with organic flour, and a dozen leeks, so small and beautiful that I can only assume they're from nearby CSA farm. I need to use the buttermilk quickly before it actually does expire, so I made buttermilk waffles for breakfast. But what could I make for dinner that calls for buttermilk, leeks, and bread? How about Buttermilk Stratta with Mushrooms and Leeks! I had never even heard of stratta before, but a Google search helped me find a recipe that used ingredients I have on hand. I'll certainly be making a stratta again. Its easier to make than a quiche and tastes like milky homemade stuffing.

Winter has settled into Bozeman, Montana and gardening ended months ago, yet I am still able to eat meals made with all local, "fresh" ingredients. Last week I made an excellent venison stew in the crockpot. It was made with venison (from a deer that Mark killed), potatoes and hubbard squash from my garden, CSA sunchokes that my employer gave me, CSA celeriac that Jennie gave me, and carrots, parsnip, and leeks that I got from the Food Bank (which I believe to be from a local farm). The only non-local ingredients were spices and crushed tomatoes from a can.

Around the world, we are seeing food prices escalate. The main reasons for the "record level" food prices are low crop yields due to climate volatility (aka global warming), higher production and transportation expenses due to rising oil prices, less corn due to its use in biofuel production, the rapidly growing world population (7 billion now, eek!), and artificial manipulation of food economics and distribution due to politics and capitalism. Not to be pessimistic, but it is likely in the foreseeable future that we will go to the supermarket looking to buy a tomato, but won't buy it because its too expensive. Or, as is also possible, we won't buy a tomato because there are none to buy.

Feeling depressed by this thought? Just remember, When life hands you lemons... However, since most of us don't live in Florida, the allegory can be revised to fit you, where ever you live. In Montana, the new saying is: When life hands you venison and potatoes, make a stew.

The beauty of the lemonade saying is that it can be interpreted figuratively or literally. Whether you choose to eat only local foods that are in season or you are waiting until the day when you can no longer buy tomatoes, persimmon, and sea bass (or a combination of both, like me), it is important to look on the bright side. There is no reason to panic if you can't eat a tomato, because if you're smart and resourceful, you can still come up with a delicious and nourishing meal.

Have you found yourself being more creative in the kitchen when you have limited food to cook with? Is the thought of going without tomatoes frightening or are you up for the challenge? What do you do when life hands you lemons?

Community Garden Spotlighted in Organic Gardening Magazine

2011-12-02T09:33:00.004-07:00

In this month's edition of Organic Gardening Magazine, a small article about Bozeman, Montana was published in the "Destinations" travel section. I was excited to see a short blurb and photo of the new City Hall Community Garden. I was asked to participate in a photo shoot for Organic Gardening last Spring and although none of the close-up photos of me working in my garden were included in the magazine, you can kind of see me in the background; I'm wearing a yellow shirt.

This article is one of of the many times this new Community Garden has been highlighted in the news. A local TV station covered the Garden when it was first being built and the local paper wrote a story after the Community Garden won a Beautification Award. Its inspiring to see news sources consider community gardening to be "newsworthy." This indicates that more and more people are interested in local gardening and want to hear about gardening-related stories.

I love that gardening has become a "green trend," but I hope to see it become no longer a trend, but a commonality. Have you seen more stories about local foods, community gardening, etc covered by your local news sources?

Occupy Everywhere

2011-11-27T17:02:00.008-07:00

"What I find exciting is the idea that the solutions to the ecological crisis can be the solutions to the economic crisis, and that we stop seeing these as two problems to be pitted against each other by savvy politicians, but that we see them as a ... single crisis, born of a single root, which is unrestrained corporate greed" -Naomi Klein

Hello blog world. Although I haven't posted in a while, I've been reading and watching a lot of news as usual, signing petitions on MoveOn.org, and been keeping a close watch on the various Occupy Wall Street movements across the country. Michael Moore says that the Occupy movement is "one of the most remarkable movements that I’ve seen in my lifetime" and I agree that these recent events have renewed my hope for all environmental, economic, and political concerns.

If you have 45 minutes to spare and are interested in learning about the "Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power," I strongly suggest that you watch The Nation's panel discussion aired by Democracy Now. It is an inspiring discussion featuring Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, and others. I was particularly excited to hear Ms. Klein share news that "the White House announced that it is going to have a new environmental review for the Keystone XL pipeline. That review is going to take at least a year. And the company that wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada, has said that it can’t handle another delay, that their investors will lose faith." The XL pipeline is an extremely upsetting environmental concern of mine. Even President Obama himself said that "Climatologist, Jim Hansen at NASA, says that if we tap the tar sands heavily, it’s game over for the climate."

Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to join Bozeman's small Occupations (only three small rallies that I know of), but I continue to protest in my own ways: shopping locally as much as possible, limiting my consumption of corporate goods, keeping my money in a small, local bank, and trying to live simply. I've also been posting relevant articles and petitions on Facebook, but I never get any replies.

Have you participated in an Occupy rally? What are your feelings on this movement? How do you protest in your own way?

Wildcrafting 101

2011-10-16T12:26:00.001-06:00

"Wildcrafting is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, or 'wild' habitat, for food or medicinal purposes. It applies to uncultivated plants wherever they are found, and is not necessarily limited to wilderness areas." -Wikipedia

I had always just called it 'picking berries,' but I learned recently that the act of gathering food in an uncultivated setting is actually called wildcrafting. Of course, humans have been wildcrafting since the dawn of our existence and only in the last century have Westerners forgotten their hunter/gatherer roots. Wildcrafting is now gaining a resurgence in popularity as people are searching for cheaper and healthier foods that are independent of the modern, corporate agricultural system. With rising food costs and an impending food crisis, it is important to scope out wildcrafting sources now in preparation for our uncertain future.

With an open mind and a bit of exploring, urbanites, suburanites, and country folk alike can find wildcrafting opportunities close to home. Although the official definition of wildcrafting includes only uncultivated plants, I consider cultivated plants that are abandoned or unmaintained to be worthy wildcrafting foods. City parks, peoples' yards, streets, near businesses, and uninhabited industrial areas are only a few of the urban spots to find cultivated or wild foods. Since moving to Bozeman, I've been having fun searching both in town and out in the mountains for free edible foods. Last Fall I picked wild rose hips as well as cultivated rose hips from a rosebush in a back alley then made rose hip sauce (high in vitamin C). I plan to pick more soon from the alley bush and dry them for making tea.

When a friend left on vacation during the height of raspberry season, I jumped on her invitation to pick from her bushes. She does nothing to maintain the bushes and the bushes weren't mine, so I consider the 8+ quarts that I picked to be wildcrafted. I also painstakingly picked 2 quarts of sour cherries from a tree in her yard. I froze them and plan to make a cherry dessert sometime this winter. There are sour cherry trees in peoples' yards all over town that I noticed were totally unpicked. If I didn't have my friend's tree to pick from, I think I would ask to pick from someone else's tree and I hardly doubt that they'd mind.

Bozeman has an extensive off-road running/biking path and I've spotted hops, chokecherries, asparagus, and service berries along the sides of the trails. This one popular in-town hill with a running trail on it was loaded this Summer with service berries. I thought that they were huckleberries at first, but was informed that they were service berries (they also go by many other names). We picked about 10 quarts and made two desserts and froze the rest for using in smoothies. Its pretty cool that these delicious berries grow on public land within walking distance of my apartment. Check out that incredible view from our service berry picking spot- that's the public library and the Bridger Mountains in the background.

When I went to Maine for vacation this August, I got back to my original wildcrafting roots. Up at the lake where my family's summer home is located, there were still lots of wild, high bush blueberries ready to be picked. In all of my years of living up there, I had never picked blueberries so late in the Summer, so Mark and I lucked out. We slowly canoed around the lake shore and stoped to pick blueberries from the boat. We also picked a ton of wild blackberries, which grow along the logging roads and in old cut areas of forest. We found one blackberry patch that seemed to go on forever. I'd never seen so many blackberries before.

Now back in Bozeman, I am engulfed in apple season. There are crab apples all around town, many in public places or beside businesses where nobody would mind if they were picked. I picked a big bag from a tree in a park across from City Hall and made my first ever crab apple jelly. Unfortunately, the jelly didn't quite jell and instead is a thick, sweet juice that I've been pouring into smoothies. There are tons of apple trees around town. I picked a bunch from a tree in an obscure corner of a school yard and plan to make apple butter soon. If I hadn't found this source, I think I may have mustered up the courage to ask a neighbor if I could pick the apples from their tree. I see so many apple trees in peoples' yards where the apples just fall to the ground and rot. If I were to ask first, I bet homeowners would let me pick from their trees.

My wildcrafting experiences have been a lot of fun and I am motivated to find new places and types of food to gather. Maybe I'll try picking elderberries and choke cherries next year and make jam. What other types of edible foods are growing in Bozeman or in the woods that I don't even know about? Its exciting to think about and research.

Have you ever wildcrafted? Is there a fruit or nut tree near you that you're tempted to pick from? What types of free, edible foods grow in your area?

A Surprise Upon Returning

2011-09-13T20:16:00.011-06:00

Hello blog world. I've returned to Montana after my three-week vacation in Maine. Aside from being unaccustomed to the fog and high humidity, I had a great time visiting friends and family. I visited many of my favorite Maine places and had the opportunity to go sailing, kayaking, snorkeling, and swimming. I spent some time in the countryside visiting Mark's parents and sister's family. Together, then run a small, organic farm and live as sustainably as possible. I helped out on the farm by picking veggies, gathering roosters, and harvesting pears. Mark helped out by splitting firewood.

Mark and I went up to my family's camp, which is on a lake in Northeastern Maine. We picked about 8 quarts of highbush, lakeside blueberries and 8 quarts of blackberries. It was an exceptional berry year up there and Mark and I baked three pies, one berry strudel, and many blueberry muffins and pancakes. The desserts went over very well at the big family get-together, which was at Mark's family's camp, located on the ocean near Harpswell. We were fortunate to be able to stay at that camp for a few days as well as at our friend's camp, which is on the ocean in Tenant's Harbor (location/camp in the background where I am canoeing in the heading picture for this blog!). For those of you non-Mainers, a summer home or cabin is called a "camp" in Maine; most families, regardless of socioeconomic status, have one either on the ocean or a lake.

Our last few days in Maine were cold and rainy, so we were both glad to return to Sunny Montana. While I was gone, I knew that my Community Garden was in excellent hands as my pottery friend, Jennie, was looking after it for me. I was eager, however, to see how my big garden was doing since it was on the automatic watering system and was left to fend for itself. My heart sank when I showed up to the site.
Dead. Dried up and dead. Everything but the squashes. I first noticed that the hose that connected from the faucet to the drip hoses had been pulled up from under the bed of straw. Then I checked the faucet and saw that it was closed shut. Someone had turned off the water.

This was a gardener's worst nightmare- having your garden, that you've nurtured all summer, die from thirst. Since the automatic watering system had worked, undisturbed, for two months, I assumed that it would continue to function while I was gone. I can understand if someone needed to use the hose for washing their bike or something, but I do not understand why they did not reconnect the watering system when they were finished. Especially since I posted a polite note next to the faucet with my phone number. I felt shocked and upset. I felt like there was no hope for humanity.

Anyway, not long after leaving the dead garden, I received an uplifting call from Jennie. She wanted to meet me at the Community Garden to see if she did an ok job taking care of it. Did she ever! My Community Garden plot looked green and lush, plus Jennie adorned me with gifts. She had saved a big cornucopia of veggies for me and had even dried herbs and frozen green beans. Her responsibility and thoughtfulness helped me to feel not so bad about the disrespect that occurred at the big garden. Maybe there is hope for humanity after all. Jennie enjoyed her trips to the garden so much that she has put her name on the waiting list to acquire a plot for next year. She is even thinking of transforming her front lawn into a vegetable garden. So, although my time away resulted a one dead garden, at least I helped inspire a new gardener.

Mark and I went back to the dead garden a few days later armed with shovels to see if we could salvage any food from the desiccated earth. We unburied about 3 pounds each of onions, beets, and carrots, as well as 30 pounds of new potatoes. All were small and stunted, but luckily were not dried up nor rotten. The cabbages had already died long before from cabbage worm, but I did pull up a few fennel plants. This by no means was a great yield, but at least it wasn't a total loss.

Mark, the realist that he is, said that the big garden was off to a bad start anyway. In retrospect, I have to agree. When we first tilled the soil in Fall 2010, the soil was rock hard and full of stones. There was only less than 6 inches of top soil before we hit the rock layer, which we couldn't penetrate at all. A load of composted manure was also added that Fall. In the Spring, we found the soil as rock hard and barren as it had been in the Fall. This should have been our first big clue. We tilled it again, added more compost, then I planted it in. When we dug up the root crops last week, the soil was, yet again, as rock hard as ever. It is extremely poor soil with no organic matter for fluffing it up and retaining moisture. I probably would have had a poor yield of vegetables even if someone hadn't turned off the water.

Although I'm not sure if I want to garden there again next year (can I trust the neighbors?), Mark has already devised a plan that will hopefully result in more productive growing. Instead of filling in the entire 400 square feet with a "field farming" style, we will create 3 or 4 raised beds. We will dig up the topsoil in between the beds and add it to the beds, so that each bed will contain 12 inches of topsoil rather than 6. This will reduce the total amount of planting space, but will give the plants' roots more soil depth before they hit the rock layer. This will also allow me to focus my attention on the raised beds to make sure that they are adequately watered and weeded. Just in case I do garden there again, I have begun adding my kitchen scraps directly to one of the raised beds that we already created. Every time I go over there to dump the scraps, I dig hole in the bed, fill it up with scraps, and cover it with soil. This material should compost and integrate into the soil by next Spring. Also, I will cover the raised beds with straw and leaves this Fall, so that hopefully, weeds will not be able to grow next year.

With gardening, I'm learning more every year. It's a labor of love.

A Meat Eater's Guide to Eating Less Meat

2011-08-13T20:25:00.006-06:00

I'm living proof that an old dog can learn new tricks. If you had told me a few years ago that I would be eating vegetarian meals most of the week, I would not have believed you. Like so many Americans, I grew up believing that meat is an important part of a healthy, daily diet. The Atkins fad had the populous convinced that eating meat at every meal kept your metabolism high and your BMI low. As an athlete, I believed that the caloric and protein density of meat was a necessity for building muscle and recovering from tough workouts. However, now that my partner, Mark, and I have been eating less meat for almost a year, we are just as fit and healthy as ever. A lower meat diet has become routine.

People choose to reduce their meat consumption or become vegetarian for many different reasons: ethical, environmental, health, fiscal, etc. I decided to begin eating less meat for a combination of reasons. Because of ethical, environmental, and health concerns, I am striving to limit my consumption of factory farm meat. I am trying to eat only all-natural, local, humanely-raised meat, which is generally more expensive than factory-raised meat. So, because of financial limitations, I am choosing to eat less, but better quality meat.

After over 20 years of a high daily intake of meat, it wasn't easy at first to reduce of my consumption. Vegetarianism was new and boggling to me. Mark and I have prepared great and not so great vegetarian meals. There were and still are days when I think it would just be easiest to stick a chicken in the oven, but in the end, we are both happy with our decision to eat less meat. As a meat eater myself, I hope I can help other meat eaters with their goal to eat less meat. Here are my tips:

1. Start Slowly. If you're accustomed to eating meat daily, be easy on yourself and don't jump into vegetarianism too quickly. You can still eat meat daily, just reduce your meat quantities or prepare recipes that 'spread out' the meat. For example, if you usually make pasta sauce with a pound of ground beef, use a half a pound of beef instead. Rather than eating a whole chicken breast in one sitting, make a large pot of chicken soup that 'spreads out' the chicken breast into many servings. Instead of eating an entire steak with potatoes on the side, make beef stew so that the same amount of meat is eaten over several meals, rather than just one.

2. Don't try anything drastic at first. If you generally prefer to eat the same types of foods over and over, stick with your regular diet at first. Jumping into a drastically different, vegetarian diet could be frustrating and discouraging. If you like to eat spaghetti or lasagna with meat sauce, prepare these dishes the same as you always have, just omit the meat. If you regularly eat burritos with meat, beans, rices, and cheese, eat the same burritos, but without the meat.

3. Add extra beans, nuts, and seeds. If you've successfully omitted meat from your daily cooking, but aren't sure how to get enough protein into your diet, eat some extra beans, nuts, and seeds. If you eat meatless pasta or homemade pizza for dinner, top your side salad with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and kidney beans. When making a sandwich without the cold-cuts, spread some hummus on the bread for a protein boost. Instead of having bacon for breakfast, eat a bowl of yogurt topped with seedy, nutty granola. Rather than grabbing a bag of beef jerky at the convenience store, grab a packet of peanuts.

4. Try meat substitutes. Meat eaters crave the caloric density and thick consistency of meat, but tofu and tempeh can help to satisfy these cravings. If you regularly prepare stir-fry or curry with chicken and vegetables, replace the chicken with tofu. Rather than eating a piece of steak with vegetables and potatoes on the side, eat a slice of grilled tempeh instead of steak.

5. Branch out and be open-minded. If you're beginning to tire from your ordinary meatless meals or you are compensating too much cheese and bread for calories that used to be from meat (this happened to me), it's time to branch out. Try some new vegetarian recipes. There are a plethora of great vegetarian cookbooks and websites out there and if you are open-minded, you'll end up finding some very satisfying meals. Remember, there may be failures with any new recipe, with meat or without. If some vegetarian meals don't come out to your liking, just keep trying.

6. Find support. When I first started reducing my meat consumption and preparing vegetarian meals, I was totally lost. I reached out to my vegetarian friends for recipe ideas and advice. If you're perplexed or unconvinced about eating less meat, find a support system. There are many internet forums and blogs where you can connect with vegetarians or other meat-eating folks that are in the same boat.

7. Don't be a meatless martyr. If you went five days without eating meat, but now you're really craving a big, juicy steak, go for it. If you want steak again on the seventh night, that's fine too. By being too strict with your diet and not satisfying certain cravings, you may end up totally dropping your ambition to eat less meat. In my opinion, 2 meals of meat during the week is a huge improvement over 7 meals of meat.

Are you a vegetarian or have you reduced your meat consumption? What has worked for you?

How to Make a Cherry Pitter

2011-08-10T19:22:00.006-06:00

After spending almost two hours pitting cherries this morning, I'm ready to embark on a long evening of cherry-rhubarb jam making. I purchased 18 pounds of all-natural, non-sprayed cherries from an orchard in Paradise Valley, Montana. When I made cherry jam last Summer, it took me about 4 hours to pit 18 pounds of cherries because I did not have the proper tool. I used a small knife, which was wasteful and tedious. This year, rather than buying a $25 kitchen-grade cherry pitter or using the knife again, I bought a 15 cent fork from the thrift store.

To make a 15 cent cherry pitter, you will need a chintzy, easily bendable fork. With pliers, bend the outer two sprongs of the fork all the way back. Bend the tops of the two inner sprongs a quarter of the way down forward so that they form a hook. The inner two sprongs/hook is inserted into the cherries behind the pit and the hook pulls out the pit. Here is the YouTube video where I learned how to make this cheap and easy pitter.

Gardening Galore

2011-07-27T18:13:00.004-06:00

Hi all. I thought I'd share a few pictures of my gardens are looking so far. I have two gardens this year: my 96 sqft Community Garden plot and my new 400 sqft land share plot.

The Community Garden is only a 5 minute walk from my apartment, so I'm using it more as a "kitchen garden" with plants that need to be picked more frequently or need more maintenance. The above photo was taken a week and a half ago and everything has grown so much since then. This is an exciting time of year when vegetable plants seem to double overnight. My basil plants (right) are growing in beautifully. This is the best basil I've ever grown. The cabbages (left) were off to a great start, but now have signs of cabbage worms. I'm not sure if there is an organic solution that will effectively kill the worms.

I'm also growing small amounts of snow peas, scallions, kale, beets, carrots, parsley, cilantro, spinach, arugula, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, dill, fennel, two tomatoes, a lot of bush beans, and I'm trying the potato box again. There were four parsnips that were already growing in the garden this Spring. I had planted them last season, but they didn't come up then. I pulled all but one of them because they were as big as bushes and were crowding out the other plants. The three that I pulled had very small parsnip roots- not big enough for eating. I'm leaving the last one in (left) as an experiment; maybe it's root will beef up over the Summer.

