Garden Goodies

We finally have a garden that is showing signs of promise. Our attempts over the past few years to garden in the soil have met with so many problems that it became discouraging. Crappy soil, numerous pests in the ground and above, hungry birds, windstorms, and more worked together to defeat our efforts. Then my sweetie saw some hydroponic equipment for sale on craigslist and thought, "Why not?"

Why not, indeed! This method of gardening has eliminated the problems of crappy soil and pests in the ground, as well as actually reducing the amount of water used. Birds are kept out with bird netting and the plants are more protected from the wind on the patio. We finally have a lush vegetable garden with the promise of tasty treats soon.


The loofah is blooming profusely, albeit mostly male blooms.


At least one female bloom managed to get fertilized and we now have a baby loofah high up on the vine. Although I really want to grow my own loofah sponge, I also want to try eating it as a vegetable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the chance to do both this season.


We have a couple of bitter melons growing, which will be a new vegetable to both of us.


This baby bell pepper now has siblings. I love them when they turn red but will I have the patience to leave it on the plant that long?


This hot little purple pepper has been joined by numerous others. It's a type of cayenne pepper.


These eggplants are on the menu plan for the end of the week. They are a yellow variety and almost ready. (Photo is from a little while back.)


The tomatoes are producing a few fruits a week, but may pick up the pace as the temperatures cool off. The last few days of 100+ degrees are supposed to have been the last gasp of summer.


Okra pods are popping up on a few big plants in pots out in the yard. They had a bad case of spider mites but seem to have recovered.


I'm so excited to be harvesting from our back yard. It's makes me more eager than ever to get our own place where we can have a much larger garden. Instead of gradually trying to amend the soil as we did here, rather unsuccessfully, my sweetie plans to try a number of different techniques. The CSA farmer advised us to amend the soil and then plant legumes and wheat for the first season and then plow it under when it reaches knee height. He said whatever is planted after that will grow wonderfully.

My sweetie has also been reading Australian blogs and websites, written by people who have dealt with gardening in drought conditions for quite some time. He's itching to apply some of their ideas. Two possibilities are gardening on top of a huge worm bed in the ground with a hydroponic set-up and aquaponics. We may eventually have chickens as well to create additional fertilizer. Fish and chickens may seem like odd choices for vegans but the eggs and meat can both be used to make our dogs' diet more local.

That's all for now because I want to go back outside and admire the garden.

"Instant" Spaghetti Sauce

A couple of years ago, Sharon posted about the importance of planning and organizing in order to eat from food you grow yourself.

...growing your own food requires considerable planning - a pizza I want to eat in the fall requires I start thinking about wheat last fall, tomatoes this winter and basil in may. Planning and organizing can make a huge difference in your consumption. Buying in bulk, and keeping quantities of your staples around, learning to eat seasonally and recording what works and what doesn’t, consolidating your cooking so that you do all the baking in one shot for a few days, and can keep the oven off…this is planning.

Even if you're eating food you did not grow yourself, her recommendations can help you eat well while saving time and money. Because I have a pantry stocked with diverse foods and I have preserved food at other times of the year from my CSA share and wild-harvesting, I can throw together a wide variety of delicious and healthy meals fairly easily.

I needed lunch in a hurry today and didn't have any leftovers in the fridge. I glanced at the shelves in the kitchen and saw a small package of whole-grain angel hair pasta. That seemed like a good start but I wanted some sauce with it. Despite my commitment to eat the food I have on hand - which often means cooking from scratch - I really didn't feel like doing a lot of chopping and cooking for a late lunch.

No worries; I was able to throw together a really good spaghetti sauce in less time than it took for the pasta water to come to a boil. I was only able to do this because I had done the work earlier to prepare and preserve these foods. Here are the ingredients I combined for the sauce:

• Frozen cubes of roasted tomato puree - from a flat of extra tomatoes I bought from my CSA farmer a couple of months ago.


• Frozen cubes of basil & roasted tomato puree - I don't remember how long ago (months) lots of basil came in the CSA share. Since I don't cook with oil and I'm allergic to tree nuts, I made "pesto" by pureeing the basil with roasted tomatoes. It freezes really well in ice cube trays and is great in soup as well as pasta sauce.


• Pickled onions - I love this simple recipe for preserving a glut of onions. They keep in the fridge for ages.


• Capers - just a spoonful out of a jar someone gave me a few months ago.


• Olives - my own home-cured olives from two winters ago.


• Italian seasoning - I buy this in bulk and just keep refilling the spice jar.


• Dried mushrooms - much cheaper than fresh. I've looked into growing our own mushrooms but the price per pound (from the mail-order kits) seems to come out about the same as just buying them fresh.


• Pomegranate red wine - sounded interesting at the store, but we weren't crazy about it for drinking. Great for cooking, though. (I'm trying to turn some of it into vinegar for salads, too.)

By the time the pasta was cooked, the flavors had melded into a wonderful sauce. Unfortunately, I'm now out of frozen tomatoes. Next year, hopefully we'll get a bunch out of our own garden and I can stock up better.

It's Challenging to "Eat for Free"

My current challenge is challenging my thinking more than I thought it would. For the 100 Days Challenge, I chose to spend no more money on food through the end of the year. It seemed like it would not be too difficult as we get a share from the CSA every week, I have a full freezer and refrigerator, I've got food stored for emergencies, and there is produce that can be harvested from our garden and elsewhere.

The CSA share, over the year, includes everything needed for a well-rounded vegan diet: vegetables, fruit, grains (wheat & oats), and beans. The share can include starchy vegetables such as red potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, or winter squash which also contain the complex carbohydrates needed for fuel. There are not quite enough calories in one share, though, to sustain us on it alone.