My new land share plot has been a lot of work to get ready. I met a woman on a hike last Fall and she happened to mention that she had a rental property with an old, abandoned garden on it. She offered to let me garden there for free (water included) as long as I use drip irrigation hoses for watering. The garden is 400 sqft and is located on the other side of town from my neighborhood, about 15 minutes by bike. Mark and I tilled the soil and added a truck load of compost last Fall, but the whole garden had to be re-tilled again this Spring. The soil, unfortunately, is of very poor quality. It compacts easily, is light brown and rocky, and does not retain moisture well. It is also full of weeds. I think it will take years of adding compost before the soil will be especially fertile. Last Fall, Mark and I dismantled the crappy, old fence that was around the garden and put up a new, much better one this Spring. We used all reclaimed materials that were buried in a junk pile in back of the apartment building.
Since this garden is further away from my house, I planted it mostly with lower maintenance crops that will be ready to harvest around the same time in the Fall. It's my "root cellar garden." One of the apartment tenants is gardening in about 50 sqft of my new garden and my remaining 350 sqft is full of garlic (which I dug up on Monday), beets, carrots, fennel, cabbages, fingerling and California white potatoes, pumpkins, blue hubbard squash, and salmon falls river squash. There are also a few peas, tomatoes, zucchini, sunflowers, and calendula stuck in there. Cilantro and mustard greens self-seeded throughout the garden, an unintentional gift from a previous gardener. I'm letting them flower and go to seed again, since that's how they got here.

The photos don't do my new garden justice as it just looks like a jungle of green, but I'm quite proud of it. It is certainly an aesthetic improvement to the property. I think the prayer flags that I made are a nice touch. The automatic watering timer that I purchased and set up is working, however I only purchased two 100 drip foot hoses for the entire 400 sqft. The timer and hoses were expensive, but I should have bought at least two more drip hoses. The slow drip of the hoses allows water to soak deep into the soil, but only directly were the hoses are. Many areas of my garden where the hoses aren't laying are totally dry. I am concerned that I am growing small, puny onions and beets because they aren't being watered enough.

"Abundant sunshine" is the indefinite weather forecast here in Montana. Hopefully a few hail-free thunderstorms will come by to help water the gardens.

Quick Energy Saving Tip: Baked Potatoes

2011-07-25T21:29:00.004-06:00

Here's an easy way to get a little more use from your oven while its on: bake potatoes.

I learned this trick from a good friend of mine back in Maine. He's a clever guy on a low income who, like so many Mainers, heats his kitchen with the heat from his oven. Most Maine homes and apartments are old, inefficient, and are heated with old furnaces. Since the furnaces inefficiently burn a lot of expensive heating oil, it is very common for folks to hunker down in their kitchens for the Winter to be closer to the woodstove or oven. Some people even move their bed into the kitchen during the colder months and cover the doorways to the other rooms with thick blankets. This may seem extreme, but I've known so many people back in Maine who survive the winter this way.

When my friend turns on his oven to bake bread or pizza (and warm himself up) he needs to be as efficient with his energy usage as possible. So, he sticks raw potatoes on the bottom shelf of the oven and bakes them. He does this every time the oven is on. My friend then eats the already baked potatoes throughout the week. Since potatoes take a while to cook, this is a great energy conservation method. Also, more nutrients are retained in a baked potato than in a boiled potato.

Mark and I have copied our friend's trick and frequently bake potatoes when the oven is on. The potatoes bake perfectly fine without tin foil, fork punctures, or being rubbing in olive olive. We just stick them in, skins and all, and bake them for however long the oven happens to be on. We usually use them in the morning for easy skillet homefries. Baked potatoes make quick and really delicious homefries. We also bring baked potatoes with us on camping trips to make homefries over our mini propane camp stove. It is especially important to save fuel while camping.

Do you have any quick energy saving tips to share with us?

Homemade Fruit Popsicles

2011-07-19T15:34:00.009-06:00

Its hot outside. Cool yourself off with a homemade popsicle!

Last Summer, I was commuting by bike to a week long dogsitting gig on the other side of town. It was hot and sticky, I was tired... I opened the dog owner's freezer and found a box of "all natural" popsicles. I honestly don't think I'd eaten a popsicle since I was a kid; I guess I've been missing out all of these years because, damn, popsicles are good!

By the end of the week I had eaten the entire box and felt like I should buy the dogowners a new one. I was astonished by how pricey the popsicles were- almost $6 for half a dozen. This is why I never buy prepackaged, ready to eat foods: they are expensive and create a lot of waste. From that box of popsicles, I threw away 6 wooden sticks, 6 plastic wrappers, and a box. Also, even the 100% fruit popsicles have added mystery ingredients. They're not as healthy as they could be.

I wanted to continue eating popsicles, so I started making my own. I purchased two plastic molds with plastic sticks that each hold four popsicles. I wasn't thrilled to be buying more plastic, but the molds can be reused indefinitely. When making the juice for the popsicle, I never follow a recipe, but just use whatever fruits I have on hand. I blend fruit together with my immersion blender, then pour the liquid into the molds and stick them in the freezer. Some popsicles come out better than others. Here are some tricks I've learned:

1. Use basically all of the same ingredients you'd use in a smoothie, except omit the yogurt, milk, and water. Milk and water give the popsicle a not so pleasant, icy texture. In other words, make the popsicle from all fruit and vegetables.

2. For some reason, frozen juice tastes less sweet than when its in its liquid form, so make the popsicle sweeter than you think you need to. I make my popsicles sweeter by adding 1/2 teaspoon of my homemade Electrolyte Powder Mix to the juice blend. This electrolyte mix is sugar-free and contains stevia for sweetness and potassium chloride and sea salt for electrolytes. Having electrolytes in your popsicle is important on a hot, sweaty day.

3. Add a few spoonfuls of frozen juice concentrate to your fruit blend. The fruit concentrate helps to heighten the sweet, fruity flavor, but does not add the extra water that reconstituted fruit juice has. The frozen concentrate also improves the texture of the popsicle. Be sure to check the labels carefully as many frozen concentrates contain added sugar and high fructose corn syrup. The concentrate containers, unfortunately, are thrown out or recycled, but I can make many batches of popsicles from one container.

4. Keep experimenting! Try adding a handful of kale to the blend or add whatever fresh fruits are in season. Frozen fruits are also great to add.

The popsicle in the photo above was a particularly good blend. It was made of fresh kiwi, fresh honeydew melon, electrolyte mix, a splash of lime juice, and white grape frozen juice concentrate. Another favorite blend: seedless watermelon, fresh kiwi or strawberries, cranberry juice concentrate, a splash of lemon juice, and a handful of dried gogi berries.

Have fun and stay cool!

Let's trade!

2011-07-13T13:02:00.004-06:00

"Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, such as when the currency may be either unstable or simply unavailable for conducting commerce."- Wikipedia

During these economically unstable times, when work is difficult to find and personal budgets are tight, more and more folks are finding themselves bartering for needed goods and services. Although trading is an age-old practice that is still common in many parts of the U.S., I've only recently reaped its benefits. In Maine, where I grew up, it is very common to strike up trading deals. I remember in college being surprised to hear from my mother that even her law firm bartered regularly; they would trade legal services for getting their building painted, for plumbing work, and for antique furniture used to decorate the offices.

This Spring, when I found myself with an overabundance of garden lettuce that miraculously survived the winter, I posted an ad on Craigslist- "Trade Garden Lettuce for Fresh Rhubarb." I don't have a rhubarb plant, but had been eying the many over-growing rhubarb plants around town. I received a number of responses and ended up making some great "transactions." In addition to making several rhubarb-blackberry crisps a la mode, I also now have two big bags of cut rhubarb in my freezer. I plan on making Montana cherry jam again this summer and will use the rhubarb with the cherries to create more volume. In addition to being very high in calcium, rhubarb has the unique quality of taking on the flavor of whatever you mix it with.

I also traded lettuce on a more casual level. Our neighbor out back has occasionally been giving us fresh duck eggs, so I thought I'd return the favor by giving him lettuce. Lots of lettuce, actually; he received many big bags. Two big bags also went to the married couple that I nanny for. In exchange, they gave me rhubarb from their backyard as well as wild oyster mushrooms that they had gathered in the woods. I had so much lettuce at one point that I was desperately giving it to friends, neighbors, and even a stranger.

I have not only been trading my goods, but I've also been trading my services. I have been 'volunteering' about five hours a week at a local, organic CSA farm. In exchange for my labor out in the fields, I get to take whatever produce is available to pick (in moderation, of course). So far, I've brought home lettuce, tarragon, pea shoots, spinach, swiss chard, bok choi, and asparagus. It has been a fun experience to learn more about organic gardening and to see how larger-scale agriculture operates. Plus, I've met some great people and had interesting conversations about food politics.

After my successful Craigslist lettuce trading experiences, I decided to respond to an ad stating, "Trade Pottery for Veggies." The ad had a link to the potter's Etsy site so I could check out her pottery first. I absolutely love her style of pottery. In fact, I've always wished to have a full set of handmade, earthy dishes like she makes. I called her up and turns out, she only lives two blocks up the street from me. Jennie and I have been meeting weekly and I've given her excess lettuce, parsley, beet greens, and kale from my garden. We've found out that we actually have a lot in common and have been hanging out some; she's an alternative gal that's about my age and also from New England. She made four beautiful bowls especially for me, which I received yesterday. She has also generously given me a kombucha baby, fingerling seed potatoes, and soil (from her work place) that I've been dumping in my potato box.

Yesterday, Jennie and I went strawberry picking together at a local farm. She heard from a friend that the farm offered a work/trade deal where you can pick in exchange for free fruit and veggies. I knew that local strawberries are very expensive, so I called the farm first to make sure that they did, in fact, offer such a deal. They said they did, so we drove over there in the evening and each picked 10 pounds of strawberries. We met the super friendly farmer who kept 10 pounds for himself. Jennie and I each came home with 5 free pounds of fresh, local berries. What a great deal! Otherwise, 5 lbs of berries would have cost $18. The farmer invited us to come back again, so we have tentative plans to pick free strawberries again next Tuesday.

Jennie is a very resourceful gal and a bartering pro. After the strawberry picking, we drove down the street to the local Food Bank. I'm on a tight budget, but thankfully I haven't resorted yet to food stamps or taking handouts from the Food Bank. Jennie assured me, however, that the food bank workers encourage anyone to stop by and pick up certain excess foods. The excess foods being, unfortunately, the fresh, healthy foods. I have heard before from people that have worked at different Food Banks (back in Maine and here in Montana) that they literally can't give away fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods to the low-income families. This could be a topic of an entirely different blog post, but most needy folks will only take the easy to prepare, processed (and rather unhealthy) foods.

Anyway, Jennie and I each took from the Food Bank four loaves of fresh, locally baked bread made from organic Montana wheat flour. This bread was apparently a little bit too old for the local bakeries to sell, so they donated to the Food Bank. It wasn't too old for Mark and I; the sourdough, ciabatta, and challah taste soft and fresh. This is high-quality bread that I usually can't afford to buy myself. Jennie said that she was told that the Food Bank has such a hard time giving away excess bread and produce, that some people take it to feed to their chickens and livestock. Since there is no shame in taking good food that might otherwise go to waste, I'll certainly be stopping by the Food Bank again.

One of the coolest things about my bartering experiences so far is that they have lead to other cool opportunities. It has gotten me to think more creatively about what other goods and services I could offer in exchange for things that I regularly need. I am also learning to not be shy to ask questions or offer up a deal. Have you ever bartered?

The Joy of Fresh Food

2011-06-02T22:00:00.008-06:00

I had the most amazing dinner on Monday night made all from fresh, local foods. Grass-fed sirloin steak, local morels, asparagus picked that morning, and a mixed greens salad with radish sprouts. Yummmm.

The sirloins came from Eagle Ridge Ranch, a local cattle ranch where I recently purchased a quarter share of grass-fed & finished, pasture-raised beef. This beef is as ethical and environmentally-conscious as it gets and I even met the rancher in person to make my purchase. My quarter share, which is filling my freezer to the brim, consists of a variety of different cuts, but mostly 1 lb packages of ground beef. I broiled the sirloins in the oven and they were amazing; they practically melted in my mouth.

The local morels I bought from the Co-Op, although I dream about gathering my own some day. I just need someone to share their secret picking spot with me! Mark sauteed them with garlic, onion, fresh herbs, and a little red wine. Oh. My. God. The morels were absolutely heavenly. Although all of the components of the dinner were amazing, the morels definitely stole the show. The complex earthy flavors lingered in my mouth and I enjoyed their meaty consistency. Just writing about the morels has me drooling.

The asparagus I picked Monday morning at the new CSA in town where I've been working in exchange for a share of vegetables. Picking fresh asparagus was a special experience- it was my first time. Not many people get to pick their own asparagus, let alone do they understand how it grows. Oh, the joy of fresh asparagus! The purplish-green stems emerging from the earth, reaching for the sky. I marinated the beauties in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and tamari, then broiled them until tender and sweet. Delightful!

The steak, asparagus, and morels were all abed a simple salad made from butter bibb lettuce and spinach from my garden, as well as swiss chard and mustard greens that I picked that morning from the farm. I also mixed in some homegrown radish sprouts for a bit of tang. I've been harvesting fresh greens from both my garden and the farm for a month now. After a long winter of eating flavorless, store-bought spinach and lettuce, it is a complete joy to be eating fresh, flavorful greens. I love the rich shades of green and the perky crispness. The greens from my Community Garden are from plants that survived the Winter after I planted them last Fall. The lettuce is now literally growing out of control. There is way more than I could ever eat, so I've been giving big bags of it away to friends and neighbors as well as bartering it for rhubarb and handmade pottery (topic of an upcoming blog post!).

I love Summer and Fall when the majority of the food I eat is local, organic, and super fresh. Beginning this time of year I remember how strikingly different real food is from the boring, bland, and rather unhealthy conventional food I buy from the supermarket during the winter. Fresh food is real food- it is an absolute joy to prepare and eat. In fact, Monday's dinner was the first meal in months that Mark and I prepared together. Preparing fresh foods usually brings us together in the kitchen. We are more creative with the recipes and we are more loving with our preparation methods. Rather than a being a nightly chore, preparing dinner from fresh foods becomes a fun experience to share with one another. The best, most enjoyable meals I've ever prepared and eaten have been made from fresh ingredients.

Other fresh foods have been finding their ways into our kitchen. Kale from my garden also survived the brutal Montana Winter and is now growing in leaps and bounds. I've been sneaking it into our fruit smoothies, which arises the question: "What are these green specs, Emily?" "Oh, those are just health specs, Mark." (Shh, its a secret). Our neighbor across the alley has most graciously been giving us fresh duck eggs. From my back window, I can watch the ducks waddling through the neighbor's yard and I sometimes hear them quacking. These duck eggs are beautiful and delicious. The yolk is a deep golden-yellow and the consistency is dense and meaty, plus they don't flow apart at all after I break them. What a treat!

What about you? Does fresh, local food bring you joy, too? Do you get giddy picking and eating fresh veggies? What fresh foods are you beginning to eat in your area?

Middle-Eastern Vegetarian Dinner

2011-05-06T07:00:00.002-06:00

When I have time, I've been trying to be more creative in the kitchen, especially with vegetarian meals. In an attempt to eat more beans, nuts, and seeds and less cheese and eggs, my meals are unintentionally becoming vegan or mostly vegan. The results have been great.

I stumbled across Herbivoracious the other day, an awesome vegetarian recipe website. The author/chef posts has a variety of recipes ranging from fancy French and Italian meals, to baked goods, and simple salads. He offers gluten-free and vegan suggestions/replacements and posts many Middle Eastern that look appealing to the novice, rather impatient cook like myself. Many popular Indian, Greek, and Middle-Eastern foods are vegetarian and I plan to prepare more of these meals to spice up my typical "home-style" diet.

Yesterday I was a little over-ambitious and prepared a meal of four different dishes: Tabbouleh, Mujadara, Chickpea Cakes, and Naan (the recipe of which wasn't on the Herbivoracious website). I spent four hours in the kitchen, which is certainly over-kill, but at least I have left-overs to last a few days.

The "real" tabbouleh is made mostly of minced fresh parsley and mint. I thought that it would taste overwhelmingly like parsley and mint, but it actually has a light and very refreshing taste. I scooped it up with the freshly baked naan, which was surprisingly good. I never knew until recently that naan could be baked at home; I thought that it was an Indian restaurant specialty item. Other than letting the dough sit for an hour, it was quick and easy to make and contains ingredients that most folks already have in their kitchen. This naan recipe contains milk, so it is not vegan and it not as good as you would get in a restaurant, but it is certainly worth making.

The chickpea cakes had excellent, subtle flavors and were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. They also are not vegan- they contain one egg as a binder. These could be whipped up in an half an hour for a quick, protein-rich meal or snack. The mujadara, which is a dish made with rice, lentils, and caramelized onions, took the longest to make. Three pounds of onions are sliced and simmered for over an hour until they are very sweet and soft. The mujadara was disapointingly bland and unfortunately, the sweetness of the caramelized onions was not accented in the dish. Although mujadara is a very healthy meal, I'm not sure that I would make it again.

I'm looking forward to trying more Herbivoracious recipes (and hopefully not spend so long in the kitchen!). Do you have any easy, vegetarian Middle Eastern, Greek, or Indian recipes that you enjoy cooking at home?

A Tip for Gardeners: Beware of Bagged Soil

2011-05-05T18:10:00.008-06:00

Hello gardeners! I was doing a bit of "field research" for my Movable Garden business and discovered the surprisinging truth behind bagged soil. If you're a gardener of any sort, from large-scale to containers (pots), please read on.

Soil is composed of inorganic materials (minerals, broken-down rock, sand, silt, and/or clay) and organic materials (peat moss and "compost," which can be made from manure, kitchen scraps/plant matter, and/or wood chips). Optimal garden soil mostly contains inorganic materials and only 2-10% organic matter. Adding organic matter to garden soil can be a good way to replenish certain minerals and improve garden health, however, there is a very common misconception that "more is better" when it comes to adding manure, compost, or peat to garden soil. By adding too much organic matter, you can actually 'kill your garden with kindness.'

If you are a container or lasagna gardener, most likely you will be purchasing soil. Recently I stopped at a few of my local Home & Garden stores and checked out their pre-bagged soil. When I read the fine print of the "soil" ingredients, I was shocked. All of the bags explicitly labeled "Garden Soil" and "Top Soil" contained absolutely no inorganic matter. The "soil" was made from 100% organic matter- manure, compost, peat moss and/or wood chips. These were not bags of soil, they were mislabeled bags of compost. I went to a several different stores and could not find any bags of real soil that contained any amount of inorganic matter.

Before you buy a bag of soil, read the label carefully. Remember, it should contain about 95% inorganic matter and 5% organic matter. If you cannot find any proper soil that is pre-bagged, your best bet is to purchase some un-bagged soil from your local Garden Center. Many "Pa & Ma style" Garden Centers have big piles of top soil, loam (garden loam usually contains ideal parts of inorganic and organic matter), and manure for sale. You can shovel the soil into the back of your car or truck, or to make it easier for yourself, shovel the soil directly into the containers that you'll use for growing. Ask the Garden Center workers what the soil contains and if it is from a reputable source. A good garden has good soil!

If you can't find labels or answers about soil ingredients, here's the rule of thumb: "real" garden soil is black or dark brown. It is rich-looking, retains moisture well, and is quite heavy. Soil is not too dense, but not so light and fluffy that it will blow away. It is made of bigger clumps and particles as well as smaller particles. Fake "soil" that is mostly or all organic matter is often a lighter brown color and dries out quickly. It is usually much lighter than soil and may blow away when you drop a handful of it. It is mostly fluffy and not so dense. Often, the majority of its composition is small stick-like pieces or fluffy bark. Be careful: water is added to fake "soil" to give it the perception that it is dark, rich, and heavy.

Have fun gardening and remember to investigate!

Homemade Electrolyte Drink: Low-cost & Sugar-free

2011-04-27T08:00:00.010-06:00

After a couple of years of experimenting, I've come up with a thirst-quenching recipe for a low-cost, sugar-free electrolyte drink. I no longer need to buy sugary, unnatural Gatorade mix that comes in plastic containers or expensive Ultima Replenisher, which is also sold in plastic tubs. My drink costs less than 5 cents a serving (Gatorade costs 15 cents/serving and Ultima costs 33 cents/serving) and its ingredients come in minimal packaging, so there is minimal waste.

One 8oz serving of my drink has about 307 mg Potassium, 111 mg Sodium, and 342 mg Stevia. (One 8oz serving of Gatorade has 25 mg Potassium and 90 mg Sodium, while an 8oz serving of Ultima has 75 mg Potassium and 25 mg Sodium.)

The drink is made in two steps. First, make a Powder Mix by combining Potassium Chloride (KCl), "Real" Sea Salt (NaCl), and Stevia Leaf Powder. Potassium Chloride is commonly used as a sodium-free salt replacement and can be purchased at your local health food store. "Real" brand Sea Salt is a red-tinted sea salt that provides the electrolyte sodium as well as a plethora of trace minerals. Stevia leaves are used as a natural sugar substitute and are "30 to 300 times sweeter than sugar."

To make 19 servings of Electrolyte Powder Mix, you will need:

2 Teaspoons Potassium Chloride
1 Teaspoon "Real" Sea Salt
6 1/2 Teaspoons Stevia

Store this mixture in an air-tight container. When you're ready to make an an 8 oz electrolyte drink, combine:

8 oz water
1/2 Teaspoon Powder Mix
Splash of lemon or lime juice

Shake these ingredients together in a water bottle and it's ready to drink! The lemon or lime juice is added for flavoring and the amount can vary to your liking. The citrus is important for balancing out the soapy taste of the Powder Mix. In addition, the lemon and lime add some Vitamin C and citric acid. Be careful not to add to much lemon juice because it may cause acid reflux during exercise (I know this from experience- yuck).

For those of you unfamiliar with the components of most electrolyte drinks, potassium and sodium are elements that function as electrolytes in the body. Electrolytes are needed in both active and inactive people and are necessary to maintain fluid balance inside and outside of the body's cells. It is especially important that athletes consume an electrolyte replacement drink because electrolytes are lost during exercise. Most electrolyte drinks like Gatorade have sugar added for both taste and calories. My drink, however, contains stevia, which has few calories and is added strictly for a sweetness effect. Some athletes argue that it is important to have simple carbohydrates during exercise and I agree with this to an extent, but I made this recipe knowing that I would also be drinking it before and after exercise. I often like to hydrate and replenish my electrolytes before bed, but not a get a sugar rush. Also, Gatorade is a high-calorie drink and should only be consumed by athletes that need the extra calories. Many inactive folks drink Gatorade for it's electrolytes and for it's thirst-quenching effect, but the sugar is unnecessary and can lead to obesity.

This recipe is a great solution for those who are sick of paying top-dollar for an electrolyte drink and for those who choose not to consume artificial flavorings, dyes, and processed sugars. Also, this electrolyte drink actually works! Both Mark and I have fewer muscle cramps and dehydration headaches when drinking this homemade electrolyte drink during and after exercise. If you try this recipe or have a similar recipe of your own, I'd really appreciate your feedback.

Homemade Natural Deodorant

2011-04-24T10:34:00.010-06:00

Many thanks to Jennifer from It's Not Easy To Be Green for igniting an idea that I could make and use my own natural deodorant. Jennifer most graciously passed along a small sample of natural deodorant that contained only four ingredients: cocoa butter, coconut oil, baking soda, and corn starch. The deodorant worked so well and the ingredients seemed so simple, I thought I'd try making some myself.

Before receiving the deodorant sample, I hadn't worn deodorant in over three years. I used to wear "Secret" brand antiperspirant, but stopped after I had a painful, inflamed lymph node under one arm. The lymph node remained enlarged for a couple of months and I was concerned that it became blocked perhaps because my underarms weren't draining toxins properly. After all, we have sweat glands for a reason- it may be more healthy for our bodies to naturally perspire odors and fluids rather than prevent these functions from happening.

My underarms are naturally pretty stinky, but not necessarily sweaty. When I stopped using antiperspirant, I thought that eventually my body might reach some sort of equilibrium and I would stop stinking. My big, athletic boyfriend doesn't stink or sweat excessively, so why would I? After over three years of embarrassing stinky-ness, I still haven't reached an equilibrium. I think that people just have different genetic and hormonal make-ups; some folks need deodorants or antiperspirants and others don't. Jennifer's deodorant sample came in the mail at the right time, just when I was ready to suck it up and start using deodorant again.

I hadn't really realized until after I started using the natural deodorant, how stressful it was being stinky. This natural deodorant works great- it's been a huge relief. I feel like my underarms are still able to breathe, especially during exercise, except now I don't have to worry about offending others with my odors. This deodorant works so well, I don't even need to apply it every day- every other day seems to suffice. You could literally eat this deodorant if you wanted to; I feel like it is a healthy compromise for my body.

For a deodorant vessel, I asked a friend for her leftover plastic deodorant applicator. I washed it out with soap and water, then sterilized it for a few minutes in boiling water. I can reuse this applicator over and over- that's one less piece of plastic thrown into landfill! The ingredients are cheap and easy to find. I already had bulk cocoa butter left over from a homemade body lotion experiment, which was purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs, but can also be found at your local natural foods store. The coconut oil can be found at your grocery store in the cooking oil section and you probably already have baking soda and corn starch in your cabinet.

Homemade Natural Deodorant

1 tablespoon cocoa butter
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons corn starch

Cocoa butter and coconut oil are naturally hard/solid at room temperature. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of each oil and microwave in a glass jar until the oils liquefy. Stir in the baking soda and cornstarch until dissolved. Pour mixture into a reused deodorant applicator and let harden at room temperature (or place in refrigerator to speed the hardening process). Making this deodorant takes just minutes. If you have a perspiration problem as well as an odor issue, my friend who is a clinical herbalist recommended that a few drops of sage oil can be added to the liquefied oils. Sage is a natural antiperspirant and also has antibacterial properties.

A variety of different natural deodorant recipes can be found online. I kind of made up these ratios of ingredients myself and it has resulted in a smooth, yet hard-enough consistency that applies easily to the skin. If you have a similar natural deodorant recipe, I'd love to know how you made it and how it has worked for you.

Spring Garden Surprise

2011-04-20T19:27:00.007-06:00

I walked over the Community Garden today to see how my plot survived the fierce Montana winter under it's row cover blanket. What was underneath?

Surprise! Greens! Alive and growing. Beedy's Camden Kale, Winterbor Kale, Olympia Spinach, Giant Winter Spinach, Tango Lettuce, Winter Marvel Lettuce, Krausa Parsley, and Rocket Arugula.
I had started these plants as seeds back in late September and they grew about an inch high before a foot of snow fell in late October. I chose these varieties because they are supposed to be cold-hardy. Theoretically, if cold-hardy greens grow big enough before winter starts and you keep them under a low hoop tunnel, you can harvest greens all winter long. Well, this didn't quite happen in my garden. The many feet of snow collapsed my row cover tunnel and buried the garden alive. There was so much snow and ice that I couldn't even lift the cover. Bozeman had fluctuating temperatures this winter; one week the temps would be steadily -20F at night and not above 0F during the day, and the next week the nightly lows would be about 0F with day highs up to 40F. There were about 5 cycles like this. The snow didn't melt off the garden until a few weeks ago and we're still getting occasional snow storms.

I'm entirely shocked that these greens survived the winter. I thought that since my quick hoops collapsed and that the temperatures were so low, all of the greens would have died. What a wonderful Spring surprise! I'll probably be harvesting fresh greens in a few weeks, after we get some sunny days and the plants grow a little bigger.

Interestingly, the Bloomsdale Spinach that I started in September and covered with six inches of straw and leaves, was not alive when I uncovered it today. Another theory is that you can start spinach in the fall, cover it with mulch to insulate it during the winter, then uncover the mulch to find spinach growing in the Spring. I'm not sure if this method failed because the straw smothered the spinach or if Bloomsdale is not the right variety for this over-wintering method.

The other thing that I did at the garden today was snatch the pile of rabbit droppings that I'd been eying all winter and sprinkle it in my garden. There is a rabbit family that lives at the Community Garden and one rabbit had a spot this winter where it liked to sit and nibble on a dead sunflower stalk. It obviously sat in that spot quite a bit because it left a big pile. Rabbit feces is kinda neat: unlike other animal feces, it comes out of the rabbit completely composted and can be added straight to your garden.

P.S. I saw a gopher at the Community Garden today and it is living under the old house. Rabbits are one thing, but a gopher is bad news!

Sprouts: The Easiest Way to Grow Your Own Food

2011-04-19T13:46:00.014-06:00

If you're looking for an easy, low-maintenance food to grow yourself, sprouts are the way to go. Alfalfa, broccoli, red clover, radish, red lentil. Sprouts are a light, crispy, and fresh garnish for sandwiches, wraps, soups, and salad.

A small bag of alfalfa sprouts typically sells for $3 at the grocery store. But at home, after investing in a sprouting apparatus and bulk sprouting seeds, you can grow oodles of sprouts for just pennies. To get sprouting, you'll first need either a plastic sprouting canister or a hemp sprouting bag. The trick to growing sprouts is to water them every day. You want them to stay slightly moist, but never allow them to sit in standing water, which will cause rotting and mildew. I sprouted with great success through high school by using a plastic canister. The canister is specially designed to drain all water, but keep your sprouts just moist enough. It is attractive and fun- it can be kept openly on your counter top and you can keep track of the growth. With a canister, several different types of sprouts can be grown at once, or you can stagger when you start your sprouts. This way, you can be 'harvesting' fresh sprouts frequently, instead of all at once.

A more environmentally-friendly and slightly cheaper sprouting apparatus is a hemp bag. These can be purchased pre-sewn or made yourself. With the help of my crafty friend, Patti, I cut rectangles of hemp and sewed them into bags with a drawstring at the top. I purchased about a yard of organic hemp linen online and made over a dozen bags, which I plan to give as gifts. A hemp bag allows for easy water draining, however, the bags may dry out. I straddle the bag inside a large glass jar, which helps retain more moisture in the bag. With, say, three bags, you can grow three different types of sprouts or start your sprouts at different times for succession 'harvesting.'

Bulk sprouting seeds can be bought from a variety of different mail-order companies and I've even seen chia seeds in the bulk bin section of my grocery store. I purchased 1lb bags of sprouting seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs, which are about $4.50-$7 a pound. You can grow A LOT from sprouts from a pound of seed! MRH also sells 4 and 8 oz packets as well as canisters, hemp bags, and screens for retrofitting a mason jar into a sprouting apparatus (I've read that sprouting in a mason jar is tricky, though).

Sprouting seeds is the easiest 'vegetable' you'll ever grow. Simply place about 2 teaspoons of seeds into your canister or hemp bag then, everyday, thoroughly water and drain. You'll have edible seeds in about 5 days! Once grown, remove sprouts from the apparatus (to prevent rotting) and store in an air-tight container- they'll keep for quite a while. To speed the germination time of your sprouts, soak the seeds (in the bag) in water overnight then continue to water and drain daily.

I made a sprout salad the other night as part of a vegetarian dinner of potato-leek soup and mushroom-spinach quiche. The sprout salad paired nicely- it added it bit of raw, freshness and has a light, tangy dressing. Enjoy your sprouts!

Sprout Salad

sprouts (I used radish and alfalfa)
shredded carrot
shredded red cabbage
chopped scallion
minced fresh ginger

Make a simple dressing of cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, dill, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Toss dressing with with above ingredients, then place on a bed of shredded green or napa cabbage.

Vegetarian Dinner: African Peanut Stew with Homemade Peasant Bread

2011-04-12T07:37:00.007-06:00

I returned from vacation last week feeling inspired to try new vegetarian recipes. Mark and I were visiting our friends Billy and Patti in Colorado, both of whom are excellent cooks. I loved Patti's African Peanut Stew-- it is sweet, savory, spicy, creamy, and hearty all at once. Last night I made the stew from a recipe I found on Fatfree Vegan Recipes and altered it just a bit. Patti's version was not vegetarian- hers had chicken and edamame while FFVR's has chickpeas and greenbeans. The stew paired wonderfully with Jennifer's (from It's Not Easy To Be Green) Homebaked Peasant Bread.

Check out Jennifer's blog for the bread recipe. Here's my altered African Peanut Stew Recipe or go to Fatfree Vegan Recipes for the original:

1 red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno (with seeds), chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 1/4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
2 14.5 ounce cans chopped tomatoes
2 14.5 ounce cans chickpeas, with liquids
1 pound green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces (fresh or frozen)
1 can water
1 heaping tablespoon Better Than Bouillon
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons lime juice
few springs fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Place olive oil, onion, jalapeno, ginger and garlic in a large pot. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Add salt and spices. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chickpeas, green beans, water and bouillon, and peanut butter. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. After stew is finished cooking, stir in lime juice. Top each bowl with a sprinkle of finely chopped cilantro.

Corporate Control and Loss of Democracy: Americans Are Catching On

2011-03-12T18:13:00.019-07:00

Ever wonder about the "Wavering World" part of my blog title? If you've been keeping track of world news, politics, and science you know that a lot of different issues are coming to a head. Climate volatility due to global warming, the loss of animal species and habitat, corporate control of American politics and "democracy," the impending food crisis, the diminishing world fossil fuel supply and consequential rising oil prices, budget cuts for public education and a plethora of social services, threatened civil rights and freedoms, the growing divide between the rich and poor, the current global economic depression, the increasing animosity between American conservatives and liberals. The list goes on and on. These issues are all escalating to dangerous levels, all at the same time. The future is uncertain. A tsunami is heading towards us, but not like the one that just hit Japan.

Unfortunately, the world's most important issue, the declining health of our planet, has been set on the back-burner to current humanitarian issues. After all, if there is no Planet Earth, there are no Homo Sapiens. The Republican majority has made it clear that finding new sources of fossil fuel is more important than developing clean energy technology. That the key to creating new jobs in America is through 'resource development,' not development of solar power or oil-free transportation. That the recession is our most important domestic issue and we just don't have the money to spend on the environment. The author, Naomi Klein, explained on Democracy Now that "Global warming could be exploited by capitalism and militarism." “My fear is that climate change is the biggest crisis of all,” she said.

Fortunately, people are catching on. Americans are catching on. Environmentally-conscious people are making changes to reduce their contribution to global warming. Ordinary folks are writing blogs about the economy, politics, and environmentalism. Protests are being held not just in Tunisia and Egypt, but right in your town. Drastic budget cuts to social services across the United States, most notably in Wisconsin, are causing otherwise apathetic Americans to stand up for our rights. We remained quiet when Obama bailed out the banks, we stood back when corrupt bankers crashed the stock market and foreclosed our homes, we did nothing when the Supreme Court announced that corporations have first amendment rights and can legally control American policies. But we're not sitting down any more.

Stand up America! You know the truth- its right in front of your eyes.

"America is Not Broke!": Michael Moore addresses thousands in Madison, Wisconsin

We've reached a critical turning point, so let's unite. Let's end corporate control of America. Let's protect our civil rights and defend the environment. Let's prevent the tsunami. Protest, write letters, express your concerns openly, spread the word, let your actions speak your mind.

We can do this.

100 Square Foot Garden Wrap-up

2011-02-20T16:14:00.015-07:00

Having just finished reading Novella Carpenter's Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, I'm feeling renewed inspiration for local, sustainable agriculture. It is 10 degrees and snowing here in Bozeman today - a good day to discuss the results of my 2010 community garden plot. By the way, I highly recommend Farm City. Its a quick, amusing, and informative read. Here's a YouTube video that gives a taste of what the book is about.

Technically, my community garden plot is 96 sqft, but most small garden comparisons are for a 100 sqft plot, so I'll pretend that I had another 4 sqft feet. I kept tallies all season of vegetable harvests and compiled them on Excel. I compared the amounts of produce harvested with amounts and prices of produce at the Bozeman Farmers' Markets. The serving sizes and prices are all estimates, of course. It should also be noted that Farmers' Market produce has different pricing depending of where you live. Bozeman organic farmers charge less than say, California or Colorado organic farmers, but significantly more than Maine organic farmers.

I harvested $271 worth of produce, but had $135 of garden-related expenses (community garden annual fee $50, seeds $47, straw $5, and quick hoops/cover $33). My total profit from the 100 square foot plot was $136.

The bush beans, beets, carrots, onions, dill weed, and peas were the most cost-effective vegetables to grow and had the post yield per square foot. The cabbage, cucumbers, and zucchini were less cost-effective and did not use space as efficiently. The acorn and butternut squashes were a monumental space loss to the garden. They occupied 20% of the garden, but most of the squash plants died. They caught powdery mildew (perhaps due to over-crowding) and had very little yield.

The potato box was also a total bust. The six layers of carefully added seed potatoes, straw, and composted manure only yielded 3 pounds of potatoes, all from the first layer that was closest to the ground. The remaining five layers turned into a compost pile and was chock-full of big, meaty worms. The straw and seed potatoes had been completely eaten and pooped away by the worms. The potato box was an experiment, but disappointing nonetheless. Fortunately, the box only took up about 4 square feet.

In addition to the full 96 sqft plot, I also grew a 48 sqft half plot and acquired free vegetables from other community gardeners. The half plot and free yields were added together to a separate Excel spread sheet, adding a level of complexity to the total garden yield statistics. No additional money, however, was spent on the half plot.

$122 worth of produce was harvested from the half plot and from others' gardens, making my total yield from the City Hall Community Garden $393. Subtracting the gardening expenses, my total gardening profit was $258! Disregarding the numbers of hours spent working at the community garden, I can say that I profited from my small-scale gardening project. Remember, if you live in an area where vegetables cost more than in my area, growing your own vegetables can be even more cost-effective.

Regarding the cost and space efficiency of the vegetables harvested from the half plot and from other gardens: kale and lettuce are the best bang for the buck. Greens do not occupy much space, plus they continually produce all Summer and Fall. Potatoes, spinach, and zucchini were less cost/space efficient (partly because potatoes and zucchini are relatively cheap at the market).

It would be fun to repeat the 100 sqaure foot garden with cost and space efficiency as the key focus. I would not grow squashes, pumpkins, potatoes, or cabbage. Nor would I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, or peppers because these heat-loving plants generally do not grow well in Montana's short gardening season. Leafy greens seem to be the best plant for small gardening efficiency because they have a high yield over a long period. Radishes, because they mature so quickly, are great to stick around small, developing plants and can be pulled as the surrounding plants grow bigger. Another trick for harvesting the most from a small space is to over-plant beets, leafy greens, and carrots, then thin them and eat the thinnings.

In the Fall, the City Hall Community Garden won a Beautification Award from the city of Bozeman. So many different groups of people volunteered to realize this garden and its great to see their efforts recognized (City government workers, Errol from New West Landscapes, Max and his 1000 New Gardens volunteers, and the community garden members themselves). The Bozeman Daily Chronicle wrote an article about the award and I happened to be interviewed.

Women's Healthcare is Being Threatened!

2011-02-18T20:47:00.003-07:00

"Since taking control of the House last month, Republicans have introduced several major anti-abortion bills that women’s rights activists say could place severe limitations on access not only to abortion, but complete reproductive health and family planning services. We speak to Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which provides family planning, contraception and abortion services at more than 800 clinics and health centers across the U.S. serving more than three million patients a year. No federal dollars are used to fund its abortion services. "The most ridiculous part about it is that, for Congressman Pence and the others who are proposing these bills, Planned Parenthood does more to prevent unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion than any organization in America," Richards says. "This is not what the American people voted for.""

To watch Democracy Now's program on our threatened reproductive health and family planning services, click here. This is a very important civil liberties issue!

To sign an open letter to the House of Representatives, via Planned Parenthood, click here.

Please spread the word.

Agressive Natural Treatmeant for Colds & Flu

2011-01-19T12:56:00.005-07:00

I've been struggling with some sort of mild illness for over a month now. The symptoms are minor, but present enough for me to know that I'm not quite 100%. Yesterday, I woke up with what I swore was the flu. I had a very sore, stiff neck, swollen glands, a sore throat, a pressure headache, and overall achy-ness and lethargy. I felt like I'd been hit by a train. I laid low yesterday and followed a very Aggressive Natural Treatment for Colds & Flu. By the evening, I was feeling much better; not 100%, but certainly not flu-ish. This morning, the sore throat and swollen glands were back, but the other symptoms were gone. Whether I'm treating the illness or just delaying its onset, I'm not sure. I'm repeating the treatment again today will continue tomorrow.