Emergency food supplies need to be rotated, though, which means I do have aging food that should be consumed sooner than later. Yes, that food will need to be replaced but hopefully that can wait until January for the purposes of this challenge. With luck, this will coincide with moving into our own place so that we don't have to move food. The full refrigerator and freezer also need to be emptied out for our eventual move, and room made for new harvests that are better frozen than canned or dried. Our garden is starting to produce (photos coming soon!) so fresh vegetables can be supplemented from the back yard.

So, "Where's the challenge?", you ask. The challenge is coming to grips with how often I've run (or rather, biked) to the store to get one or two ingredients here and there to make an easy meal with the food on hand. It's also realizing how often I got quick, but still relatively healthy, food from restaurants when I didn't feel like making a meal from scratch. If I want to eat now, it has to be made by me with what I have here.

In other words, the challenge is in giving up convenience. It may seem like this is a random and pointless exercise, but there is a reason I chose to try this. Actually, there are a lot of reasons, such as saving money, cleaning out food for the move, eating up older food, and forcing myself to be more creative. Another big reason, though, lurks beneath the surface of all these other reasons and that is concern for our future.

Many indicators point to a more challenging future than the life we currently experience. Peak oil, climate change, economic instability, and a growing human population may very well change our way of life and our ability to easily get whatever food we want to eat whenever we crave it. Obviously, most of us cannot get any particular food we want with our limited budgets, but in general there is a huge abundance and variety of food currently available to those in the United States and other developed countries. Analysts and experts predict that this cannot be sustained in the face of peak oil and climate change.

There may come a time when people have to eat what they can grow, harvest, and obtain locally, possibly with a few outside inputs (such as grains). As things got tougher, cravings for particular foods would become irrelevant as one would eat solely for nutrition and survival at that point. My personal challenge does not go nearly this far, but I do see it as a means to dip my toe in the water of a different lifestyle.

In less than a week, I've already had to remind myself several times that I can't just run to the store to get something I need (or want). When I ran out of flour, we had to set up the pedal-powered grinder and transform the wheat berries into flour ourselves. If I want burritos, I'll now have to make the tortillas from scratch. If I want corn tortillas, I'll have to cook my dried corn with lime to make hominy and then grind that to make masa. Recipes must be modified to omit or substitute for ingredients I do not have. And recipes will need to be created for those odds and ends in the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.

So far, it has truly not been all that difficult but I do wonder how it will be by mid-December. And then I wonder how it would be if I could never shop at a grocery store again.

How would it be if no-one could every shop at a giant grocery store filled with cheap and convenient food again? Would they adapt to getting their foods from gardens, farmers' markets, and CSAs? Would they be willing to change their diets, cook from scratch, and learn food preservation? Would they know how to feed themselves with a 50 pound bag of oats or wheat berries? Would they learn the value of bartering what they produce and preserve for what someone else produces and preserves?

I think there is a small set of the population that would indeed survive without the grocery stores. These people already live like this or are moving towards this lifestyle. A few more may be willing to learn. But, I fear, there are many, many people who would flail and struggle to maintain the old status quo, people that would take what they want through any means necessary, and others who would simply give up rather than change.

Those of us making these changes now can continue to share our personal experiences and provide information on local resources, but we cannot force change in those who do not want to change. The impetus to change must come from within, either from desire or desperation.

So, where do you stand? Have you changed the way you look at what and how you eat yet? Are you willing to make changes now when it doesn't seem that critical or important? Or would you wait until the last moment and then fight change with every last ounce of strength you have?

Mystery Vine Blooms

Remember the mystery vine I mentioned in the post on the hydroponic garden? Here's a photo to refresh your memory.


Volunteer vine in a pot. Thick red stem.

The plant has had buds on it for a while and my sweetie has been eagerly waiting for them to open up. Today he looked more closely and realized the blooms are open. They are TINY. How tiny?


Check out this photo. This is the bloom stalk next to a standard toothpick.


Here is a closer look at the teeny tiny little flowers.


And here is a picture of one on the plant. The bloom stalks come off the main vine just like a leaf would, rather than at the end of a stalk.


He's been trying to key it out with his magnifying lenses and online botanical keys but it's very slow going. I'm posting the photos here in hopes that one of my readers can identify this flower and vine.

UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous comment, this plant has been identified as "Red Malabar Spinach" or Basella rubra. It's not a spinach like the ones in the grocery store, but it is edible. The purple berries can even be used to color food. I'm going to harvest a few leaves to add to our salad tonight.

Bad Dog!

We interrupt the collection of your fun "small world" stories to bring you this breaking news: Polie is a Bad Dog!

If anyone tells you that getting a second dog is easy, walk away. They are lying to you. "You already have a dog, it won't be that much work. At most, double the work, but also double the fun." Ha! Adding a second dog to your household will exponentially increase your workload and your pet-related expenses. Trust me.

After setting up the solar ovens for some cooking today, I turned to go back in the house. After two steps, I felt something wet slap me in the calf. (I'm wearing nice, cool shorts today.) I looked down and there was dog poop on my other shoe and on my calf.

"Well, SHIT!" I thought to myself, "Damn dog pooped in the path instead of the tree well."

I stood there for a good 15 seconds trying to figure out what to do. There was a pancake of soft dog poop on my shoe, nothing to scrape it off with right there. And there was poop on my leg. Finally I squished my shoes in the loose dirt - loose because some certain bad dog runs crazy circles in the yard regularly - to try to keep the poop from coming off as I walked. Then I headed over to the hose. After taking off my shoes, gingerly, I walked sock-footed over the sharp gravel to get clean-up supplies from the house.

With sandals on, poop still on my leg, a bag, paper towel, plastic glove, and outside scrubby brush, I returned to the poopy shoes. Yes, plural. There was poop on the back of the second shoe where it'd been flung up along with the poop on my leg. I dampened the paper towel and cleaned my leg. Ewww.

I was lucky enough to find a flat rock that worked well as a scraper and got the first layer of poop off the shoe. Rinsing with the hose didn't do much.

Soft, sticky poop.

I wrinkled my nose and and wiped at the shoe with the dirty paper towel. Not much help. I had to use the scrub brush - carefully, to avoid flinging poop all over the place - to loosen the mess. After rinsing and scrubbing for a while, it was obvious that detail work was still needed. I found a twig with a sharp end to scrape through each and every groove in the bottom of the shoe heel. It was disgusting, but finally I could see progress. It took more scrubbing and a lot of rinsing for the shoe to eventually pass the sniff test.

The worst part of all this was the flies. Yesterday while I was doing some laundry by hand outside, they were really annoying. But today, they were on me like flies on ... well, you know.

The shoes are drying and Polie looks contrite, but I still feel the need to wash my leg again.

It IS a Small World

I find it fascinating when I run into the small world phenomenon and am amazed it has happened twice in the past week.

Several months ago, I joined a small group of folks that have turned their efforts at weightloss into a competition. We meet weekly to weigh in and visit briefly. Sometimes we go to dinner afterwards at Sweet Tomatoes, a salad bar buffet. Because I was showing up with my bike helmet and shoes to the weigh-ins, questions arose about my biking. This led to a little further discussion about other things I do to reduce my impact, such as cooking with a solar oven and eating a vegan diet.

One of the older ladies told me her niece was into many of the same things and asked if she could have her email me. I said sure and gave her my email address. The next week, she mentioned that she'd misplaced my email address but I forgot to give it to her again. Another couple of weeks passed before we both remembered and she got it again. Weeks passed and I didn't receive an email; that's okay. People move in their own time.

This week, I went over to her home for a couple of hours to help her begin packing up knick-knacks so she can put her house up for sale. Some family also showed up to help ... including the niece I'd heard about. After introductions, the niece explained that she had also misplaced my email address. I gave her one of my blog business cards so she'd be able to get in touch with me.

She looked at the card with an odd expression on her face and said, "I think we bought a bike trailer from you a couple of years ago." For the moment, I couldn't remember selling any bike trailers but she went on to say it was on craigslist and her husband and children had come to buy it. Oh, yeah - now that's ringing a bell. We'd picked up a homemade bike trailer at a yard sale and decided not to keep it. When we listed the ad, she called me about it and we talked for a while. I even told her about the blog and she evidently checked it out way back then.

In a city of a million people, what are the odds of a group of less than 10 people including a relative of someone I'd crossed paths with two years before?

Then, this morning, my sweetie tells me he had a similar small world occurrence at work this week. When we spoke to his mother over the weekend, she told us about a music event held just a block down the street from her home in a small town 100 miles away from here. She didn't go but it was well-attended by the locals. Turns out the MC for this event was in a small meeting at my sweetie's workplace this week.

I think our most amazing small world story comes from a vacation we took some years ago. We were living in Colorado at the time and planning to move back to Arizona. Before moving south again, I suggested we take a road trip to explore the Pacific Northwest. We loaded up the dogs and the camping gear and headed north. One of our stops was Yellowstone National Park. We camped outside the park in the little town of West Yellowstone. We'd been on the road for a while and needed to do laundry, so we found a little laundromat. We were the only ones there.

While waiting for the clothes to get clean, a man came in and started wiping down the machines. We got to visiting. I don't remember why, but he mentioned his wife came from a small town in Arizona - the town where I was born. We asked where he was from and he seemed to think we wouldn't be familiar with it because it was pretty small, too (population of less than 8,000 people). It was my sweetie's home town! The guy said he'd been good friends with a particular person there and wondered if my sweetie had known him. Well, of course he knew him - the person he mentioned was his cousin! Over a thousand miles from home and the one local person we run into has strong connections back to our home towns.

If you've had an interesting small world experience, feel free to share it in the comments.

Breaking Old Habits Takes Planning

Whenever you seek to change your behavior, you will run up against ingrained habits. Like getting out of a rut worn into a dirt road, it takes some effort to forge a new path. The old path is familiar and so easy to slip into. To succeed in making a change, you absolutely must plan to do things differently.

For example, in August when I strove to replace driving with biking, I had to rethink my schedule. A quick trip to the grocery store by car took longer by bike. In the summer heat, this also required packing an insulated bag and ice packs if perishable items were on the shopping list. I quickly remembered that better planning for meals and shopping helped reduce the number of last minute trips to the store.

Longer errands required more planning and a shift in attitude. My self-defense class meets 11 miles from home. In the past, I just hopped in the vehicle half an hour before class, made it through traffic in about 20-25 minutes, leaving me enough time to check in, change my shoes, and get focused before class. When I started biking to class, I found I needed to leave about an hour and a half before it started. Not only was my speed much slower than driving, I needed extra time to lock up the bike, rehydrate, and stretch my legs before checking in for class, changing my shoes, and getting focused. The return trip home again took almost three times longer than driving.

In the beginning, I resented how much longer it took to get there and back by bike. A class that used to only take no more than two hours out of my day was suddenly eating up half the day. Initially I was more physically worn out as well and didn't get much else accomplished after I got home. Eventually, however, I came to accept that the journey was as important as the class to my physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It was strengthening my ability to be more self-sufficient and providing time to enjoy the outdoors.

Now that I have challenged myself to eat from the food I have on hand (and get weekly from my CSA), I find I have to adjust my thinking again. This morning, I prepared to turn some of the overripe bananas into banana bread. As I reached for the container of flour ground by pedal power from locally grown wheat, I wondered if I had enough to make two loaves. Oops! There was not nearly enough flour to make even a single loaf.