I've combined TruthSeek's Fight the Flu regimen (despite the Christianity stuff, this site is quite good) with some other herbal remedies that I've used before. I repeat the treatment 3 times a day. In addition to the treatment, rest yourself and drink lots of water. Take supplements of Vitamin D3, Fish Oil, Zinc pills or lozenges, and your daily Multi-Vitamin. Avoid sugar, heavy foods, and processed foods. Stay home- please don't spread the awfulness onto others.

1. Drink a a teaspoon of raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar in some water.

2. Gargle with warm salt water.

3. Dip a q-tip into hydrogen peroxide and gently dab into each ear. Let fizz for 1 minute. Dip other end of q-tip in water and gently clean each ear. (This step makes me feel surprisingly better).

4. Gargle with salt water again. Waiting a minute between gargles allows the first gargle to loosen the mucus membrane in your throat so that the second gargle can break up the mucus even better.

5. Add many drops of Oregano Oil to a small amount of water. Down the oil/water like you would a shot of alcohol. Oregano Oil has powerful anti-viral and anti-bacterial qualities. (It is recommended that you take Oregano Oil by capsule, but the capsules are much more expensive than a bottle of oil. Chugging Oregano Oil taste awful, but I'm cheap).

6. Immediately "chase" the Oregano shot with a glass of water.

7. Have a bowl of homemade, fermented sauerkraut ready to eat to further diminish the oregano taste. Sauerkraut is packed with vitamins and minerals and is said to boost the immune system.

8. Prepare a pot of echinacea and green tea with many slices of fresh ginger root. Make as many pots as necessary so that you're continually drinking tea all day long. A bit of raw, unfiltered honey and a splash of lemon juice or a drop of lemon essential oil can be added to each cup. A few rose hips can also be added to the pot of tea for a Vatamin C boost.

9. Take some deep stiffs/inhalations of eucalyptus, peppermint and/or Thieves essential oil. Dab a bit under your nose and on your chest so that you can continue to smell the vapors. These essential oils have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties and help make breathing a bit easier.

10. Eat of bowl of simple, homemade vegetable soup. Make sure that the soup has some garlic, onion, astragalus root powder, and several different kinds of mushrooms (Shitake and Maitake are good) . Astragalus and mushrooms boost immunity and T-cell production. Adding a bit of Cayenne pepper would be good, too.

I hope you feel better soon!

My New Crockpot and the Great Bean Debate

2011-01-12T14:25:00.013-07:00

I am anything but impulsive. I've been weighing the pros and cons of purchasing a crockpot for years, and finally, I bought one last week.

My main reasoning for purchasing a crockpot has been from conclusions drawn from the Great Bean Debate. For many years, Mark and I have been discussing dry and canned beans, specifically:

Which is cheaper?
Which has less waste?
Which has less embodied energy or is more energy-efficient?

Dry beans cost less up front, but the over all price increases due to the energy needed for cooking. At high elevations, it takes two days to boil beans, even after they are soaked overnight. Canned beans cost less up front and require no extra energy at home, however, there is a significant amount of embodied energy in the cans. As far as trash in concerned, one plastic bag is thrown out from 4 Lbs of dry beans, but at least 4 cans are thrown out/recycled from 4 Lbs of canned beans.

A year ago, we stopped buying and boiling dry beans and decided that it was more energy-efficient to purchase canned beans. But... the price and waste factors were unsettling. So, hence, I bought a crockpot with the idea that a crockpot would be a more energy-efficient method of cooking dry beans than boiling them on a natural gas-powered stove.

Now that I've used the crockpot twice to prepare beans, I'm skeptical of its energy-efficiency. With the first bean trial, I soaked the beans overnight then cooked them in the crockpot on high for two days until they were a good consistency. With the second trial, I soaked the beans over night, boiled them for one hour on the stovetop, then cooked them on high for one day. A significant amount of cooking still needs to occur before dry beans are edible. I am having trouble finding answers online about the comparative energy usages of electric crockpots and natural-gas stoves. I am worried that my crockpot purchase has been in vain.

A machine that converts plastic into oil

2011-01-07T14:41:00.006-07:00

When I took out my trash this week, I realized that the small bag was filled only with plastic, mainly non-reusable plastic bags. A flour bag, a spinach bag, a dry bean bag, a tortilla bag. The plastic thing you pull off a milk jug. I compost food scraps, reuse glass jars, and recycle all recyclables, but throw out other plastics. I'm throwing out oil. I'm throwing out energy. And we're doing this all around the world.

Imagine a world where you drive your car up a gas station and hand over all plastic items that normally would be thrown away. The items would be weighed and you'd be given a discount on the gas that you purchased. Every gas station would feature a large machine that transformed plastic trash into usable automobile fuel. Certainly one couldn't buy an entire tank-full of fuel from a week's wroth of plastic trash, but it would supplement.

Imagine a ship cruising across the Pacific ocean stopping at the "Sea of Plastic" to scoop up some of 100 million tons of debris (or twice the size of the U.S.), most of which is plastic. The ship, equipped with its own large plastic converter, would essentially fuel up at the "Plastic Soup" then continue on its journey.

This is obviously a great solution to the world's overabundance of plastic waste, but why wasn't this invented sooner? And why isn't it quickly being developed for large-scale uses like I mentioned? Since oil is not infinite- we are already past peak oil- I think at some point in the future we will indeed be relying on plastic in order to continue living our current energy demanding lifestyles. We probably will be digging up landfills and pillaging the "Sea of Plastic" to gather the energy that is embodied in trash. But in the meantime, all companies that are profiting from the production and sale of oil are going to do anything and everything to ensure that they continue profiting from oil for as long as possible. They will make sure that no technology like the one in this video will be developed anytime soon. Politics and Capitalism are dooming any good environmental intentions humans may have.

Homemade Fermented Sauerkraut

2011-01-06T20:04:00.006-07:00

I love sauerkraut. Maybe its from my Slovak and Polish heritage or maybe its because as a hungry teenager I would reach into a nearly empty fridge and eat big bowls of plain sauerkraut, but I still absolutely love the stuff.

After reading a Mother Earth News article this fall about making homemade sauerkraut, I thought I'd use the cabbages from my garden to make a batch. Before reading the article and making my own, I had never eaten fermented sauerkraut nor did I even know that it was traditionally made by fermentation, not with vinegar. Let me tell you, homemade fermented sauerkraut is worlds above any store-bought vinegar-based kind! Not to boast, but as a sauerkraut lover, my homemade sauerkraut is superior.

I combined MEN's recipe with Lena's recipe to make a small batch with 3.5 cabbages. Here's what I did:

1. Thinly slice fresh, homegrown cabbages and place in a big bowl. Cabbages can be grated for softer sauerkraut, but I liked mine sliced for a slight crunch. (Note: The online recipes are adamant about using fresh, garden-harvested cabbages. I'm not sure if it works as well with store-bought cabbages).

2. Add 1.5 TB sea salt for each cabbage and crush mixture with clean hands until the cabbage wilts, looses volume, and produces liquid. This happens surprisingly fast.

3. Scoop the cabbage and liquid into as many clean jars as necessary. Use hands to pack down the cabbage into the jar as densely as possible leaving few air bubbles. The liquid should be covering the top of the cabbage. If not, add some water. Also, be sure that there is at least 2 inches between the cabbage and the very top of the jar. (Note: Very clean jars are important for to prevent contamination, aka weird growth. It is also important to smoosh out all of the air bubbles from the cabbage because fermentation happens in the absence of oxygen).

4. Place a clean plastic freezer bag into the 2 inch space above the cabbage. Place your hand inside the bag and spread it as smoothly as possible over the cabbage and up against the sides of the jar. The goal of this step is to prevent any oxygen from getting into the jar. The top of the bag will probably stick out of the jar.

5. Fill the bag with water until the water line hits the top of the jar. The bag allows the cabbage to be covered, yet allows off-gases and scum to escape.

6. Place the jars in a spot where the temperature is consistent. My apartment has radiant heat and stays at 75 degrees F. It took about 3 weeks for the cabbage to ferment, aka look like sauerkraut. Fermentation takes longer in cooler temperatures. It is not recommended to ferment in temperatures above 75 degrees.

7. The sauerkraut can now naturally last in the fridge in a closed jar (but not pressure-sealed) for a very long time.

Really, it was that easy! Now I'm almost obsessed with fermented sauerkraut. I've been giving some as gifts and also reading about the health benefits of lacto-fermented vegetables online.
Here's an article that explains how fermented sauerkraut helps the digestive system and supports the immune system: Raw Sauerkraut Rocks!

If I can prevent any teenage-type binges, I think my remaining jar of sauerkraut will last several more months. Next year, I'll be growing more cabbages!

A Confession: I shopped at Old Navy

2010-12-10T09:27:00.006-07:00

My boyfriend gave me an assignment yesterday: to finally go shopping and buy myself some new t-shirts. If there was ever a candidate for buying new clothes, it would be me. For the longest time, I owned two t-shirts and one 3/4 sleeved shirt. I bought the t-shirts in 2003 and have worn them pretty much every day of the week for the past 7/8 years, washing them only once a week. My red shirt has permanent stains and smells bad and my gray t-shirt has a hole exactly where my nipple is. This past Spring I thought I'd re-vamp my wardrobe by buying three new t-shirts online, but I stupidly bought two pink ones and a yellow one (light colors!) and promptly stained them all being the slob that I am.

Before you start judging me as some disgusting, slovenly freak (which I am), I should explain a few things about myself:

1. I have no fashion sense what-so-ever.
2. I dislike the fashion industry. With all of the pressing issues in the world, why people obsess about superficial things, like clothing, is beyond me.
3. I wore a school uniform for 8 years growing up- and I LOVED it.
4. I am morally and environmentally against buying and owning excessive amounts of things.
5. I don't have excessive money to spend on excessive things.
6. I dislike supporting the textile industry, as it is one of the most environmentally damaging industries.
7. I'm rather clumsy and slobbish. I frequently spill food on myself while eating and even dump water on myself while drinking from my water bottle.
8. If nudist colonies weren't so creepy, I'd probably join one. I'd rather be naked than wear clothes.
9. I love mucking around outside, so naturally that gets me dirty.
10. My life dream is to live self-sufficiently on a farm/homestead. With that sort of lifestyle, I'd be doing lots of things that get me dirty, so it wouldn't matter if my clothes were gross.
11. I HATE shopping. I literally have panic attacks when I go shopping.
12. My boyfriend actually describes me as "grungy." And you know what? I like being grungy!

Anyway, yesterday I was wearing a light-pink t-shirt that my BF, Mark, dubs my "auto-mechanic shirt" and he said, "Enough is enough, Emily! Go and buy yourself some new shirts!" Being that I live in city, not a homestead and that I actually have to present myself to the public on a regular basis, I figured it was in my best interest to ace Mark's assignment.

So, I took a deep breath to settle my nerves, and I went to Old Navy.

I know, I know! Old Navy is one of THE WORST businesses to support, but my income is low these days and I can't economically justify spending $30 on one organic cotton t-shirt. At Old Navy, I bought two tank tops, two t-shirts, three long-sleeve shirts, and one pair of yoga pants for $43. Eight items of clothing for $43! I really can't believe it! As good as it feels to be wearing new clothes today, I feel morally corrupt and I kind of want to barf.

T-shirts shouldn't cost $5 each, they should cost at least $30 each, but since $5 shirts are so readily available, of course people want to save money and buy cheap stuff. The labels on my Old Navy clothes say that they were made in India, Cambodia, Haiti, Peru, and Nicaragua. How many miles has my t-shirt traveled before it reached Bozeman, Montana? How was my cotton t-shirt made and why is it so cheap? Here's my guesstimation:

1. The genetically-engineered cotton plants were probably grown somewhere in Africa or South America in desert terrain or burnt-down rain forest land. A large amount of inorganic fertilizers and insecticides were used to grow the cotton. The farms are owned by American and Asian corporations; the farmers themselves earned meager wages.

2. Next, the unprocessed cotton traveled on a ship to a textile factory in Korea, Russia, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. The cotton went through extensive processing and was turned into reels of fabric. All manufacturing byproducts were dumped into the rivers or the air with no environmental regulations. The factories are owned by American and Asian corporations. Once again, the factory workers themselves earned meager wages.

3. The reels of cotton fabric traveled on a ship from the textile factories to the sewing factories in India, Cambodia, Haiti, Peru, and Nicaragua. Women and children worked endless hours cutting and sewing shirt after shirt after shirt. My shirt was one of those. American and Asian corporations own these factories, too. The kid who made my shirt earned a fraction of a penny.

4. Gap, Inc. organized some of the shirt making process and bought shiploads of completed t-shirts at very low costs. The shirts traveled on ships from the factories to big American ports in New York, California, or Texas. Because oil is so cheap, all of the traveling my cotton shirt has done so far has cost very little money.

5. Tractor-trailer truck loads of clothing traveled on busy highways across the U.S. and eventually unloaded their cargo at the Old Navy store in Bozeman. Again, this domestic traveling was reliant on cheap oil.

6. An Old Navy retail clerk who earns more than the Asian and South American factory workers, but less than me (and I don't earn much!) neatly folded my shirt and greeted me with "Can I help you find something?" She happily put my $5 per shirt into the cash register and I drove home.

I'll make a big guess now: my $5 shirt probably cost 10 cents in materials, labor, and transportation. Where did the rest of my my hard-earned $4.90 go? To the corporations! And all at the expense of our environment and desperate humans. My new shirts are all dark colors , so at least I shouldn't have to buy new shirts for another 8 years.

What do you see here? #3

2010-09-14T10:37:00.004-06:00

Just a friendly reminder of the 3 R's and the order in which they should be practiced: 1. Reduce 2. Reuse 3. Recycle.

Since November, I've saved 59 egg cartons. That's two eggs a day for both my partner and myself, or 28 a week for our household. Its rather disturbing to think that we eat so many eggs. I'd like to try more fun breakfast recipes so I can Reduce our total egg and carton consumption.

Last year, I managed to accumulate no cartons by Reducing and Reusing on a weekly basis. I bought fresh farm eggs from David at the Portland Farmers' Market and brought him back the cartons the following week. This is a great solution for many reasons: I supported a local organic farmer, I supported humane egg production, I ate healthy eggs, and I Reduced waste by Reusing the cartons.

So what will I do with this tall stack of cartons? Instead of recycling, I am going to post them on Craigslist in hope that someone may want to Reuse them for some purpose. I've given away cartons on Craigslist in the past; I believe they were used by another hen-keeper.

What are some other ways that these cartons can be Reused? Arts and crafts or for growing seedlings? What do you see here?

Garden Update #6

2010-09-12T08:50:00.005-06:00

A lot has happened since I last blogged about my gardens. Vegetable production is at its peak, which may late to most gardeners, but is not unusual for Zone 4. I regularly pick zucchini, beets and beet greens, kale, spinach, and carrots. Surprisingly, I've picked four big cucumbers and more are on the way. I've picked over $30 of dill so far, most of which I dried using a borrowed dehydrator. The bush greens cranked this season. They went through four productivity cycles. In each cycle I harvested about 8 'servings' of beans or about $12/cycle. Yesterday, I pulled up the bush beans.

The red and green cabbages are forming big heads, but they are cold-hardy and can be left in the garden until later this fall. All of the potatoes have big leafy plants. The potato box has about 6 layers of potatoes growing in it. The leaves are tumbling out of the top of the box and are even growing out of the knots in the wood. I will wait until the potatoes die back before digging them up; same for the onions. The zucchini and winter squash caught "powdery mildew" and most of the plants died and had to be pulled up. I'm not too disappointed about this because I still have four zucchini plants that are producing and the butternut squash are literally hanging in there. There are about 10 butternut squashes growing, but the remaining acorn squash plants have produced no fruit.

One of my most exciting harvests at the garden was when I found 5 pounds of new russet potatoes growing in the compost bin. Earlier this spring, I had acquired many, many free pounds of beautiful russets from some friendly farmers in the next town over. The farmers were cleaning out their barn in preparation for filling it with this season's potato harvest. They also gave me a bunch of certified, disease-free red seed potatoes, which I planted in the potato box. Anyway, I ate or froze most of the russets, but a bunch of them spoiled before I had the chance to freeze them. I dumped them at the bottom of the compost pile in July and they since have been covered with several feet of garden clippings and kitchen waste. Last week, on a whim, I decided to dig into the bottom of the compost to see what might be there. It was like an Easter Egg hunt! I kept pulling out more and more absolutely beautiful new russets. Somehow, they were growing with no leaves nor sunshine. Mark and I have already eaten about half of them; they are creamy and delicious. Mark said it was a good thing that no one caught me digging in the compost as many people would consider that to be gross. Whatever, compost is just soil that's not quite ready yet.

I ordered more seeds online from Fed-Co, which today I sowed in the spot where the bush beans were. I planted cold-hardy leafy greens: Olympia Spinach, Giant Winter Spinach, Tango Lettuce, Winter Marvel Lettuce, Arugula, Krausa Parsley, and Winterbore Kale. The kale, lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens that I had planted around the base of the potato box (the former pea spot) a few weeks ago are now about an inch tall.

This afternoon, on my way walking over to the library to write this blog, I found a free watering hose on the side of the street that someone was giving away. It seemed like a decent hose, so I brought it over to the Community Garden before walking to the library. The Community Garden now has a number of functioning hoses and nozzles, a big difference from early August when temporarily there were no hoses. Many of the used hoses that had been donated by various garden members broke, while other loaned hoses were 'unloaned' and brought home. For an entire hot week, we were all unable to water our thirsty gardens. I decided to change that by mailing out 10 letters to area businesses and organizations requesting donations for new hoses. I quickly heard back from only one business, the Community Food Co-Op, which gave us $100! With that money, I bought two new hoses and nozzles. In the mean time, a few other hoses were donated by garden members.

Last week, Fall weather fell upon the Bozeman. We had a whole week of cold, rainy weather and now the Gallatin, Spanish Peak, and even the Bridger Mountains are covered in snow above 8,000 feet. It was good weather for trying new recipes and for freezing beans and zucchini for future use (also in the freezer are garden snow peas and herbs). We have had a few night-time frosts, so I've been covering the garden at night. This week, however, we are experiencing perfect, high-pressure weather- sunny days, highs up to 70 degrees. Should be great growing weather!

Bicycle Commuting Tips

2010-09-07T20:08:00.018-06:00

As a huge proponent of bicycle commuting and cycling in general, I feel its important to share some bicycling tips. Since I first started riding at age two, there has never been a period when I haven't ridden my bike. I started road-riding six years ago and began commuting/city riding four years ago. I love riding, but I must be honest- it can be a very dangerous form of transportation. In my 1000's of miles of riding experience, about half of the motorists that I encountered on the road behaved dangerously.

Although bicyclists have the legal right to share the road with motorists, many motorists are unaware of this law or don't agree with it. Many motorists are poor drivers, make poor decisions on the road, or are physically/mentally compromised. Many motorists have a general lack of understanding of how to drive when they encounter bicyclists. On the contrary, many bicyclists are unaware of bicycling/ traffic laws and ride their bikes in erratic, dangerous manners. These uninformed cyclists create a 'bad name' for the cyclists that practice safe bicycling. Motorists and cyclists must amiably share the road with one another. All cyclists must follow the same rules of the road and all motorists must follow the same rules and courtesies in regards to encountering cyclists.

I should mention as a notion of unbias-ness that I am both a cyclist AND a motorist. I have owned and driven a car for eleven years. I usually drive to places that are farther than 20 miles away and ride my bike within distances less than 20 miles. I also often road ride distances from 25 to 100 miles for exercise and recreation.

It took me a while before I became confident riding on busy city streets. I consider these tips to be 'advanced' because they come from years of cycling experience and so far (knock on wood) have allowed me to commute quickly and efficiently, yet safely. They are highly applicable and should be followed by all cyclists of all ability levels.

I would love to hear comments and from other cyclists or friendly feedback from motorists.

-Follow traffic rules as if you are a car. If you stop following general traffic laws, people in cars get confused.

-Just because you are a cyclist, it doesn't mean that you always have the right of way. When following the traffic laws of the road, whoever has the right of way that in specific situation has it for that specific time.

-When you do have the right of way, be confident in your actions and "take charge" of your right of way. Do not let other motorists treat you as if you never have the right of way; this causes dangerous situations.

- Assume that every car is going to hit you. Don't be paranoid, but be ready and watchful for any situation. Be ready to stop quickly, swerve, or speed up to avoid danger.