The first thought that crossed through my mind was, "Oh well. I'll stop by Trader Joe's later and pick up a bag of whole white wheat flour." Before I could add this to my list of things to do today, I remembered that I'm not allowed to buy any food until next year! Well, that sure threw a wrench in my plans. To get flour, I'll have to grind it myself. Unfortunately, I have not learned (yet) how to set up the bike and grinder to do this so I have to wait until this evening when my sweetie is home. But, before he can do that, we're off to the annual Garden Fest at the Santa Cruz Farmers' Market.

By the time we get home from that, have dinner, set up the pedal-powered grinder set up, grind the flour, it will be rather late to start baking that banana bread but it will have to be done anyway. I'm out of baked goodies for my sweetie's lunches and I have tentative plans to help a friend do some packing tomorrow morning and, of course, my CSA duties in the afternoon/evening. The bananas won't keep until Saturday, which already has a full schedule anyway with yard sales, house-hunting, dog obedience class, and kitty-sitting for another friend.

Better planning would have found me grinding flour last weekend for this week's baking - and yes, I knew I'd be making banana bread this week. On weekend, we also occasionally grab a veggie burrito at Chipotle's Mexican Grill because I don't have meals ready for the weekend. Here it is Thursday afternoon, I don't have a meal plan through the weekend yet, and restaurants are not an option anymore. Um, can someone please tell me why I'm sitting here writing about this instead of figuring out what to eat this weekend?

I'm off now to climb out of my rut and make a new plan.

100 Days Challenge

I just read on the McDougall forum that Wednesday, September 23, marks 100 days left in the year. I've decided this is a great opportunity to set myself a challenge for the rest of the year. I invite you to join me, with each of us choosing how we will challenge ourselves during the "100 Days."

My challenge will be to eat for free through the end of the year. This means I will need to eat primarily from my own pantry. Fresh foods will have to come from my CSA share, my sweetie's garden, and anything else I can harvest (such as olives) or salvage for free (such as bananas). Of course, trade and barter with other folks will be allowed as well.

Believe it or not, this doesn't mean I will be forced to give up all meals at restaurants. In one weight loss competitive group I'm involved with, the second place weekly winner sometimes gets a complimentary meal pass for a salad bar. I might also be able to barter labor for a meal out. Who knows, maybe I'll drop hints for Christmas that a gift certificate for a free burrito would be a nice gift.

This challenge will accomplish a number of things. It will get me focused on eating food at home, especially important during the holidays. It will help me reduce the amount of stuff we'll have to move once we find a new home. It will keep the budget in line, which will help in paying for a new home. And it will force me to be more creative.

If you'd like to join me in the 100 Days Challenge, leave a comment. Choose any one thing you want to do through the end of the year that will make your life more sustainable or environmentally responsible. Late-comers are still welcome to join.

Here's a little doodad to put on your sidebar if you join me.

<a href="http://chilechews.blogspot.com/2009/09/100-days-challenge.html"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2H3G4C5T6s0/SrlHsgN362I/AAAAAAAACpw/-EK41OwgUE0/s200/100+Days+logo.jpg" /></a>

• Copy the code above.
• In Blogger, go to your layout options, and click on Add a Gadget.
• Select Text.
• Click Edit Html
• Paste the code you copied in the body.
• Then click Rich Text to confirm the image shows up.
• Save.

When you view your blog, the sidebar image should now appear and have a hyperlink back to this blog.

Last Week in Photos and Alliteration

A Week of Canning, Compost, Coffee Grounds, Containers, & Community.


CANNING IN SMALL BATCHES


I do not have either of the small batch canning and preserving books but I do work with small quantities occasionally. The biggest pot on the right above is my waterbath canner, which I picked up at the hardware store (by bike). The other two enamelware pots came from thrift stores, along with the little rack in front of them.

At some point, I realized there was no difference between the waterbath canner and the other pots except size. Quoting from the National Center for Home Food Preservation: "The canner must be deep enough so that at least 1 inch of briskly boiling water will be over the tops of jars during processing." This meant there was really no reason that I always had to use the huge pot for my canning.


When I place the rack upside down inside the medium-sized pot, I can fit four 8 oz jars in it with plenty of room for a couple of inches of boiling water over the top of the jars. This is handy when a canning recipe makes more than what the large waterbath canner can hold (7 jars). This past week, I had a few Asian pears that I turned into pear butter (recipe in the latest edition of the Ball Food Preservation book). It did not make sense to use the energy to heat the huge waterbath canner for just one 8 oz jar and one 4 oz jar, so I used the medium pot to process them instead. The rack also fits inside the small pot and will hold four 4 oz jars.


COMPOST

After turning my compost this past week, I noticed I needed more browns for it. There is still a large bag of goat manure left from the last trip to the goat ranch and I have the chunky bits left from sifting the finished compost. I dropped by the local feed store and asked whether they gave away or sold their broken hay bales. Turns out they save their empty feed bags and let people fill them with hay for a pittance. I took the offered bag and snow shovel, and filled the bag to the brim.

This is great as a cover material in the compost pile. Each time I toss in kitchen scraps, I add hay, the chunky leftover compost from the other pile, or goat manure. Since the hay is alfalfa, it is also another good source of nitrogen in the pile. The only downside is my nose itches after I handle it.


COFFEE GROUNDS

When I passed a Starbucks while doing errands last week, I dropped in to see if they had any "Ground for your Garden" bagged up. They didn't, but were willing to bag up a bunch of grounds for me while I waited. At another stop, I snagged a couple of prepared bags. I had planned to add these to the compost but my sweetie was excited when he saw them. Turns out coffee grounds are great for worms and he's got plans to start a little worm bin this coming week.

Actually, he planned to start it last week but the local tackle shop didn't have any worms ready. Due to the summer heat, they have to let them rest for a bit. The owner was pretty sure they would be available this week, however, so I'll be picking up a bucket o' worms for my sweetie pie.


CONTAINERS

I want to share some of my homemade vinegar with friends. A few trips to thrift stores yielded lovely little oil and vinegar containers, perfect to give as gifts. Most were missing their original stoppers but the local brewing store sells corks in a variety of sizes. I took in a container to make sure I got the right size and bought plenty. He was a little surprised that vinegar could be made so easily without having to start with a "mother". Frankly, I've also been surprised how easy it is to make....which is how I ended up with so much!


I also found some nice bottles at the thrift stores that will work to store homemade liqueurs. The gaskets are usually missing or rotted, but the brewing store again saved the day. They sell the gasket that fits all sizes of this style of bottle. As you can see, some of the bottles can be quite pretty. Cleaning can sometimes be a challenge, but I've found that hot water and Oxyclean will remove most stains that are hard to get to inside the big bottles.


COMMUNITY

We used our Xtracycles to haul quite a bit of stuff to the Really, Really Free Market on Saturday. I decided to donate my old VHS movies rather than hold on to them for a yard sale and we ended up with almost two cases of bananas instead of just one. As you can see in this photo, other folks brought quite a few things as well.


There was a wide variety of goods at the market. There was a table of kids' toys and several sheets on the ground covered with clothing. People came and went, although the turn-out was lower than I expected. There wasn't too much left at the end, and, on my advice, the organizers donated the leftovers to Goodwill. (My experience from yard sales has shown that saving the "good stuff" for the next sale is never worth the hassle.)


Like many of the others that dropped items off, we came home with a few things.


Unfortunately, it also included about 3/4 case of bananas. I begged and pleaded with folks to take as many bananas as they wanted and could fit in their freezers for banana bread. There were still many left over. By the time they'd sat out in the heat for three hours and ridden four miles bouncing around on the bike trailer, they weren't in very good shape. Still, I sorted through them and pulled out three bunches to foist off on another friend for bread, and froze 5 bags for smoothies and banana bread. The rest were chopped up and added to the compost bin.

Once we have our own place, we plan to buy an energy-efficient chest freezer. If I had that now, I would have filled it with overripe bananas. I hate to see food waste! In the big picture, though, my waste was minuscule compared to the regular waste from the stores. Multiply the two cases of bananas I saved by hundreds of convenience stores that want to offer fresh bananas but throw the excess out twice a week when their new ones come in. The waste of food and resources is phenomenal. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to food waste in the U.S. (For more on food waste, see Jonathan's blog.)


All in all, it was a busy and productive week. I hoped you've enjoyed this update and perhaps been inspired to try a few new things or check out some resources in your own community.

Really, Really FREE Market

Have you ever wished you could give your stuff away to people who could use it without the hassle of listing it online and following up on all the emails and calls? Have you ever scored a whole boatload of free food but not been able to contact enough people to take it off your hands before it rotted? Have you had a box of clutter sitting in your garage for months waiting for you to drop it off at the thrift store?

The Really, Really FREE Market is the solution to your problems and it's going to be in Tucson this Saturday. The RRFM is a place where you can bring your household items, clothing, food, songs, poems, and anything else for other people to take for free. No money, no barter, no trade. Just a free exchange.

As far as I know, there have only been two other times a RRFM has set up in Tucson. Some cities are lucky enough to have one every month. We went to the first one in Tucson, dropping off some plant pots and other things, and bringing home yarn and bread. I never saw the notice for the next one a year or two later. Luckily, I saw the notice for the one this weekend. Here's the info:

8 to 11 am Saturday, Sept. 19
Himmel Park at 1st Street & Treat Ave.
(just west of the library on 1035 N. Treat Ave.)


Here are some things I will be bringing. Yes, that's a thong. No, I don't wear thongs. This one came with a cute little bra I bought at a yard sale. Since I don't have any pumpkins to dress up right now, I figured it'd be a funny item for the market.

I'll also have at least one full case of bananas rescued from a neighborhood convenience store before they hit the dumpster. They are not local, organic, or sustainable, but they are perfectly edible and food should not be wasted.

If you live in Tucson, I hope to see you at the Really, Really FREE Market Saturday. I'll be there on my yellow bike with the Xtracycle.

Falling in (and a little out of) Love with my Bike

I started writing this post over two weeks ago, intending to publish it at the end of the "Park Your Car" challenge. I didn't get around to it, though, and then decided to wait until I'd gone 500 miles on my bike. I passed that milestone a couple of days ago finally, but some things have changed in the last week that unfortunately affect this post.

Since taking up cycling as an adult, about eight or nine years ago, I've wanted to enjoy riding more than I actually did. I liked the idea of using my bike as a means of transportation instead of walking or driving, but the reality never lived up to the fantasy. Getting my overweight, unfit body moving was not always easy and was often discouraging. Dealing with poor weather, either cold and rainy, or blistering hot, made riding unpleasant. Needing to lock up the bike and remove anything that could be stolen at every single stop was time-consuming and irritating as I saw other women pull their car into a parking spot, grab their purse, and go in seconds compared to the minutes it took me secure my "vehicle." Being on the road with inattentive drivers, and antagonistic ones, was often scary.

With the commitment that I made to ride my bike anyway last month, I began to deal with these issues. I accepted that it was going to take more time to ride my bike than it would to drive and countered my negative thinking about this with reminders that the biking would help me get more fit. As my alternate vehicle, I recognized that I had to lock it - no matter how inconvenient or time-consuming that was - in order to be sure to have a ride home. I found that my larger Xtracycle was a little more visible than my other bike, although nothing helps when idiots text while driving. I sought out the back roads and bike paths to avoid traffic as much as possible.