-Don't assume that motorists will predict what you are doing. If there is an obvious obstacle (gravel, pothole, car in the breakdown lane), don't assume that motorists will know that you will have to move around the obstacles.

-Always ride on the very right of the right lane or in the middle of the right lane when necessary. Never ride on the sidewalk; sidewalks are for walking or for children on bicycles. Never ride in the left lane into traffic; this confuses people.

-Indicate all of your movements. I do not use the old-school 90 degree arm signals (I find them to be ambiguous). Instead, I point with my arm and finger in the direction that I am going. If I am turning left I stick out my left arm, point with my finger, and move my arm up and down a little. If I am turning right, I point with my right arm. With this indication method, it is very obvious where you are turning. Your arm is your blinker.

-Whenever you move left, even in sudden situations, always look over your shoulder first. You obviously do not want to serve out into a car. You usually should indicate by pointing left before you serve left to avoid hitting an obstacle.

-Always look behind you before sticking your arm out to indicate that you are turning. You do not want to have your arm ripped off by a motorist that is passing too closely.

-It is often helpful to motorists, usually at intersections, to indicate when you are going straight. Indicate that you are going straight by pointing straight ahead. This may seem unnecessary, but it can prevent motorists from pulling out into you.

-Although you should come to a complete stop at every stop sign, its okay to roll through if the coast is completely clear. Never roll through a stop sign if a cop is around.

- Always come to a complete stop and wait at every stop light; do not roll through as if it were a stop sign. Commence riding after the light has turned green.

-Depending on the situation, it might best to stop in the middle of the lane at a stop light, then merge back to the right edge of the lane when traffic starts moving again.

-When a line of cars are stopped at a light or sign, its okay to roll past the cars on the right hand side. If there is a right turn ahead, be very careful that a car doesn't suddenly decide to pull out into the breakdown lane in order to drive ahead then turn right.

- If you are turning left, always merge into the middle of the lane with plenty of notice. Indicate with your arm first the you are merging left and again when you are about to turn left.

-Try to make eye contact with most all motorists. If you have made eye contact, hopefully they will not pull out in front of you. Be very wary of any motorist that has not made eye contact with you.

-Be firm and confident with your actions. You you seem timid, wobbly, or inattentive, motorists will try to move around or in front you in dangerous ways. You you are confident and look like you "mean business," motorists are less likely to take advantage of you. Make it clear that they'll be sorry if they try anything stupid or dangerous.

- Often, on busy in-town/city streets it is safest to "be a car." Ride in the middle of the right lane and try to ride at the same speed as the other motorists. If you ride like you're a car, motorists are less likely to drive around you or cut you off as if you were a cyclist.

-Ride at least 5 feet to the left of cars that are parked on the right side of the road. Parked motorists often open the driver's side door without looking first to see if any one is coming. If you ride too close to a parked car, you may ride into an opening door, which could severely injure or kill you. When riding down a street with a lot of parked cars, it is safest to "be a car" and ride in the middle if the lane.

-When riding a road that has a consistent stretch of obstacles, always "be a car." Even if it is a fast, busy road, it is safest to ride in the middle of the lane round the obstacles (which are usually on the very right of the lane). Be confident and 'force' the motorists to slow down or drive around you. You may choose to point at the obstacles so that the motorist understands why you are in the middle of the lane.

-Try to ride on streets that have the fewest cars. Even if the low-traffic streets take you out of your way a little, they often will be faster and safer.

-Try to ride on the smoothest roads. Roads with many potholes, cracks or gravel/sand can be dangerous for many different reasons. Hitting obstacles may threaten to crash your bike. Swerving around obstacles puts you at risk to be hit by a car.

-Try to ride roads that have wide bike lanes/breakdown lanes. Try to ride as far from the path of a car as possible.

-Be wary of elderly drivers. I'm not "age-ist," but most of my scariest near- collisions have with been elderly motorists that simply did not see me. Many older people have slow reflexes and poor vision.

-Be wary of motorists that are driving while using their cellphone. These people are often distracted and drive with only one hand.

-As you ride more and more, remember motorists' general trends. Drivers often make the the same dangerous mistakes due to ignorance on their half. In many situations, I can predict that a driver is going to put me in harm, so I ride in a manner that keeps me safe.

-Many motorists do not realize how fast a bicycle can be. Motorists in the right lane will often pass you safely, but then make a right turn 30 seconds later. This puts the bicyclist at great risk of riding into the side of the car. Assume that any car might turn right in front you at any time; be ready to screech to halt to avoid collision. (Note: If a motorist sees a bicyclist ahead, but knows that s/he will soon be making a right hand turn, the motorist should always slow down, not pass the bicyclist, and wait for the bicyclist to be clear before turning right).

-If at all possible, try to avoid bicycling during rush hour- 7:30-9 am and 4-5:30pm. Motorists in the morning are often sleepy or in a rush to get to work and are can dangerous around bicyclists. Motorists in the evening can be dangerous because they are tired and angry from work and in a rush to get home. If bicycling during rush hour, try to use designated bicycle paths if available. (Note: When I used to commute to my regular '9-5' job, I was allowed to create my own hours. I chose to work 7-3, thus avoiding most traffic when bicycling).

-Use good judgment. It may be best to avoid cycling on very busy, dangerous areas. Although cycling can be a fun and fast form of transportation, it may be safer in some areas to walk on a sidewalk or take public transportation. (Note: In the Summer of 2009, I stopped road riding for recreation on the suburban roads near Portland, Maine. Although I grew up in this area, I found in 2009 that the roads were overpopulated and highly dangerous. After many many near collisions, all at the fault of the motorists, road riding on the familiar roads was no longer fun).

-When bicycling at night or in low-light conditions, wear reflective clothing and blinking lights. It is important that motorists have full visibility of cyclists on the road. Some cyclists consider reflective clothing and lights to be 'uncool,' but I beg to differ. The more cyclists who wear reflectives and lights, the cooler it will become. Please be part of this new trend.

Got zucchini?

2010-09-07T17:00:00.007-06:00

Does anyone know how zucchini grow so quickly? My goal for the zucchini this year was to pick only 8 inch-long ones, but I've actually only harvested huge foot-long zucchinis with 7+ inch circumferences. I'll notice a mini 3 inch-long zucchini one day and when return to the garden a day or two later, its HUGE! I've harvested 17 huge zucchini so far this season and have given 3 away. I feel overwhelmed with zucchini. What I can I do with it all?!

-A classic solution: Zucchini Bread. I made 4 big loaves then froze two to eat later this winter.

-Zucchini Bread French Toast. Slice up homemade zucchini bread and prepare it like regular french toast. Top with homemade cherry jam.

- Zucchini Pancakes. I've been making these pretty much every other day; I love them. They are prepared like regular pancakes, but the amount of milk is reduced and about a cup of grated zucchini is added to the batter. I've been topping these as well with cherry jam.

- Add to stir-fry. I put them in when the dish is almost finished cooking because I don't prefer mushy zucchini.

- Add to minestrone soup. A couple of weekends ago, I made minestrone soup for the first time ever. It was delicious. I also used garden green beans and carrots in the soup.

- Sliced raw on salads. Raw zucchini is sort-of like a cucumber and an excellent addition to a salad.

-Zucchini quinoa cakes. I only tried making this recipe once and the cakes came out okay, but not great. There is certainly potential in this recipe and I'd like to try making them again.

-Add to spaghetti sauce. I used grated zucchini, but sliced would be good, too.

- Freeze them! I only learned yesterday can freeze zucchini. I think this is the best solution for an abundance of zucchini because now I can use it this winter in soups and stir-fry. I prepared one and a half for freezing today. It was quick and easy:

1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Slice up zucchini into half or quarter pieces.
3. Add zucchini to boiling water for 3 minutes.
4. Drain zucchini then immediately place them a a bowl of cold, icy water
5. Drain again and spread them single-layer on a cookie sheet.
6. Place cookie sheet in freezer, wait for the zucchini to freeze, then place in a freezer bag for storage
(Do not skip step 5 and just put them into a freezer bag; they will freeze together into a huge block of frozen zucchini)

I've been searching for other good recipes that include zucchini, but don't make use them as the focus of the meal. I'd like to try Zucchini Hummus. How do you like to use zucchini?

Community Garden: Growing Up!

2010-08-16T17:47:00.004-06:00

Community Garden: Before and After

2010-08-16T17:40:00.003-06:00

Garden Update #5

2010-08-16T17:03:00.013-06:00

The gardens are really starting to crank now. I am harvesting small amounts of vegetables every day, which Mark and I supplement into our meals. We have been picking beets and beet greens, carrots, dill, snow peas, zucchini, kale, onions, and spinach. I created spreadsheets for calculating how many vegetables each garden produces and their equivalent costs (from common prices for local, organic produce at the Farmers' Market). So far, the full plot has produced about $68 worth of vegetables and herbs! This is exciting because by the end of the season I should harvest at least $135 worth of vegetables, which is the total amount of money that I've invested into the full plot (annual fee $50, seeds $47, straw $5, and quick hoops/cover $33).

Any produce harvested from the half-plot or given to me by other Community Garden friends is a bonus. (I am using the half-plot for free this year and the seeds and straw were leftover from the full plot.) I am also keeping track of these harvest amounts and their equivalent market values. So far from the half-plot and friends, I've harvested a total of $15.

The snow peas have already gone by and I pulled them up on Friday. I harvested a total of 18 servings! Their spot now looks a bit bare and awkward, but now the potato box is uncovered, so it will see more light and heat. Just today, I planted lettuce, mustard greens, kale, and spinach seeds around the base of the box where the peas were. These greens should flourish in this spot because it is shady after about 4pm.

The winter squashes have been taking over the garden so few weeks ago, Mark and I built a twine trellis for them to grow up vertically. This is a good solution for the vines, but a bad solution for the heavy fruits. Today I noticed a hand-sized acorn squash snapped off from its vine. The squash fruits are too big and heavy and gravity is working against them. I need to find a way to support/hang the fruits from the trellis before I lose any more.

Here are a few more photos of how the garden looked today. The bush beans are setting on really heavily and I should be picking a bunch of them within a week. Once the dill begins to flower (which will be soon), I think I will pick most of it to hang and dry for later use.

Hey Ladies! Get a Diva Cup

2010-08-13T14:07:00.009-06:00

Its unlike me to promote products, so I hope my female readers trust me and go get themselves a Diva Cup. I purchased one in March and it has made a huge difference during 'that time of the month.' Seriously. I wish I had started using one long ago.

I made the switch to the Diva Cup for three reasons: 1. To save money, 2. To reduce the amount of trash that I produce, and 3. For health reasons.

Here's a bit of my 'feminine product' history: For about eight years, I used conventional pads and tampons with applicators. My roommate in college turned me on to organic, bleach-free tampons with applicators. I did some research on it my myself and found that conventional tampons are loaded with chemicals and toxins that could possibly leach into a woman's body. This obviously made a lot of sense because a tampon sits inside a woman's body for a long time and it is nestled in an especially sensitive area. A few years after making the organic tampon switch, a different friend turned me on to applicator-free tampons. This made sense, too, because the applicators aren't entirely necessary and only end up in the trash. A few years after that switch, I started using natural, bleach-free sanitary pads. I started doing that to reduce my body's contact with potentially harmful chemicals and also to stop supporting the conventional pad companies' destruction of the environment.

Prior to making the switch to the Diva Cup, I had been spending $20+ a month on organic, bleach-free pads and applicator free tampons. That's over $240 a year! Every month, I was throwing away about 12 applicator-free tampons and about 10 pads. That's about 144 tampons and 120 pads a year! I did some research on the environmental effects of both conventional and natural feminine products and found that the damage is very significant. Not only do the conventional companies have poor environmental practices (think chemicals, plastics, etc), the amount of trash produced from used feminine products is very high. Apparently, there are beaches on the coastlines of the U.S. that are littered with plastic tampon applicators. Nasty! I believe it, I've come across used feminine items tossed out in all sort of natural places.

So what is the Diva Cup? Its a very simple product, really; it is small, cup-shaped, and made from silicone. It is carefully inserted, similarly to how a tampon is inserted, and it is twisted to create a seal. Its shape collects the menstrual flow and it is periodically removed, emptied, cleaned, and re-inserted. Since it is made from silicone, it can be re-used over and over again. It is completely safe and non-toxic.

I had heard of the Diva Cup concept a few years ago, but had dismissed it as being 'gross.' But in March, after realizing how much money I was spending and how much trash I was producing, I thought I'd give the Diva Cup a try. I purchased one at the local Co-Op for about $35. I brought it home, thoroughly read the directions, then locked myself in the bathroom. It felt a little awkward at first and I had to readjust it a few times before I found a comfortable and leak-proof position. After using it for a couple days, I was totally convinced: the Diva Cup is awesome! Its not at all gross nor awkward.

The Diva Cup needs to be changed less frequently than a pad or tampon, usually once in the morning, once during the middle of the day, and once before bed. When changed frequently, it is completely leak-proof, eliminating the need to wear pads. I do, however, wear cloth pads on the first two, heaviest days of my flow as a back-up to the Diva Cup. A cloth pad is helpful to wear overnight when you are not awake to change the cup.

The Diva Cup is very comfortable; in fact, if it wasn't for the other symptoms related to menstruating, I probably forget that I was menstruating. Since I'm an athlete, the Diva Cup eliminates the usual mobility restrictions that I encountered with pads and tampons. Also, now I have the freedom to go on day-long hikes and bicycle trips without carrying along and changing feminine items. I consider the Diva Cup to be a huge asset to the female athlete.

Although the Pros greatly outnumber of Cons of the Diva Cup, its only fair to mention the Cons. Changing the Diva Cup must be done somewhere with access to soap and water, most preferably a bathroom. Both the Cup and your hands have to be thoroughly washed during and after the changing process. I changed it once beside a river, which worked fine because I was able to wash in the river, but the Diva Cup may not work so well on a camping trip were there is limited access to a cleaning source. Also, I found that it does take a little bit longer to change than pads and tampons. Changing and fitting the Diva Cup has to be done absolutely correctly or it will not work, so you have to be slow and patient during the changing process. Changing the Diva Cup would not work if you are in a rush.

The Diva Cup company recommends that a woman buys a new Diva Cup every year. So, by switching to the Cup I'm saving over $205 a year and practically eliminating all feminine product related trash. Please tell me, why wouldn't you make the switch!?

Why I Garden

2010-08-13T12:19:00.014-06:00

This blog has turned into a gardening blog of late, which is fine with me because gardening relates to this blog's the collective theme. I've been sharing my Movable Garden and Community Garden adventures, but I've neglected to share why exactly I garden. The reasons may be obvious, but here's why:

1. I feel that it is important that each person hunts, gathers, and grows what he/she eats. This is how humans have survived since our creation and this is how we should continue to survive. Its only natural.

2. I feel decidedly wrong when I purchase food from a supermarket. It is an intrinsic feeling of discomfort and my only explanation of this feeling is that my species is not accustomed to buying food from a store. Humans have only been purchasing all of their food for a few hundred years. I do, however, feel comfortable buying food from Farmers' Markets because humans have been selling and trading fresh, home-grown or gathered food in open-air markets for a long time.

3. Store-bought food is not real. It does not taste or feel real and it is lacking in nutritional benefits. I believe that 'conventional,' store-bought food can be unhealthy and often causes adverse health effects. The vegetables that I grow in my garden are real; they are healthy.

4. Where does store-bought food come from and how is it produced? Most people don't bother to ask themselves these questions, but the answers are scary. I know exactly where my vegetables are coming from this summer and how they are being grown: they are coming from my gardens. They are growing in happy, healthy places in fertile, chemical-free soil.

5. Conventional food travels a LONG way. It starts at a faraway farm/greenhouse, then travels around to various warehouses and shipping ports, then travels to your local supermarket, then you travel to the store to purchase it and then you travel home. In the end, your conventional food may travel hundreds and thousands of miles. All of this traveling is done with gas-guzzling motors. What is the carbon foot print of the food that most people eat? A LOT! What is the carbon footprint of my vegetables? Very little, because I walk to my gardens. My vegetables only travel a few blocks.

6. Modern, 'conventional' farming is damaging the Earth. Dangerous pesticides and chemical sprays, the stripping of once fertile soils and ecosystems into wastelands, the abuse and over-use of water, the genetic engineering of crops... these and many, many other farming-related problems are contributing to the destruction of the Earth, its ecosystems, and its living organisms (including humans). I believe that my modest organic gardens, located within walking distance, are FAR less detrimental than conventional farms.

7. Because I eat my vegetables soon after I pick them (and they are grown organically), they are high in nutrients. 'Fresh' vegetables that sit around for a while are lower in nutrients than recently picked veggies, because the nutrients break down over time. Due to travel, store-bought vegetables have been sitting around for weeks for even months. These vegetables may appear fresh and healthy, but their actual nutritional value is very low.

8. I absolutlely love the rich colors, textures, and tastes and fresh garden vegies. Honestly, look at the photo to the right. These vegetables are so beautiful!!!

9. I enjoy the experience of cultivating and nurturing the plants in my gardens. I suppose its sort of a womanly, mothering instinct; the plants in my gardens are like my little babies and it brings me joy to see them growing up.

10. I love the satisfactory feeling that I get from working in my gardens and eating what I've grown. Its just such a great feeling. My gardens bring me happiness.

11. I feel comfort in knowing my by body is fueled in part by healthy vegetables that I've grown with my own, loving care (and help from Mother Earth, of course). I firmly believe in the motto: You Are What You Eat.

12. Although my gardens are small and they are only providing me with a small percentage of my total annual food consumption, I feel that gardening is helping me to partially realize my dream of self-sustainability. I believe that modern American self-sustainability and homesteading are, most unfortunately, rich peoples' endeavors. I am far from rich, but any small attempts that I can make towards self-sufficiency are better than no attempts at all.

13. I strive in my lifestyle and daily activities to make conscious decisions that have minimal impacts on the Earth. Because of reasons 4 ,5 & 6, I feel that by gardening, I am having a positive impact on the planet.

14. The City Hall Community Garden has been a fun way to integrate myself into Bozeman. I feel that it is an important community project and I feel truly connected to the cause. I have enjoyed meeting other gardeners and working beside them to transform a vacant, non-producing space into a beautiful and viable vegetable-producing property. I love watching everyone's gardens grow.

15. Its the simple pleasures that make life worth living, right? One of my favorite simple pleasures is cutting/chopping/peeling vegetables. When Mark and I cook together, he always reserves the vegetable chopping to me because he knows that I really enjoy it. Chopping my own garden veggies makes the chopping experience that much more pleasurable.

Do any gardeners or aspiring gardeners read this blog? Why do/would you garden?

Kale for Breakfast

2010-07-26T18:57:00.008-06:00

At the community garden, my growing method with the beets, carrots, kale, and spinach is to plant them too close together, thin them at right moment, eat what I thin, then allow the remaining plants to grow with more space. Since my garden is small, this thinning and eating method seems to be a great way harvest as much produce as possible. After thinning the beets last week (and eating the greens), I have already noticed that the remaining have adapted to their extra space by doubling in size. It is exciting to see such a quick response.

Last night, it was time to thin the kale and I ended up harvesting a beautiful, big bunch of it. Mark and I ate it as part of a southern-style breakfast this morning. I sauteed the kale with garlic and onion and ate it along with homemade corn bread (with whole corn kernels in it) and scrambled eggs. Yummy! Even Mark liked it.

Other gardening news: We are eating snow peas! It will be hard to measure/count how many snow peas that the garden produces because Mark and I have been eating them off the vine when we go over there to water. I LOVE eating fresh peas right off the plant. Also, the cucumbers have started to blossom, which is great to see because I originally thought that the plants would die. The zucchini plants now have a few tiny zucchini growing. Fresh, organic produce is on the way...

Garden Update! #4

2010-07-19T11:22:00.010-06:00

I am long overdue for a new blog post or garden update. I am not particularly accustomed to spending time in front of a screen during the Summer because for fourteen summers of my life (half of my age) I lived up at my family's remote lakeside cabin in Northeastern Maine. Although there was no electricity up there, I did have a gas stove, gas fridge, gas lights, and gas heated water. There was a a flushing toilet and shower that ran by a generator, but I only ran the generator for six minutes a day. I preferred to 'go' in the woods and bathe in the lake. I spent my time up there growing a small garden, picking raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries then making jam, swimming, kayaking, biking, reading, and communing with nature. I didn't need anything other than groceries, which my parents brought in when they visited. For three years, I spent 6 months of the year living up there completely alone and interacting with few people. Its only been the last four summers that I've stayed in civilization and I have to admit that I'm still not quite accustomed to spending summers this way.