The electric assist helped me overcome my resistance to riding when it was hot or windy out and allowed me to go on longer and harder rides than I would have been able to do otherwise. It got me through large intersections more quickly and, I feel, more safely as I could keep up with the flow of traffic better. The assist amused me on several occasions when snot-nosed spandex riders or college students zoomed by with a superior attitude and then were shocked to look back 45 seconds later to find me right on their tail. (This only works when there's traffic to mask the sound of the assist.)

I often found myself smiling as I rode my bike, enjoying the pure fun of moving under my own power, noticing more flowers and butterflies than I would have by vehicle, and taking life just a little slower. I met quite a few people interested in the Xtracycle set-up and encouraged them to find ways to use their bikes more. I enjoyed the feeling of my legs getting stronger and my endurance increasing. I was thrilled to put more miles on my bike than on my vehicle, even if I did have to use the electric assist some of the time to do so.

This all changed about a week ago, though. The riding seemed to get a little tougher. My legs were consistently tired and sore; the muscles felt deeply fatigued. A ride home from my self-defense class in the midday heat left me feeling extremely rundown. A weekend ride with my sweetie turned out to be miserable as I had no energy and felt sick for much of it. It finally dawned on me that all this riding had caught up with me in the form of overtraining. I've overtrained twice before and swore I'd never do that to myself again. I'd been feeling so good riding that I thought it wouldn't happen this time.

When it happened before, I did a lot of research. One of the ways to avoid overtraining is to ease into a new program and then increase your mileage by only 10% a week. Um, I went from 3-5 miles per week to 60-80! That's not exactly easing into it. Last week, it must have all caught up with me and my body began to rebel.

What, you might ask, are the symptoms of overtraining?

- Trouble sleeping - check
- Trouble "getting into" a workout several days in a row - check
- Weight gain - check
- Water retention - don't know
- Needing naps - check, and I am not a napper by habit
- Craving sugars - that's a big check
- Feeling dehydrated - check
- Recurring aches, not injuries - check
- Allergies kicking in (your body can't fight off the allergens) - check
- Runny nose, etc. - check
- High pulse, BP, etc., several mornings in a row - I don't keep track of these, so don't know.

Uh, oh. Damn, this means needing to back off the workouts for a bit. How long depends on how badly I've allowed myself to get overtrained. Continuing to push from this point on can lead to injuries and the need for a long (month) rest but catching it early may allow one to just rest up to a week and ease back into the workouts slowly. This is not always a bad thing. Taking a break from training often allows the body to come back stronger. Ideally, one would choose to take a break before the body forces that need. Staying hydrated, eating properly, and getting enough rest are important components in recovery.

What is my game plan? I am skipping my self-defense classes this week, and especially the 22 mile round trip bike ride for each class. I am riding much slower - I have to as my legs still feel weak and my wheels feel like they are moving through molasses. I am using the assist as much as I need to; after all, riding the bike with the assist is still a whole lot less energy-intensive than driving! While I still need to get my chores done, I am easing the pressure on myself to get them done quickly.

Another symptom that is not on the list above, although I remember reading about it, is feeling irritable and out of sorts. That has definitely been the case for the past week or so. (Just ask my sweetie...) I've been impatient, irritable, unfocused, and quick to anger. See why I haven't blogged much this week? In fact, the only thing I've considered blogging about is the unsociability of people on Tucson's multi-use paths and streets. This is something I've observed before and really noticed in the 500+ miles of recent riding. If I do get around to ranting about this, the post will be called, "Take the stick outta your butt and say Hello!" How's that for bein' sociable?!

The Mouse War Continues

The mouse that got away Friday is a clever little thing. Somehow it eluded Polie and now it is eluding my trap. It has successfully eaten two chunks of pecan and a smear of peanut butter without getting caught. I have never before experienced trap failure with a nut as bait. Never.

I decided this afternoon that I was not going to continue feeding this mouse. Polie was out with me so I peeked behind the full compost bin to see if the mouse was active. No sign of it, but it was hard to see in the narrow space between the back of the bin and the wall. I pulled the empty bin away from the wall and rocked the full one to see if I could disturb the mouse enough for it to run out into Polie's field of view. No such luck.

Then I started rocking the full bin forward, trying to work it away from the wall far enough for me to poke through the debris behind it. After some time, I got it out far enough to poke the pitchfork behind it and out ran a young mouse.

Snap.

Polie got it. Another one ran out and hid under a piece of cardboard. With some direction, Polie found it. I continued to work the bin away from the wall, periodically poking through the debris, finally yielding one more mouse - an adult this time.

By this time, it had dawned on me that keeping the bins away from the wall and separated from each other might make it easier to discourage the mice.


I repositioned the empty one and moved the full one a little further out. Polie can't quite get behind them (see him at the back?), but he can get to the edges and I can poke through the debris regularly.


He can get between the two bins, though, which will definitely keep any mice on their toes.

With all the loose neighborhood cats that use our yard as their toilet, I'm disappointed they aren't at least helping deal with our pest problem. Nor are the local coyotes taking up the slack. C'mon, predators, do your job already! Does my dog have to do everything?

The Change Man Returns

As we got ready to head out on our bikes this morning, this appeared on the table .... an accumulation of pennies from the bottom of his desk at work .... in a mere 14 months since the last bag. I suspect he really works at a penny factory. Top secret, of course. Hush hush. Must be enough there to buy me some kind of little pretty.

Mouser

Note: This post is not for the squeamish. If you can't stand to watch nature shows because some animals kill other animals, do not continue reading. With my biology background, these scenes don't bother me. I was thrilled years ago to witness a hawk eating its kill up close and personal, and I used to pick up roadkill for raptors in rehab. But that's just me. If these things turn your stomach or disgust you, please go find a nice cotton-candy post to read today.

My sweetie has buckets and coconut coir ready to plant potatoes in his hydroponic garden this weekend. He also needs compost, though, so I promised I would sift the finished compost bin for him today. We have two bins (a great yard sale find at $10 each) and one has been sitting - finishing - for the past four months. The compost is sifted through hardware "cloth" (metal, not cloth) into our garden cart (another yard sale find) and the chunky stuff is tossed into a garbage can. We keep the can near the compost bins and use it to store brown cover material for the kitchen scraps. Our browns include leaves from the yard, straw from bales, shredded paper and cardboard, and leftover chunky compost.

The bins hold quite a bit of material so I was working for hours. The dogs were hanging out in the yard with me, letting any passersby know that they were in charge of all activities in the neighborhood. Any repetitive activity can become somewhat meditative and I had a nice rhythm going. Polie was laying nearby but just far enough from the cart to avoid having compost drift down onto his nose.

When I reached the bottom of the bin, I was somewhat startled when a mouse came running out of the bin. The fact that there was a mouse didn't surprise me. I've had trouble with mice in my compost and frequently have to set traps for them. (Best bait for the old-fashioned snap traps is half a peanut wedged under the metal bit. When the mouse tugs at it, it snaps the trap. Licking peanut butter off doesn't always trigger the trap. This week, I've been using pecans successfully, too.)

When that mouse came running out, Polie was up in a flash. After a brief chase and a quick lunge, he had the mouse in his mouth. At least I assumed there was a mouse in his mouth because there was a tail hanging out of it. Instinctively I told him, "Drop it!" and he did. The mouse ran off and he was unable to catch it. He was miffed at me and I was not thrilled either that I'd still have to deal with that mouse later.

I finished emptying up the bin and started transferring the compost from the other bin over to it. This accomplishes several things. It mixes the compost so there are not dry bits on the edges and good stuff only in the middle. It allows me to add more greens or browns as needed, or moisten the materials if necessary. It also lets me deal with any baby mice that are in the middle of the compost pile. No, it's not a pleasant task but it is one that must be dealt with. We have created the environment for the pests and we must take the responsibility to deal with eliminating them.

When I got about two-thirds of the way down into the second bin, I started encountering mice. And Polie started having fun. Each time a mouse went running out of the bin, he gave chase, usually catching them on the first lunge. He seemed a little confused when they no longer moved after he dropped them from his mouth but didn't seem to understand they were edible. I scooped up each little still body and tossed it into a bucket so he'd quit nosing them. As I got down to the bottom of the bin, I encountered young mice. Polie quickly took care of them but had to work fast to do so.

Finally, the bin was empty. On a hunch, I peeked behind it and sure enough, there was another mouse. I quickly pulled the bin away from the wall and told Polie to get the mouse. Then there was a hint of movement behind the other bin, which was, by now, too full to move. That mouse dropped down and started digging into the soft soil, unaware that huskies like to dig. Sorry little mouse, no more breeding for you. Unfortunately, it had a friend that got away. Despite my moving all the materials around in that part of the yard, Polie and I could not find it.

It took a bit of work to put the bin back in place and re-assemble it, not because it was heavy or awkward but because I couldn't get Polie out of the space. He had found something more fun than getting attention or treats and I was taking that away from him. Even after I had everything cleaned up and ready for a new batch of compost, he was trying to dig under the front of the bin. It may be hard to convince him there won't be hoards* of mice running out of there every single time we got outside now.

I only sift and turn the compost a couple of times per year so I am now planning to keep the mouse trap set all the time. I know, I know. It's unfair to Polie, but I don't really want to be running a mouse farm here.

*Hoards: Today's mouse count was almost a dozen: 4 adults and 4 youngsters caught by Polie, 1 youngster that dies in a shoveling accident, 1 dead adult in the trap from last night, and 1 adult that got away. Considering they breed faster than rabbits, I expect more mice in no time.

Hydroponic Garden

After buying some hydroponic supplies off craigslist, my sweetie started experimenting with growing plants without soil. Interestingly, this garden has done far better than what he planted in the enriched soil in the shadehouse some months ago.


Here's a look at the overall set-up. The shadecloth helps protect the plants from the hot summer sun. The bird netting keeps the birds out as they will destroy the plants in a day. The tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers are putting on blossoms.


Originally, the planting containers sat in another container filled with water and nutrients. We could run a small pump for a short time to bring the water up to the growing medium and then it would drain back out. However, we had such a problem with mosquitos, even with the dunkers, that he changed the set-up to pump water from closed buckets. A small aquarium pump is in the bucket. It pumps water up to drip irrigation hose that goes to each plant. The water then drains back into the bucket. This actually uses less water than plants in the ground and less water is lost to evaporation and transpiration.

He is using a variety of growth mediums. The seeds are started in rockwool and then the seedling is put into a pot filled with Hydroton (little porous clay balls) or coconut coir. The coir comes in compressed dry blocks and expands when water is added. It is a waste product, a more sustainable gardener's friend than peat moss. We think it could also be used in a composting toilet, but we'll need to find a bulk source for it to bring the cost down.

Right now, he is using liquid nutrients he got with the hydroponics equipment and organic liquid nutrients from the local hydroponics store. Once we get moved and settled into our own place, he plans to make his own nutrients using compost tea, worm tea, and aquaponics.


These are pepper seedlings started in the coconut coir.


These are wonderberry seedlings with a large basil plant in the bucket.