My gardens have been growing in leaps and bounds and its very exciting. First off, I should mention that not all of the new City Hall Community Garden plots were 'purchased.' Although there were over 70 people on the waiting list for a plot in one of the older community gardens, not many people wanted a City Hall plot. Bozeman Montana, unfortunately, seems to be a very trendy city (a budding Boulder or Bend) and I think that the City Hall plots just aren't 'cool' enough yet. Anyway, there were a number of vacant plots and they were divided amongst the existing members for free. I decided to split half of a 96 sqft plot with my garden neighbor, Casey. From seed, I planted peas, potatoes, carrots, spinach, kale, winter squash, zucchini, and nasturtium. I transplanted some basil and cabbage over from my full community plot and I also planted flower and collard seedlings (given to me by Casey) and hot pepper seedlings (given to me by my awesome landlady, Deb).

My full 96 sqft plot is amazing and I'm quite proud of it. I'm a total garden nerd. The potatoes in the potato box grew tall enough for me to plant the second layer on July12th, but as of today the new potatoes have not popped up. The first layer is flowering and very healthy. The peas started flowering yesterday and the winter squashes and zucchinis have flower buds that are just beginning to develop. I have harvested 35 deliciously plump radishes and four serving worth of beet greens that Mark and I prepared for both last night's and tonight's dinners. I planted the beets too close together with plans to thin them out and eat the greens and create room for the remaining plants to grow big beets. My plan seems to be working out well so far.

The 4x4 Movable Garden is growing well, however, it dried out while Mark and I went on a 5 day camping trip and the bush beans, carrots, cilantro are showing the consequences. On a happier note, the lettuce, parsley, and cat mint are growing very well. Two weeks ago, I pulled up the mustard greens (which seemed stunted and defective) and sowed spinach and lettuce seeds it its place. These new seedlings seem to be off to a good start.

I never blogged about the hail storm that hit a few weeks ago, but it was intense! It smashed out every western-facing surface of town. Mark and I were home at the time, working on a small carpentry project in the driveway. I could hear the storm coming from across town, it sounded like a freight train or a herd of bison stampeding our way. It was so scary!! We had time to bring in our power tools, close the lid on the 4x4 garden, and run inside before the hail hit, but we did not have time to move the Tomato Box into the garage. It was one of the most powerful and frightening storms that I've ever experienced. Golf ball sized pellets of solid ice hurled down from the sky. The ice nuggets pounded against the roof and windows for about 15 minutes. After the storm cleared, I ventured outside to find that the rear windshield and both rear view mirrors of my car were completely missing. The roof of my car was severely dented. The lid saved the movable garden, but one of the two tomato plants was ripped to shreds. It lots its top, its flower, and most of its leaves and stems. I thought surely it would die. I walked over to the Community Garden and rather miraculously, only a small percentage of plants were killed.

Now, three weeks later, both tomatoes are thriving! A testament to the amazing resilience of plants. Both are flowering and I've noticed one tiny tomato growing. The nasturtium that I planted along the perimeter of the box are growing well and the box will look so beautiful with blossoming nasturtium trailing down the sides.

Two days after the hail storm, I decided to get medieval on the garden and heavily armor it. I bought plastic electric conduit tubing and medium weight row cover and created quick hoops for a total of $33. This is well worth the investment because the quick hoops will not protect my garden from freak hail and snow storms, extend the growing season, and will last for many years.

I find gardening to be very satisfy work and although my gardens are small, I are partially realizing my life ambition of self-sustainability. Ideally, I would not have to work for others and earn money, but work for myself by doing back-to-earth type tasks that simply keep me alive. The community garden has been a lot of fun and I enjoy working with other people to transform the space and work towards a common goal. I have met some very friendly people and had great conversations about different gardening techniques and also about alternative and sustainable living.

Montana is on a long streak of high pressure sunny weather and as long as I continue to thoroughly water my gardens, my vegetables should hopefully continue to flourish.

Wheat Curbs

2010-07-18T21:47:00.007-06:00

I hate grass and lawns for a variety of different reasons (a topic for a future blog). There's nothing that makes me boil with rage more than listening to a roaring lawnmower on an otherwise quite Summer evening. To counterbalance this intense hatred, I consequently have a 'fetish' of lawns that are used for alternative, more practical purposes. I absolutely love it when lawn spaces are used to grow anything other than grass. There is growing subculture of Americans that are striving to transform lawns into gardens and I totally support these people in their efforts.

There is certainly a trend in Bozeman to keep green space, without grass, by growing flowers, trees, or vegetable gardens instead. Many towns folk choose to keep grass as grazing areas for their laying hens and ducks and I've noticed many lawn owners actually trimming their small lawns with push mowers, which are WAY better than gas-powered mowers.

My latest sub-fetish of transformed lawn spaces is the alternative use of curbside lawns. A curbside lawn is the 3-foot-wide strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street, which collectively occupies a lot of city and subrban space. Usually this strip is used for trees or grass, but now some people are using the space space for growing flowers, vegetables, and even WHEAT!

My neighbor at the end of the alley is growing wheat in his curb space and it has gotten me dreaming about an ideal world in which every curb in all of America is used to grow wheat. In addition to wheat fields, there would be wheat curbs. Wheat is lovely plant and would be attractive, organic addition to every curb. Yeah... in a perfect world...

Although I've never known a wheat grower, I've read about growing wheat and it sounds quite simple. It is a hardy plant that grows with little maintenance in most any climate and soil. The processing of the wheat by hand is a bit time intensive, but sounds fun. Americans would be far more appreciative of the wonders of wheat flour if every family spent time scything wheat grass and binding the sheaves, then curing, threshing, winnowing, and grinding the grain. Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed about growing and processing my own wheat by hand. I think this idea was ignited after reading the classic Little Red Hen story.

Garden Update #3

2010-06-21T18:45:00.001-06:00

Happy Veggies! The plants in my Movable Garden are really starting to grow now. Yesterday I pulled up 8 radishes. Mark and I ate them along with their tender, tangy stems and leaves in our dinner salad. Its hard to see all of the veggies in this photo, but the onions, beets, lettuce, and cilantro have grown a lot in the last week. My six basil are beginning to grow their second sets of leaves and the one red cabbage is starting to look like a cabbage. When I was first planting the garden a while ago, I thought I'd test some old bush bean, scallion, and chive seeds. These seeds turned out to be duds, so I replanted fresh bush beans this past week... hence the vacant spots in my garden.

The plants in my Movable Garden are significantly bigger and healthier than the plants in my community garden plot. The community garden plants seem stunted; its rather discouraging. The polycarbonate lid keeps my Movable Garden warmer during the day and night, however, my community garden is not covered and has been directly exposed to the cloudy, wet days and chilly nights that we've been having for a while now. In order to ensure that my community plot is productive this season, I may need to invest in some row cover and build some quick hoops.

Today I spent an hour and a half working on my community garden. Its very satisfying work. I replanted one section of peas and a big section of bush beans. I filled in some bare spots with more cabbage, parsnip, zucchini, winter squash, and carrots. I mulched straw around the onions, which are getting quite tall. The potatoes are all sprouting out of my potato box, but need to grow much taller before I plant a second layer of potatoes. Before I left the garden this evening, I gave it a thorough watering (it was actually sunny today!).

I need to harvest $102 worth of veggies in order to break even, otherwise, the community garden is an expensive hobby. Renting the garden for one season costs $50. I have spent $47 on seeds and $5 on straw. My purchases have added up without me really realizing it. I spent money on lumber to build the potato box, but I am not factoring this in to my total expenditure because hopefully the potato box will be used over and over again. I also, of course, spent money to build the Movable Garden Boxes and fill them with soil, but I am also not counting them because they are investments that will last a long time. If I had known this winter that I was going to have a community garden plot, I would have bought my seeds in bulk online from FedCo. This would have been way cheaper than buying individual seed packets from the grocery and hardware stores. I do have a bunch of left over seeds that I can use next season, so my investment in the garden really should decrease over time.

I will be keeping a specific count of what I harvest from both my Movable Garden and my Community Garden. How much produce can be grown in 16 square feet? How much produce can be grown in 96 square feet?

I hope the sun keeps shining...

The 4 Most Unneccessary Household Appliances

2010-06-17T21:07:00.004-06:00

As much as I like the idea of living simply, I have to admit that some household appliances have actually revolutionized the way we modern humans live. Living without a refrigerator/freezer, stove/oven, or clothes washing machine is tough, I've done it. Living without a microwave, dishwasher, clothes dryer, or coffee maker is easy, I've done that too. These four appliances are absolutely unnecessary. They are a waste of electricity, material, and all eventually break down and end up in landfills. Our landfills are filling up, so let's not add to the problem.

If your existing appliances are breaking down or if you are building a new home and are considering which appliances to buy new, please omit these "4 Most Unnecessary Household Appliances" from your shopping list:

1. Microwave. If you have a stove and oven, then you do not need a microwave. Reheat your leftovers or cold coffee in a pan on the stove. Heat your frozen dinners in the oven. Pop real popcorn on the stove. Why do you really need a microwave?

2. Dishwasher. If you have a sink, hot water, and two hands, then you do not need a dishwasher. Just set aside 15 minutes of your day for washing dishes by hand. Let them air-dry on a rack. Oh, and washing dishes burns calories!

3. Clothes Dryer. Unless you live in an incredibly wet, humid region or you are incredibly impatient, you do not need a clothes dryer. Instead dry your clothes inside on a rack or outside on a line. Wash your clothes at night and hang them up before you go to bed. Most likely, your clothes will be dry in the morning. If not, hopefully you have one other set of clean, dry clothing to wear in the meantime. Dryers rank very high in household appliance energy usage, making them not only energy-consumptive, but also expensive to use. The air and sun are eco-friendly and free.

4. Coffee Maker. If you have a stove, then you do not need a coffee maker. If you don't believe that you can actually make coffee without a machine, then read my simple instructions:

A. Boil a pot or kettle of water on the stove.
B. Grab another empty pot or kettle and place it on the stove.
C. Prop a drip coffee cone (gold cone or plastic cone with disposable paper filter) over the empty pot
D. Place coffee grounds in cone
E. Stand there and slowly pour boiling water over coffee
F. Drink yummy, yummy coffee
E. Notice that it tastes way better than coffee maker coffee
G. Rejoice!

Like dish washing by hand and hanging clothes, making coffee without a coffee maker requires a wee bit of labor. Or are you too lazy to care about our planet?

Backyard Wildlife

2010-06-11T11:08:00.009-06:00

There's no perfect place, but Bozeman, Montana is pretty damn good. The 'old part' of town where I live consists of small homes, that are close together, but separated by alleys and green space. For a long time, building codes were liberal, so imaginative homeowners built cool, small homes and interesting ramshackled out-buildings near the alleys. Most yards have several big trees and many homeowners tend to backyard kitchen gardens (aka, liberty gardens). It is also a growing trend to keep a few laying hens, so there are also some cool henhouse designs around town. Keeping urban areas condensed is important in many different ways: one can walk or ride their bike from their home to work, school, stores, restaurants, etc; it creates neighborliness and its easy to visit friends; it is a good use of land and prevents urban sprawl; its easier and less expensive to construct and maintain utilities (gas, electricity, water, sewage); and it helps to create a barrier between living space and agricultural space.

Bozeman is tucked up against two different mountain ranges, allowing quick and easy access to wilderness areas. The extensive "Mainstreet to Mountains" trail system conects in-town Bozeman to the Bridger and Gallatin Mountains. These trails are off-road, providing walkers, runners, and bicyclists a safe and natural path for recreation. According the the City of Bozeman website, "there are approximately 8 Community Parks, 12 Neighborhood Parks, 7 Sports Parks, maintained by the City parks division. There are also 18 playgrounds, 2 swimming pools, 2 lakes with beaches, a Canine Beach, a small Dog Park, 45 miles of trails and more than 300 acres of Natural Parkland within the City limits. In addition to these parks there are 21 neighborhood Public Parks that are maintained by Homeowners Association and are open to the public." Also, in the winter there are a number of ice skating rinks that that well-maintained by the city. This past winter Mark and I were meeting friends regularly to ice skate and play hockey. Adding to Bozeman's plethora public recreation arenas, there are also two or three 'fake' boulders that are accessible by the public trail system. The boulders are really fun and are a quick and easy way to get in a climbing workout without having to drive somewhere to climb.

Many people live in Bozeman because they love the outdoors and outdoor recreation. Therefore, maintaining green space seems to be emphasized in the 'old part' of Bozeman. Although ideally I would love to live somewhere more rural where I could have my own land for gardening, raising livestock, and living self-sufficiently, I enjoy living in-town Bozeman and I feel its important to practice and not just preach about urban densification. I have easy access to the outdoors and my neighborhood is pretty awesome because I can see the Bridger Mountains from our deck and because of the aforementioned green space, trees, gardens, fowl, etc. On any given day, I can look out one of our windows and see a number of different animal species. Its really quite special that I can live in town, but I can still enjoy watching wildlife from home. Here are the bird and mammal species that I've seen in my backyard:

Birds:
-Western Tanagers
-Northern Flickers (also seen doing a mating dance)
-Great Horned Owl
-Bald Eagle
-Evening Grosbeaks
-House Finches
-Hummingbird (what kind?)
-Magpies
-Ravens
-Crows
-European Starlings
-Mountain Chickadees
-Brewer's Blackbirds
-Swainson's Thrushes
-House Sparrows
-American Robins
-Red-breasted Nuthatches
-White-crowned Sparrow

Mammals:
-Rabbits
-Mouse
-Deer (have not actually seen them yet, but have seen their tracks in the snow)
-Moose (I didn't see the moose, but an acquaintance saw one walking up N. Wallace Street in early June!)

Of course, the total number of animal species that I've seen in all of Montana is much greater. There are so many animals here!

But... reader beware... this is when this blog post stops being so complimentary of Bozeman...

Like I said, there's no perfect place and Bozeman certainly has its problems. These problems really started picking up in the 1970's when the construction of new homes and neighborhoods became restricted by building codes and home insurance mandates. The 70's neighborhoods in Bozeman have bigger, two-stories homes that are not so close together, have wide streets, and have backyards with no gardens and not so many trees. The 70's neighborhoods are essentially big, ugly ranch homes afloat in a sea of cement. Unfortunately, it only got worse after the 70's as every subsequent decade saw more and more building codes, insurance restrictions, and greedy, thoughtless people. The homes grew bigger, the space between the homes grew bigger, the streets grew longer and wider, and the trees and gardens grew less and less. People in the newer parts of Bozeman can no longer walk or ride their bike to their jobs, or school, or stores, etc. They are no longer close to their friends and neighbors and public parks. They no longer have quick access to the trail system so they can escape to the mountains by foot or bike. The homeowners in the newer neighborhoods have isolated themselves and now they are reliant on their gas-guzzling SUV to transport them back to in-town Bozeman, back to where things make sense.

With few trees or bushes, the new neighborhoods do not attract as much wildlife. The lawns actually repel wildlife because they are so heavily polluted with fertilizers. Growing a garden invites the risk of cancer. The people who moved to Bozeman because they love the outdoors now look out their window at big ugly homes and driveways. To escape this Nightmare on Elm Street, they spend the majority of their time driving around. Sounds like a great lifestyle, huh?

Even more devastating, the newer neighborhoods have ruined the division between living space and agricultural space. Bozeman has spread its suburban tentacles onto wheat fields and cattle pastures. I have to wonder if the suburbanites ever think about where their food comes from... but then I remember that food doesn't actually come from wheat fields or cattle pastures, it comes from supermarkets. Duh!

The big home trend unfortunately hasn't stayed in the suburbs; it has slowly crept into the the old part of town. The thoughtless, greedy people are now building their big, unimaginative homes in-between others' small homes and in the open, green spaces. These people love the old part of Bozeman so much that they're willing to squeeze into any space they can find. They don't seem to realize that they're squeezing out the birds and rabbits and garden space. They're also squeezing out the imaginative architecture and ramshackled sheds that they originally found so quaint.

The Modern Humans

2010-06-03T21:55:00.009-06:00

In order to survive, humans need to find food, cook and eat food, drink potable water, be properly clothed, sleep, live in a warm and dry habitation, and be clean and healthy. These are very basic human survival principals that were major struggles for humans for thousands and thousands of years. However, over the past 150 years, many humans in 'developed' countries have not struggled with the basic survival principals. This is mainly due to industrial farming and the popularization of household appliances.

Life is Work, but many humans no longer consider work to be hunting and gathering their food, or spending long hours preparing their meals, or hauling and boiling drinking water, or sewing and washing their clothes by hand, or building their own homes, or chopping firewood to burn in the woodstove, or taking a sponge-bath in a big tub. Modern human work in no way resembles the traditional work of humans, working for yourself or with your fellow villagers with survival as the common goal. Modern human work now consists of getting in a car every morning and driving away from home to a thing called a job. A job is defined as "a piece of work, esp. a specific task done as part of the routine of one's occupation or for an agreed price" and also as "a post of employment; full-time or part-time position." A job is how modern humans earn rectangular pieces of paper called money. Humans drive in their cars to giant boxes called Wal-Mart in order to trade the pieces of paper for food and other products that are necessary for modern survival.

Modern food is not grown anywhere near where the modern humans live, but in far-away places with names like Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala. The modern survival products are also produced in far-away lands with names like China, India, and Taiwan. The food and products travel all the way around the world on vessels called planes, boats, and tractor-trailer trucks in order to reach the modern humans. The vessels are fueled by a gooey substance called oil, which, again, comes from far-away countries with names like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Norway.

After a long day of work at their jobs and a stressful paper-trading experience at Wal-Mart, the humans return to their homes, which look like big boxes with triangles on top. They place their food in a box-like product called a microwave. After 5 minutes, the microwave makes a ding! sound and this signals that the food is now ready to eat. This is what the modern humans consider to be cooking. The humans eat while staring at a another box-like product, which called a television. The television glows and flickers and makes sounds. The television shows lots of advertisements, which are images of products that can be traded for pieces of paper. The flickering images of products creates a zombie-like trance in the humans and causes them to covet the products. Modern humans consider television and advertisements to be very entertaining.

After staring at the television-box for many hours, the modern humans may or may not decide to do some other work in order to ensure their survival. The humans are already very tired from working at their jobs all day long, so they use products called appliances to do the survival work for them. A box-like appliance called a dishwasher is used to clean and dry dirty dishes. Other box-like appliances called washers and driers are used to wash and dry clothing. In order to wash their own bodies, the humans climb into hollow rectangle products called showers. Hot, potable water automatically flows into the shower and removes the filth from the humans' bodies. There is a lot of hot, potable, automatic water, so the humans can relax in the hollow rectangles as long as they want. At the end of the day, the humans crawl onto giant rectangle products called beds, which are used as sleeping vessels. While the humans are sleeping on their giant rectangles, they do not worry about getting wet during the night because the triangles on top of their box-houses keep them dry. They do not worry about getting cold, because that gooey stuff called oil is burned in the basements of the box-houses and this keeps the box-houses warm.

In the morning, a small product called an alarm clock makes a beep! beep! beep! sound. The sound causes the humans to crawl out of bed even though they are still very tired. The humans wander into their kitchen-boxes with their eyes still closed. They do not need to see in order to reach their kitchens, because the smell of freshly brewed coffee guides them there. The coffee was automatically brewed by an appliance called a coffee maker. The coffee maker was programed to start brewing the coffee fifteen minutes before the alarm clock made the beep! beep! beep! sound. Modern humans consider the coffee maker to be an essential survival product.

After the humans drink many cups of coffee (which, by the way is grown in far-away places with names like Brazil, Vietnam, and Columbia), the humans get back into their cars, drive off to their jobs, and repeat the whole process.

Garden Update #2

2010-05-28T09:55:00.010-06:00

Here is a photo of lettuce and radish on 5/26. They are even bigger today! The onions and beets came up on 5/26, but are not seen in the photo. Today, 5/28, it is raining and 50 degrees. It has been raining off and on all week with some sun, but mostly cloudy. The carrots are just starting to pop up today and I also planted bush beans, catnip, and more lettuce. Also, I planted in the Movable Garden two basil and one red cabbage seedlings, which had been started about a week and a half ago.

On Wednesday, Mark helped me add peat, coffee grounds, and composted manure (4 wheelbarrow loads) to my Community Garden plot. We tilled the soil thoroughly and it looks rich, healthy, and fluffy. Just as we finished prepping my soil, a bunch of people showed up to finish building the garden plots and shoveling gravel into the walkways. It was an awesome experience- there were about 20 people there, mostly all strangers, working together to finally finish the project. There were people helping who don't even have plots at the Community Garden, they were just there to volunteer in a community project (some were members of 1000 New Gardens). I was really happy to have Mark helping; he didn't hesitate and started assembling the wooden garden frames and shoveling gravel. He was a HUGE help and everybody appreciated it. I am also happy that Mark came because I think he thought that the garden was kinda ugly, but once he started working and realized what kind of land we were trying to transform, he had more respect for our project. A local TV news reporter filmed us and wrote a story. Click on "Video" to see Mark and I on TV.

Other exciting news: On Monday, Mark and I built a new 3ft x 3ft Movable Garden Box, which will be used as a display at the Farmers Market. It can fit easily into our car and will have 4 wheels (rather than 2) for even easier mobility. One will be surprised how much food can be grown in 9 square feet. This new model makes a perfect, affordable and manageable kitchen garden. Also exciting news: I scored a lot of free russet potatoes from some super-friendly farmers in Belgrade. They posted an ad on Craigslist that they had TONS of free potatoes, so I drove over there on Wednesday to check it out (they were not too far of a drive, so it was totally worth it.) The potatoes had been in a warehouse all winter because for some reason they were not sold. They were going to be dumped into a ravine to rot unless people took them. I don't understand why they couldn't be sold because they are perfectly good potatoes, with no signs of spoilage. The night-time temps are supposed to be well-above freezing. If the rain gives up for a moment today, I will going over to my garden plot to sow seeds.

In response to: "Why We Can (But Won't) Save the Earth"

2010-05-26T06:34:00.007-06:00

In response to Its Not Easy to Be Green's "Why We Can (But Won't) Save the Earth"

I agree that most humans won't change unless forced. If some sort of convenience is readily available, then people will readily take/use it and show no moderation. I think this mostly has to to with our natural instinct to survive, which is inherent to our DNA.

Here's a personal example: Last summer I was on a tight budget and I did not want to spend a bunch of money feeding an incredibly inefficient oil furnace for hot water. (Also out of green principles, I was very uncomfortable carelessly burning so much oil). To conserve hot water, my roommates and I started off the summer by taking very short hot showers. We would turn the water on for a moment to get wet, turn it off to lather and scrub, then turn on for a few seconds to rinse off. I was fine with this method of showering and my body, in its instinct to survive, was comfortable. Eventually, we completely ran out of hot water. I tried taking short, icy cold showers, but my body, again in its survival instinct, was very uncomfortable with this situation. It was cold in Maine last summer and a cold shower left me shivering for hours. Next, my roommates and I tried a new method: heating a big pot of water on the stove and using a cup to pour the water over ourselves in the shower. This method worked great and nobody complained. Our bodies were comfortable and it was much better than an icy cold shower.

During the summer, I told myself that when I moved, I should continue taking very short showers where I turned to hot water on and off. This is a good practice for conserving energy and precious water. But... since I moved to my new, super energy-efficient apartment here in Montana, I have not been practicing this shower conservation method. I have been taking luxurious 10-minute long hot showers. The hot water is not expensive and it is readily available, so my body naturally wants to be as comfortable as it can be. My brain may understand the notion of conservation, but my body does not.

There are too many services and products that are readily available to American humans. Our over-abundance of money has become a habit that has lasted for generations. We are so accustomed to these habits that it is almost intrinsic to our genetics, like survival. In America, cheap foods, cheap products, and cheap energy are readily available, so our bodies just take more, more, more.... because its comfortable, it helps us to survive. But does it?

Just a couple of summers ago, gasoline was uber-expensive and in order to conserve money (we use money to survive here in America), Americans actually drove less! And they survived! Wow! They drove less because they were forced to from financial restraints. This summer, gas prices have dropped and Americans will drive more... because we can and because its comfortable to our bodies, its makes us "happy." Everyone has already forgotten that we're in the middle of an energy crisis that is only going to get worse.

Humans use the world to benefit their survival, they will in no way moderate their habits unless forced. As resources and money become less and less readily available, humans will have no choice but to change their destructive habits. The current economic, energy, and food crises are Good Things... this is how we will Save the World.

Garden Update: #1

2010-05-24T07:05:00.009-06:00

Just a quick gardening update today. On Saturday, I met with six other gardeners to work on the City Hall Community Garden. We worked through all sorts of elements: snow, rain, hail, and cold. It was a long, hard day of work, but we got a lot done and now know what to do to finish up. It was incredibly muddy... Mark stopped by for a moment and looked absolutely disgusted; he didn't offer to help and I don't really blame him. All I need to do now if mix some manure and some peat into my plot and I'll be ready to plant cold-hardy seeds this week. The magic date for planting everything else around here is 'After Memorial Day.'

Yesterday, we bought lumber to build my potato box and another movable plant box. The next box will be 3ft by 3ft... a smaller and more affordable option that we can bring to the Farmers' Market as a display. We will build the box on the next non-rainy day we have.

The lettuce and radish seeds popped up on 5/20 and beets came up on 5/23. This photo of seedlings is from 5/23. We have had heavy frost ever night and some snow during the day, so I'm covering the plant box with cardboard until the polycarb arrives.
The neighborhood rabbits have been very frisky lately and I've had a lot of fun watching them. I've already noticed several different times that they like hanging out underneath the movable garden... but they won't be able to eat my veggies! Look closely at the top photo!

Movable Garden Boxes

2010-05-17T21:37:00.008-06:00

On Friday, Mark and I built a Greenovision Movable Garden Box out of cedar. Today I filled the inner boxes with soil and planted some cold-hardy seeds (beets, carrots, radishes, salad greens, scallions, onions, nasturtium, and cilantro). In addition to smelling amazing, the box is waist-height, so it eliminates bending over and is also out of reach from the neighborhood dogs and rabbits. The front door flaps down and the 5 inner boxes can slide out, making the box lighter and easier to move. The box is moved around like a wheelbarrow on two big caster wheels. I'm very happy with it and I'm eager to see how much food it will produce.

On a sad note: I made a big mistake today by putting the tomato and cucumber seedlings out in the blazing hot Montana sun. The tomatoes fried within and hour and the cukes... well, I'm not sure if they'll recover. I'm so sad about this because I've been tending to these baby plants for weeks now. I learned a big lesson today and I'm sure I'll learn many, many more as the growing season continues.

On Saturday, I joined other gardeners at the City Hall Community Garden to work on tilling the sod, leveling the soil, and building the cedar boxes. I only stayed until 1:30 because I went at the tilling with too much vigor. It was a hot, sunny day and I tired quickly. When I left, the leader said that he expected that by the end of the day the sod would be completely tilled and the boxes would all be laid in place. He said that if I wanted to come by during the week, I could spread out the gravel pathways. Today Mark and I walked over to the Garden and I was very surprised to see that the garden was not even close to being finished. I was planning on working there a few days this week, but now I'm not sure what is going on or what I should do to help. I haven't received and emails. I'm a bit perplexed.

Other than this recent confusion, the Community Garden is awesome. It has great sun exposure and is only a five minute walk from my house (one minute bike). Its a very convenient location. I realized that 96 square feet is really a lot of space... I need to buy more seeds, I guess. The other gardeners who were helping on Saturday were really friendly and everyone seems eager to garden and work together. I am looking forward to seeing how different people have different gardening styles. The girl who has the bed next to me is an entomologist and she wants to plant lots of flowers and build some bee houses on site so that we can attract lots of little flying pollinators to our garden.

Lastly, when I was babysitting last week, I noticed a print-out of directions for growing 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet. The Irish Eyes Website explains this box method much better than I can on this blog. I am very interested in experimenting with this method and I plan to build a potato box at the end of my community plot. Just imagine... 100 pounds of potatoes!

I won a garden plot!

2010-05-13T20:16:00.009-06:00

Last night's Community Garden lottery was a success! I'm so glad that I went. Surprisingly, only about ten people showed up for the lottery even though there were over 100 people on the waiting list. So, everyone who showed up got a plot!! I 'won' plot #4, which is 96 sqft. This community garden is being transformed from dead, empty space into garden space. We are all getting together this Saturday to hopefully finish getting the site ready so that we can actually start planting soon. There will be a big compost pile on site that the members will contribute to and maintain. I'm really excited to be involved in composting. A big pile of manure has been donated for us to use for free. Another bonus of the City Hall Garden is that the City won't be tilling it for us every Spring, so we can plant garlic, parsnips, and other over-winter vegetables. Woot! I plan to grow a bunch of garlic next year.

Today Mark and I will build our first Movable Garden Crib, so I'll be planting next week! Now that I have another 96 sqft in grow in, I'm wishing that I had started more seedlings indoors. A few more tomatoes, cukes, cabbage, and basil. Oh, well. I'm sure that if I just plant the seeds in the ground they'll be fine. I've had fun watching my seedlings growing on the window sills. The cukes are getting pretty big, but the tomatoes have been growing slowly because it has been so cloudy and cold lately. The greenhouse that I made from a used plastic olive oil bottle is proving to be very effective. You can't see in this photo, but there are 6 basil and 2 red cabbage seedlings that have popped up. Yay!

I'm growing a garden... finally!

2010-05-05T22:25:00.005-06:00

It has been over five years since I grew a garden and each of these years something inside of me has been aching. Not only do I love the whole process of starting and tending to a garden, I also believe that its fundamental to the nature of being a human being that we grow, gather, and hunt what we eat. I've been aching inside these past 5 years because my primitive human intuitions have not been fulfilled.

This summer I am finally growing a garden... or two. Mark and I have designed and will be building a couple of waist-height, movable garden cribs out of untreated cedar. We will use the cribs as backyard kitchen gardens and also as prototypes for potential sale to local gardeners. I hope to sell the movable cribs as well as my hemp nature note cards at the Bozeman Farmers Markets.

I also hope to win one of the 22 new community garden plots that will be created at the City Hall. There are currently hundreds of people on the waiting list for a garden plot and the estimated waiting time for a vacant plot is five years. There is a huge demand for garden space and the lottery for the 22 new plots is likely to be very competitive. The lottery and informational meeting will be held next Thursday. I'm crossing my fingers! My garden cribs can only grow so much food- they are best used for growing herbs and salady vegetables such as lettuces, cukes, carrots, radishes, and scallions. Beets, potatoes, zucchini, onions, and garlic can be grown in the cribs, but I would prefer to have a bigger, in-ground plot so that I can hopefully grow a greater quantity of these vegetables.

Movable garden cribs is idea that was in part ignited by the obvious demand for garden space. Most renters do not have the means to grow food because they do not have the land to grow on. Our movable garden cribs are a reasonable solution to this and many other gardening dilemmas. Another solution to the lack of gardening space in Bozeman is the grassroots organization, 1000 New Gardens Bozeman. The program aims to connect landowners with non-landowners to build 1000 new gardens within the next few years. What an amazing community project! Should I not 'win' a garden plot next week, I plan to join this organization. This group also builds and maintains compost piles, which is certainly a task that I would like to help with. Throwing my organic scraps into the garbage is another thing that makes me ache inside. I would like to throw my vegetable peelings, egg shells, and coffee grinds into a compost so that it can return to the Earth and make healthier garden soil. Throwing my organic matter into the trash only ensures that it will NEVER decompose because it is put into landfill where there is no oxygen nor microorganisms.

As soon as the cold, snowy, rainy weather ends, we will be building our cribs. By this time, the weather will actually be more suitable to actually start sowing seeds! I have a lot of excitement and energy to put into these projects. Stayed tuned...

What do you see here? #2

2010-05-01T15:30:00.007-06:00

What do you see here? I've been struggling with ideas for reusing these Gatorade containers. These containers are made with thick plastic, its unnecessary. Bulk Gatorade should come in a plastic bag or a small box. Buying these containers is totally contradictory to our motto for buying conventional foods... the less packaging, the better. Gatorade is the only product that we buy with so much packaging and waste. Additionally, Gatorade's parent company is Pepsi, which is a corporation that I do not feel comfortable supporting. Mark and I are never buying Gatorade again.

Gatorade is a crappy product anyway- its mostly cheap sugar with some salt and potassium. Its the electrolytes that are important. Drinking Gatorade helps to prevent headaches and soreness after a workout. We bought Ultima Replenisher electrolyte mix once, which is sugar free and healthier, but its very expensive and is still sold in a bulky plastic container.

The best solution to the Gatorade Container Dilemma is to stop buying Gatorade. I've been experimenting over the last many months to make my own electrolyte drink that is healthy, inexpensive, and minimal in packaging. Most of my solutions haven't tasted so well. I'm experimenting with a new recipe that combines Mineral Tea, Stevia powder, Sea Salt, Potassium Chloride, and lemon/lime essential oils. I will post another blog later with the results from this experiment.

I have found only three ways for reusing the containers. 1. They are helpful for storing leftovers in the fridge or for freezing foods. 1. They are useful for storing bulk dry goods and herbs. 3. A container also seems to be a very good temporary pot for growing seedlings (this cucumber seedling was originally started in a 'greenhouse' made from a clear plastic olive oil bottle).

What are other ways of reusing these containers?

A Solution or Not?

2010-03-05T17:33:00.006-07:00

At first glance, The Gallatin Zero Waste Coalition’s “Save the Glass” event seems like a great idea. Because the City of Bozeman no longer recycles glass, the Coalition is offering a one day opportunity to drop off glass to be recycled. At a fee of $29/ton, the glass will be transported over the Bozeman Pass to the town of Livingston, where it will be used as a material for road construction.

When I first read about the Earth Day event, I thought, "Great! Here's a solution to my glass recycling dilemma! A temporary solution, but its better than nothing..."

After thinking about it a bit and talking with Mark, we agreed that transporting tons of glass over the Bozeman Pass isn't exactly environmentally conscious. How many gallons of fuel will be need to transport the glass? Do the the carbon emissions from transportation justify the glass recycling? Which is more more important, reusing the glass and creating carbon emissions or keeping the glass locally by dumping it into a landfill and therefore reducing carbon emissions?

I still lean towards my first reaction, that sending the glass to Livingston to be reused is a better solution than landfill. If we keep filling all of our local landfills with glass, we'll just have to continue creating more and more landfills. Glass, however, does breakdown in the earth and is not considered toxic. It is not the worst item to fill the earth with, where as, filling the sky with more CO2 emissions is exponentially toxic.

I'd like to hear your opinions on this topic. Please comment.

My "Brad Pitt House" Design

2010-02-16T20:39:00.012-07:00

A little while ago, in the middle of the night, I suddenly felt the creative urge to test my home design skills. I had been reading earlier that day about Brad Pitt's "Make It Right" housing-development project in New Orleans. Brad has organized and partially funded the designing and building of 150 new, green, contemporary residential homes for some of the families whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. "Make It Right" seems like an awesome organization for so many reasons: families in New Orleans get new homes, architects and designers get to be part of a rewarding project and also gain some notoriety, the green housing movement gains popularity, Brad Pitt is portrayed as a real, caring person and not just some Hollywood Hunk, and so forth.

Only 21 lucky architecture firms were commissioned to design the homes, so surely it was a competitive gig for the firms to score. Apparently the designers volunteer their time, but I suspect that some under-the-table money and the right connections were critical tools for landing such awesome jobs. Of course, although the homes are FREE, not all people are happy that contemporary homes are being built in the Lower 9th Ward. All art is subject to criticism. According to an NY Times article, people complain that the homes don't 'fit in,' are too "avant-garde," and do not relate to historic New Orleans. I also sense implications that some criticize that the homes are "too good" for the Lower 9th Ward community. However, if you take a look at the happy faces of the homeowners, only a real asshole would complain about the designs.

So, like I said, one night I was inspired to design a "Brad Pitt House." I haven't done much art or expressed myself creatively since middle-school, so I was titillated to actually draw on paper with pencil. My mind immediately focused on one of Brad's parameters for the houses: they must be built on stilts as a protection against future flooding. When looking at the designs, I had noticed that all of the houses looked like they were on stilts. The stilt parameter was taken literally in all of the designs, as if the homes were plunked on top of stilts as an after-thought. My idea was to incorporate the stilts into the home so that they looked natural and friendly.

Being from the Maine coast, I started thinking about osprey nests on top of old wharf pilings. Osprey are example green home builders- they recycle pilings and build their nests out of sticks. I started drawing osprey nests (in the upper-left) and then I thought how cool it would be to live
in a nest-like house. I've always dreamed about living in a tree-house or a pseudo tree-house... how about a piling nest house?

I tried to draw out my design concept as best as possible. Essentially there are multiple nests of various sizes that stacked together and connected in the core of the structure. Each nest can be its own unit or the entire structure can be an one home. The nests could have roof-top gardens. I think that living in a convex home with outward-leaning walls would be trippy. I asked Mark later about the complexities of building outward-leaning walls with doors and windows and he said that it is certainly buildable. He built his brother's garage with inward-leaning walls.

Speaking of Mark, he sort of scoffed my design... just not practical or professional enough for him. I asked him how he would design a "Brad Pitt House" and he said that he would live in New Orleans for a while, talk to a bunch of its residents and learn how they live, study New Orleans' architecture and history, then eventually develop a design that would be appropriate for the community. He also said that a paper sketch is not related to how a home is really designed, engineered, and built.

Well, although I completely understand Mark's design process, I designed this home just for fun, just as brain exercise for the night. Can't design be something that one practices just for fun? After all, art and creative expression are something that one practices. Creativity isn't necessarily a natural gift that one doesn't have to work on. I hope to be inspired more frequently to practice expressing myself creatively.

The Glass Bottle Dilemma

2010-02-09T21:54:00.021-07:00

Unfortunately, Montana and many other states (and entire countries) do not recycle glass. Recycling certainly isn't the solution to trash and pollution problems, but it is one method of minimizing environmental impacts from waste and over-consumption. The old Reduce, Reuse, Recycle motto is said in that order because that is the order of priorities.

Reduce. Don't buy glass bottles in the first place. It takes resources and energy to them. Don't add to the problem in the first place!

Reuse. Before you recycle or throw the bottles away, consider different ways of reusing them. Reusing items may eliminate the purchase of new items.

Recycle. Recycling may be a better solution than throwing the bottles into landfills, but the recycling process still requires resources and energy, which are in addition to the original resources and energy required to make the bottles. It is argued that these resources, energy, and subsequent carbon emissions resulting from recycling process has a greater negative impact on the environment than throwing garbage into landfill.

Perhaps the old motto should be reworded: Reduce and Reuse.... (Recycle if you must)

So what's the solution?! On this blog entry, I hope to collect possible solutions to The Glass Bottle Dilemma. I'm sick of throwing Mark's beer bottles into the trash. Mark is just one man... think 0f all of the bottles out there going into the trash!

1. Homebrew beer in reusable kegs. No more beer bottles! Yay!

2. Consume fewer products that are contained in glass (and plastic, tin, paper, etc).

3. When I purchase foods that happen to come in glass jars, I clean the jars and reuse them for storing leftovers and other stuff. In general though, I've been trying to buy foods that come in minimal packaging. The less packaging usually means that the food is less processed and therefore healthier (and often cheaper).

4. Dan Phillips, "a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber" who builds houses out of 80% salvaged materials, reused glass bottles to make cool stained-glass windows. I've seen this done before and I'd like to browse around for more examples of reusing bottles in home construction.

5. Re-Nest's "Ways to Reuse Glass Bottles" has some awesome ideas. Bottles can be cut into vases, candle holders, and lanterns. I want to try this!

6. Beer Bottle Christmas Tree. I dislike Christmas, but even more I dislike plastic trees and the cutting down of live ones. Should you one really feel like celebrating gift-giving and gluttony, why not erect a beer bottle tree in your house? If you're feeling especially festive, why not also build a water-bottle tree?

7. Many companies are manufacturing recycled-glass kitchen and bathroom counter tops. Not a solution to my recycling problem... I'm wondering how the companies acquire their glass? These glass counter tops are absolutely beautiful, and after looking at more and more pictures of different colors and styles, I prefer the glass counter tops over granite or wood (and certainly over vinyl). Here are a few companies: CoveringsEtc, Vetrazzo, IceStone. Surely its expensive stuff, but perhaps the price will come down in time.