The okra is doing well, has huge leaves, and a few buds.


And then we have this mystery plant. It sprouted in a pot and my sweetie has no idea what it may be since he didn't plant it. Can you help identify it? The stem is red and waxy. The leaves are pretty big.


The plant is a climber and is currently growing at least an inch a day!


The next experiment in the hydroponic garden will be potatoes. He'll plant the sprouts in coconut coir mixed with compost in a bucket and then keep covering it up as the plant grows. He cut the bottoms off two more buckets in order to stack them up in a column to hopefully produce lots of tasty spuds.

Get Strong for Your Future

After a month of biking almost more than I used a carbon-spewing vehicle, I've discovered that my legs do indeed have some muscles in them. They are small still - really just little baby muscles wanting to flex their fibers to impress the other body parts. However, they are willing to work harder and longer now than they were just a month ago. I remember coasting more often and taking little breaks on the long rides at the beginning of August while now I can keep pedaling at a nice consistent pace.

There are signs that my core muscles are gaining a wee bit of strength, too, after starting a core challenge last month. I'm still on the first week of that one because I refuse to "progress" until I can hold a darn plank for the full minute. This week, I also learned some very basic Pilates exercises which should continue the improvement in core strength as long as I remember to do them daily.

And my twice-weekly self-defense classes continue to work out other muscles, sometimes a little too much. One day, we tossed around a heavy medicine ball for a while and then did a lot of arm work. My shoulders were just dying the next day and still achy the following day, which is why I got to learn Pilates instead of being forced to abuse the muscles some more. Spending hours peeling and seeding 20 pounds of roasted green chiles purchased from my CSA farmer probably didn't really give my shoulders enough of a chance to recuperate!

It's been a long time since I did any kind of regular exercise that resulted in improved fitness. What does this have to do with living a "greener" life? To live a life using less power from the earth's precious resources means using more power from your own body. To substitute walking or bicycling for driving requires fitness and endurance. To substitute washing laundry by hand for a washing machine requires strength and endurance. To substitute homemade foods from scratch for store bought prepared meals or restaurant meals requires the energy to make them. To grow the foods instead of buying them requires strength and endurance (and patience). To lift a waterbath canner full of water and jars requires core strength and strong muscles. To use a solar oven on the ground instead of a standard oven requires core strength and leg muscles to avoid back injury.

This is the time to develop your strength and endurance, rather than waiting for a possible future when you have no choice. Do more tasks manually such as the ones mentioned above. If you use wood heat, chop your wood by hand instead of using power tools. If you bake bread, knead the dough instead of tossing the ingredients into an electric bread machine. If you need to go somewhere less than a mile away, walk, and if you need to go somewhere less than 5 miles away, bike. Then increase those distances as well as your speed. And if, like me, some of your muscles are so weak that doing a few extra things by hand is not enough to strengthen them, start an exercise routine and stick to it to get strong. Your body will thank you and your ability to adapt to a lower-energy future will increase.

Yummy Homemade Vinegar

Two of my vinegar experiments were finally finished today so I poured the final product into some recycled jars and bottles. (Directions for making vinegar here.)


The apple vinegar, made simply with apple peels and cores, sugar, and water plus three weeks of aerated fermenting, is sweeter and more fruity tasting than store bought apple cider vinegar. I don't think it is quite as acidic so I definitely wouldn't attempt to use it in canning recipes where acidity is critical for preventing botulism. However, it will yield a delicious salad dressing and may even tempt me to try switchel.

The peach-plum vinegar made from peach and plum peels is equally tasty but is distinctly more tart than the apple vinegar. I can already taste it dressing pasta and grain salads. It would also go well with stir-fried vegetables.

The peach vinegar and another batch of apple should be ready in another week. I just strained the fruit from the batch of Asian pear vinegar I'm making for my CSA and it smells like it has definite potential. The prickly pear batches, however, may not turn out so good. They don't have any vinegar smell yet and actually smell a little bit bad. One of the cooked pulp batches also thickened up quite a bit, maybe from the natural pectin in prickly pear fruit? I'll give them a couple of weeks to see if they turn into a marvelous vinegar but I'm not going to sweat it if I have to just feed them to the compost pile. Not all experiments are successful.

However, the apple and peach-plum experiments were definitely successful and I look forward to adding locally-made vinegar to my diet.

Hang Up Your Phone Already!

When did it become essential to be in contact with other people every second of the day no matter what you are doing? Do you really have that much to say that you need to be talking to or texting someone every minute that you are awake? Are you so fascinating that your friends will die of boredom if they don't hear from you every single day? Could you last even a week if your cell phone quit working? How about a month? Or does that thought make you just want to curl up in a ball and cry?

I am so tired of the pervasive cell phones. I don't want to hear your business calls while I'm eating my lunch in a restaurant. I don't want to have to wait behind you in a checkout line as you discuss whether to buy this or that with who knows who on the other end of the line. I don't want to overhear your tearful confession to your mother while I try to eat my sandwich in peace and pretend I can't see you crying because you don't have the sense to conduct these kinds of phone conversations in private. Nor do I want to hear the foul language spewing out of your mouth as you cuss out your boyfriend because he didn't get you the latest freakin' thing your money-grubbing little heart demanded.

I want to ride my bike without fear that you will drift into my bike lane and run over me because you had to send that text message now, right now. I want to sit and have a conversation with you without waiting while you text more important friends in other places. I want to be treated respectfully as a customer in your business instead of watching you send and receive texts under your desk. I want face to face interaction with you, not acronyms and abbreviations on an electronic screen.

Hang up the phone already and step back into the real world! Stop yakking, stop texting, and start listening. Or experience silence for a change....I'd sure like to!