8. "Beer Bottle Buddhist Temple." This is beyond words.

9. "Beer Bottle Brick." In 1963, brewer Alfred Heineken and Dutch architect John Habraken designed beer bottles that could specifically be reused as bricks. The flat-sided bottles fit together horizontally with their male/female components: the bottle neck fit inside the concave bottle bottom. Unfortunately, Corporation Heineken did not support the project; there was only one production of 100,000 bottles. This idea desperately needs to be revitalized. Products should be specifically designed to never become trash.

10. A sort-of-neat DIY project: using puff-paint and spray paint, transform bottles and cans into "Faux Porcelain" vases. Not entirely environmentally friendly, but on the right track.

11. Beer bottle bus stop! The walls of this bus shelter in Lexington, KY are made entirely out of reused soda bottles and it is illuminated at night with LED lights that fit into the bottles. And better yet: the lights are powered by solar panels that are positioned on the roof. This is exactly the solution I've been looking for!

Homemade Vanilla

2010-02-09T21:19:00.004-07:00

Well, homemade vanilla won't save the world, but it may save a few bucks and its fun little project, too. Its easy:

1. Acquire some real vanilla beans. I got mine from Mountain Rose Herbs, which is an organic tea, herb, and spice whole seller (this place has great deals on bulk products).

2. Buy 375ml of 80 proof vodka.

3. Cut 5 vanilla beans in half length-wise and stick them in the bottle of vodka.

4. Wait at least 2 months (try to resist the urge to drink yummy vanilla vodka- Mark failed at this). The alcohol will extract the vanilla flavor and aroma from the beans.

Real vanilla extract is quite expensive at the grocery store. This is mostly because growing vanilla beans is an intricate process: The vanilla pod is the fruit from an orchid, which is a very sensitive plant to grow. One vanilla orchid produces one vanilla pod at a time and each orchid has to be hand-pollinated. It is grown in warm, tropical climates.

My New Crush

2010-02-04T19:17:00.011-07:00

I have a new internet persona crush. Her name is Hillary, she lives in a 677 sqft house in San Diego, and writes a blog called This Tiny House.

One may think its weird that I have a crush on this woman since I don't even know her, but she seems really cool and I've had fun exploring her website these last few days. Hillary and I seem to share a similar background: she was raised in middle-class suburban America and I guess she was bored with "growing up in the exact median," so she decided to go "counter-culture." She lived on a commune for a while (which is something that I've always dreamed about) and then she started working for Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, a company that sells itty-bitty prefabricated homes. I admire Hillary because she has found an awesome way to do her own thing and earn some money while doing it. Hillary is a free-lance writer. She and her partner are renovating a 50 sqft trailer and rigging it up with solar panels. They plan to tow the trailer around the country with their small, efficient car and spread the news about "The Small House Movement." Hillary will write about her travels and trailer-living experiences on her website. She also writes practical tips on living tiny and shares stories about others who live tiny.

Coming across Hillary's website the other day was perfect timing because lately I've been think a lot about trailer living. Mark and I's combined income has been pretty low lately and we talk a lot about alternative ways to both earn and save money. We currently spend about $9,600 a year on rent and utilities. Renting has a certain freedom to it because we are not obligated to pay monthly mortgage bills, but renting is not an investment; its a loss of $9,000/year. Last winter, we discussed the possibility of car-camping for the six warmer months of the year. I was totally on board for living in a tent in the woods for the summer, but that didn't happen and we ended up living in an apartment in Portland instead. So, now it winter again, income is low and we are revisiting our ideas of non-apartment life.

I could definitely see myself living in a tent or a van or even a trailer. Like I said, I've been thinking a lot about trailers lately and this is because a few weeks ago, Mark and I checked out a new trailer that is for sale on the main street of Bozeman. We were going for a walk and stopped at the trailer, just as a lark, to peek into the windows and see how it functioned. It looked really nice inside! Plenty of room. Like I said in my van story, you'd spend most of your time outside anyway, so the trailer would just be an escape from the extreme elements. The trailer on main street is not my dream trailer, in fact, I think it is quite ugly and kinda cheaply built, yet over-priced. However, $12 grand is the price of 16 months of rent. Think of all the money you'd save living in a camper out in the woods. After exploring Hillary's website a bit, I've gotten the bug in my head that Mark and I could buy a cheap, old trailer and rebuild it into something really cool.

There are many problems with trailer living, mainly: A. Where do you park it? and B. How do you tow it? Where could place you park it in Bozeman that isn't a trailer park? Could you really tow the thing up some dirt road way into the mountains and leave it there? What size trailer could my little Jetta tow? Inconveniences such as utilities and, in general, living in such a small space are not such big problems to me, but the logistics of parking and towing the trailer are serious considerations.

Anyway, this is just an idea. There are plenty of old trailers around Bozeman. Even if we didn't live in a trailer, I still like the idea of recycling old trailers and converting them into small homes.

What do you see here? #1

2010-02-04T18:30:00.007-07:00

Upon seeing this stack of crates (located down the street from me), I immediately thought: Raised Garden Beds. Plant Boxes. Compost Bins.

I don't know what type of wood these crates are made out of; they're probably toxic and not suitable for growing food in, but surely they're suitable for something. Mark says that they must be reused again as shipping crates, but I'm not so sure... the crates to the left of the pile look like they've been there for a long time. This stack is actually bigger than it appears in this photo. There is a another big stack of crates behind this one.

What did you first think when you saw this picture of crates? How can they be reused or recycled?

Simple Solutions for a Spoiled Society

2010-02-03T10:59:00.010-07:00

Most Americans are absolutely spoiled... and they don't even realize it! The current economic recession has hit middle-class Americans hard and they are relying on credit to maintain their high-maintenance lifestyles. No matter how "bad" things get in America, the rich will still be rich and the poor are used to rough conditions (so they're probably the most adaptable and will survive), but the middle-class are accustomed to being spoiled and they are unwilling to change their lifestyles to cope with the current economic conditions. Most Americans have been whining a lot about the recession and how traumatic it has been (I am one of those whiners at times), but they never stop to consider that most of the world inhabitants are poor and truly struggle to survive. Are the middle-class Americans struggling to survive? No! Not even close! They are so stubborn, they won't even downsize in little ways.

I was raised in middle-class suburbia with white-collar "professional" parents, so I am accustomed to a certain lifestyle. I also have traveled a bit and experienced other ways of living that aren't as needy as the way I was raised. Although the glory days of middle-class America are over, I still see myself and most Americans are being extremely fortunate. I've certainly downsized a lot on the last four years and I strive to live even simpler (not only to save money, but to save the environment).

Here are a few simple ways that our spoiled middle-class Americans can downsize:

1. If you are married or have a partner, SHARE A VEHICLE! Just because you are an American, it doesn't mean that you have the need or right to own your very own giant chunk of metal. Mark and I have been sharing my car for over a year and it works fine for us. It is perhaps a little inconvenient at times, but because we live in town and do not have to commute to work (if we do, we can walk, bike, or carpool), we don't really have a necessity for two vehicles. By sharing a vehicle, the American family can save on:
a. Money for the vehicle itself
b. Money for gas
c. Money for maintenance, tires, and repair
d. Money for car insurance
e. Money for registering the car
g. Carbon emissions

If I got rid of my $8,000 car I would save at least $600/year on gas, $400/year on maintenance and repair, $840/year on car insurance, and $150/year on excise tax. That equals (a minimum!) $2,000/year savings plus the $8,000 for the car. With that amount of money you could pay off your credit-card bills or invest in making your home more energy efficient.

Aren't the HUGE monetary savings worth the slight inconvenience of sharing a car?

2. Kill your Television. Ok, that might be a bit too traumatic for most TV-addicted Americans, but you can at least cut off your cable or satellite TV service. That saves about $50/month or $600/year. If you still enjoy staring at the screen every evening, rent a free DVD from your Public Library. Most public libraries have a great selection of movies. They often have Hollywood movies or thought-provoking documentaries and foreign films. By taking out free movies from the library you could save $9/month on Netflix or $24/month (if you rent eight $3 movies from the movie gallery every month), totaling $108-$288/year on movie rentals. So by watching library movies, you can save up to $888/year.

Are your nightly mundane sitcoms so important that you're unwilling to save $888 every year?!

3. Cancel your internet service. I know, this is a HUGE sacrilege for most technology-craved Americans. I admit, I have been on the internet a lot lately, but that is mainly because it is available to me (luckily I have free wireless as part of my monthly apartment rent). Last winter, I did not have the internet in my apartment and guess what?..... I SURVIVED!! Not have having internet at home really wasn't so bad because I could just go to the Public Library and use the computer as much as I wanted there. And while I was at the library, I could pick out a book to read and borrow a few of those free movies I was talking about.

What are most Americans really doing on the internet? Probably just watching porn and YouTube videos, playing poker, and wasting time on Facebook. The internet, of course, is an amazing source of information and is great for reading news from various alternative sites. But like I said, you can stop by the library every evening for an hour and read the NY Times, then hop on the computer to check your email, see the weather forecast, and check other news/information sites.

Most home internet service providers charge $50/month or $600/year. It is great to have unlimited, easy access to porn, news, blogs, and Facebook, but during these "hard" times, is it really worth $600/year?

4. Cut the soda and beer. Yes, another absolutely HUGE sacrilege in this country. In the year 2000, 15 billion gallons of soda was sold in the U.S., which works out to one 12-ounce soda per person a day (Source). For the soda industry, this equaled "$48 billion dollars in revenue"(Source). Of course, not every American drinks soda. So, if half the American populace (140,710,953 people in the year 2000) invested $48 billion dollars to drink 2 sodas a day, this means that these soda drinkers each spent $341/year on soda. $341 for a bunch of empty-calorie sugar water! I won't begin talking about the risks associated with soda consumption (diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, and subsequent rising health care costs).

Beer consumption is a very touchy subject. I in no ways want to imply that Americans should stop drinking beer, I only want to say that one can obviously save money by drinking less beer, brewing their own beer at home, or refilling growlers from a local brewery. In the year 2008, Americans spent $101 billion on 69,655,915,680 twelve-ounce bottles of beer (Source). If half of the populace drinks beer, then each beer drinker drank 451 beers in 2008 and spent $654 (an average of 9.3 beers and $13/week). If each beer drinker could cut back to just one 6-pack a week, s/he could save $237/year. Did I do the math correctly?

I don't know why I even bother to mention beer reduction because during "hard times" beer consumption only increases. People are unemployed, broke, and depressed, so they sit around and drink a bunch of beer becoming more broke and depressed, so they sit around and drink even more beer.... Seems like a vicious cycle to me. If you try experimenting with a home brew, at least you have something to occupy yourself with, therefore you may not be quite so bored and depressed and you may not drink as much.

I bet many Americans would be angry that I am suggesting these Simple Solutions for a Spoiled Society. These people may call me an "elitist" or a "prude." I actually feel kind of sick and guilty suggesting these downsizes because most people around the world can't even fathom such extreme wealth and gluttony. Only in America is it considered a "hardship" to have only one car, not be able watch cable television or surf the internet endlessly, and only drink six beers a week. The Horror!!

A False Tree and a Fake Island

2010-02-03T01:55:00.002-07:00

A story from my other blog: About bicycle commuting and an off-beat way to earn some money

What a beautiful evening! The daylight is long and I just rode my bike from Portland to Cousin's Island, which is off the coast of Yarmouth. I am here on a cat-sitting gig that my long-time pal, Denise set up. My duties here include giving a huge tom-cat named Furgus his insulin shot twice a day. I ride my bike here to save on gas and carbon emissions and I get paid $40 a day. This is probably one of my strangest jobs yet: tending to a diabetic cat on a island off the coast of Maine.

I am successfully not falling into the evil tv trap by writing a blog instead. I have been off the tv wagon for four years now, but being suddenly immersed in suburbia makes me drool for that flickering, annoying, and addictive drug. I grew up in suburbia and I watched a lot of tv. Now I hate suburbia and I hate watching tv.... but that nasty television is still tempting me!

Staying out on Cousin's Island isn't as quaint as I thought it would be. This island isn't like other Maine islands; its just an extended Greater Portland suburbia with neighborhoods full of typical, new construction, New Englandly homes. Most of the waterfront is privately owned and the island has a causeway/bridge/viaduct from the mainland, which immediately kills any sense of isolation that I normally feel on an island. I think that the type of people that live here would be scared when placed in a true isolating experience. I like solitude and remoteness, so that's why this island is disappointing. Cousin's Island is just like Scarborough, the depressing, suburban town where I grew up. I feel like a scarred adolescent when I'm staying in a neighborhood like this. There are many other places in Maine that I'd rather be right now, but this gig really isn't so bad and I'm making the most of it. I'm just glad that I'm not in Ohio, or Miami, or Boston right now.

My 'commute' to the island was especially fun today. To start with, it had been rainy, cloudy, and grumpy all morning, but then the sun popped out this afternoon and everything became warm and happy. I waited until 6:30 to leave Portland because by then, the car commuters are home watching tv or mowing their lawns. The summer air/oxygen pumping through my body felt refreshing and I was enjoying peeking up at the fluffy, purple, rain clouds and the patches of bright, golden sunlight. I rode through a friendly, summer shower. The warm rain blowing onto my face at 20 miles-per-hour felt amazing. Cute, streaked chipmunks kept darting across the road and a falcon swooped ahead of me and then landed in a tree. I even heard the bizarre call of a Common Night Hawk, an equally bizarre-looking and elusive bird (I originally connected this call to the Night Hawk after a nighttime exploration/adventure with Danielle, Madeleine, Lilly, and Greta). The ride ended wonderfully as I rode across the bridge and admired the 270-degree grand ocean vista. The sky and ocean were so beautiful that I barely even noticed the oil-fired, 620-megawatt power plant that looms on the tip of Cousin's Island.

Before I left Portland, I was relaxing in Kate's backyard with Jon. We were admiring a particularly handsome and unique tree. I remember contemplating on the same tree back in May. It stood out then because the neighboring trees were all flaunting their blossoms and acid-green leaves, but this tree was naked. I thought perhaps it was dead. The tree is tall and lean, its trunk and limbs are twisted and witch-like, and its bark is thick and deeply textured. Today, Jon and I noticed that the tree was fully sporting a raiment of spear-shaped 'compound' leaves and grape-like bundles of white flowers. The tree's structure is so rugged, yet its leaves fluttering in the wind is so delicate and graceful! After extensively complimenting the tree, we noticed that there are many other trees of its kind in the neighborhood. There is even a 12 foot-tall offspring growing behind Kate's parking spot. After a bit of googling here at the diabetic cat's house, I've discovered that the tree is a Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)! No wonder I guessed that the tree was an Acacia - its a false Acacia!

To end this blog and my day, I will share my list of "Things with Four Wheels that I Hate." I formed a mental list of these things while I was riding on the road to suburbia today. This list includes: cars, trucks, SUVs, ATVs, and especially lawnmowers. I also made a mental list of "Things with Four Wheels that I Like," which includes: carts and wagons powered by people, carts and wagons powered by 'beasts of burden,' and train cars.

Shipping Container Houses

2010-02-03T01:05:00.010-07:00

I like the idea of small, contemporary prefab living spaces that aren't boring like trailer homes and double-wides. Mark's friend, The Unit, suggested we ponder about Shipping Container Homes. Although I'm a bit skeptical about why the container can't continued to be used for shipping, I certainly like the idea of recycling unwanted shipping containers.

Check out "Yahoo's 12 Amazing Shipping Container Houses" to see some interesting designs.

I especially like Atelier Workshop's Port-A-Bach and Bark's All Terrain Cabin. They used a small space very efficiently, however, these homes seem best fit for a warm, dry climate.

Along the same idea as reusing shipping containers, why not reuse old train cars or tractor-trailers? Prefabricated homes encapsulated in a train car or tractor-trailer can be easily transported by train and truck.

Container-Life is an entire blog dedicated to shipping container buildings. Fun to check out.

Hospital Van

2010-02-03T00:16:00.004-07:00

Imported from a different blog of mine: About the possibilities of living in a van

This is the Hospital Van. I've been admiring it everyday on my walk to visit my dad at Maine Med. I usually don't admire man-made material objects (other than bikes & skis), but this van is super groovy. It is parked in the parking lot at Maine Med, but only through the night. I haven't figured out if the guy is actually living in it or just parking it there over night. I saw the driver on Vaughn Street one day and he was disappointingly un-groovy looking. Thin, middle age, long, stringy hair, kind of sleazy-looking.

On my walk to and from the hospital I pretend that I live in the van and I make up stories. I think that this van is a very practical device for both living and transportation. It would be optimal to live out if this van if you were parked where there was some natural, open space because most of the time, you'd really be living outside. A tent would be a nice accompaniment to this van. The van also comes equipped with a shade that pulls out from the side/top. With this shade, you could still be outside, but out of the rain, snow, and blazing sun. When living outside, the van is mostly used for storage. This van seems perfectly adequate for all of our essential gear, etc. We could totally live out of this van.

On days when it is really cold, snowy, windy, or sandy, the van is a great retreat from the elements. It would be a bit snug overnight with Mark and I and all of our stuff, but it would be better than being outside on that night. I could sleep in the neat upper bunk cabinet, however, I don't think Mark would fit up there well. He'd probably hit his head up there in the middle of the night when he got up to pee. After long stints during the winter, living in the van would definitely become annoying. It would fine to stay in it for a week while on a ski holiday. The van would become a little grim because we'd have to air out our sweaty ski clothes and boots, but it would be much cheaper than staying at a lodge and probably more of an adventure.

This van probably gets really shitty gas mileage, but the goal with the van would be not to drive it too much. The foot print on the environment that this van makes (even when driving it) is still much less than the foot print created by having two cars, a house in the suburbs, an oil furnace, electricity, etc. Finding water, taking a shower, and going to the bathroom aren't that big of a deal. Water jugs can be filled at a lot of places. When Mark and I were camping out near Moab, we'd go the the Community Pool to take a free shower and stock up on water. The showers there had no curtains and the water was icy cold, but it sure felt good to get clean. We could also get water at Tex's Canoe Trips, which we found on a back street in Moab. Here in Portland, for instance, nobody would notice if you went into Reiche during the open swim hours and took a shower and collected water. As far as a toilet goes, I'm not at all squeamish about going in the woods; in fact, its often better. HandiWipes are important.

If Mark & I lived out of this van, we'd put some Thule bars on top so that we could put our space case up there and also our bikes (bags would be fitted over our bikes to protect them). All of the groovy vans out West have bars on top. This makes more storage space so that the inside of the van can be clear for sleeping. The great thing about a van is that if you are traveling somewhere and you become tired, you can just pull over and sleep in the van instead of going to a motel. Also, if you arrive at your camping destination in the middle of the night and you don't want to set up your tent in the dark, you can just sleep in the van. The van is very convenient.

I understand that I'm not the first person to have an admiration for vans like this. A lot of cool people have lived out of a van during some point of their life. I think that most of those people say that it is fun at first, but then becomes very annoying. Well, I think that I could really pull it off. I'm good at living simply and I really enjoy it. When I've been camping, or traveling, or living up at my camp, I feel deeply satisfied when I live without too many accessories. Certain freedoms (frivolities, to those who truly live simply) are important, however, such as outdoorsy toys, proper clothing, and methods for preparing good food (including methods for brewing a perfect cup). I would really like to experience living in a van (at least for a while).

I once had a hippie friend who owned a big van and it had a beanbag chair in the back. We'd ride in his van to a bar on the Arizonian/Mexican border. We'd drink the most excellent Bloody Mary's at this bar and flirt with the Mexican-American bartender lady. While driving the van, sometimes my hippie friend would randomly pull over and do a jig in the back. Sometimes we'd pretend that his van was a German Disco tech. I'm not saying that I want to recreate an experience like this, I'm just noting that a van is useful for doing many things.

Here is one of the pretend stories that I made up about this van: Mark and I are going on some sort of an adventure trip, deep into the mountains of Montana or Wyoming. We drive the van way up some dirt road and make camp for the night. Later, a groovy, alternative couple pull up in a similar van. We all become friends and sit around the fire together at night. The girl and I go off into the woods to meditate and do yoga. The guy is a climber and he and Mark share climbing stories and perhaps belay one another.