Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs [Survival Today, an on going thread]

Dallas News.com ^ | March 14th, 2008 | DEAN FOSDICK

[nw_arizona_granny]

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick

Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.

At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."

Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.

A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."

[snipped]

She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.

"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/2008/12/leftover-mashed-potato-samosas.html

(Leftover) Mashed Potato Samosas
As usual, the Thanksgiving dinner I made was enough to feed about eight people. Since there were only three of us, that meant lots of leftovers. By Saturday night, I was tired of the same old food, although I was really enjoying not having to cook. It was time to repurpose this food! The Internet is a wonderful repository of ideas on how to transform Thanksgiving leftovers into new dishes bearing little resemblance to the original.

The mashed potato recipe that caught my interest was samosas. Samosas are deep-fried Indian pockets filled with spicy potatoes and peas. Served with cilantro chutney, the flavors would be completely different than the Thanksgiving herbs that dominated the last few days. Further research yielded instructions for making baked samosas instead of deep-fried ones.

I made these tonight using a combination of several recipes. The prep time took quite a bit longer than I had anticipated, especially since I haven’t made anything that required rolling out for ages. It took me a few samosas to get in the groove. The results were very tasty although the dough didn’t resemble typical samosa dough at all (nor did the shape). I suspect this is due to a combination of the recipe I put together as well as baking them instead of deep-frying them. We liked them well enough, though, to keep the recipe.

Mashed Potato Samosa Filling
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes (plain with nothing fancy or weird added)
½ onion, chopped
½ tsp oil
¼ tsp cumin seed
¼ tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp grated ginger
½ cup frozen green peas, thawed
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt
2 tbs water
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs cilantro, minced

Heat a well-seasoned skillet over med-high heat. Saute onion until tender.
Move onions to outside of skillet and pour oil in the center.
Add cumin and black mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to pop, add ginger and stir for 10 seconds.
Add the peas, turmeric, coriander, cayenne, and salt. Add water to keep spices from burning.
Add the mashed potatoes and stir to mix completely. Cook until the mixture is somewhat dry.
Remove from heat. Stir in garam masala, cilantro, and lemon juice.

Samosa Dough
2 ½ cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup soymilk
2 tsp lemon juice

Stir lemon juice into soymilk.
Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Make a well in the center.
Add soured soymilk.
Mix to make a soft dough. Add more flour if needed if dough is sticky or more soymilk if too stiff.
Knead on a floured surface for 6 minutes until smooth.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Generously oil a baking sheet.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball out into a 5-inch circle.
Put 1 1/2 tbs filling in each circle. Wet the edges of the circle and fold over like a turnover. Press edges together firmly.
Put the samosas on the baking sheet and brush with oil. Poke the top of each samosa with a fork.
Bake for 30 minutes until crispy and golden brown.
Serve with chutney.

---

Indian Green Chutney
2 tbs seedless tamarind
¼ cup water
1 bunch cilantro
1 pkg mint
1 jalapeno, with seeds and stem removed
1 medium onion
1 tsp salt

Soak tamarind in water for half an hour.
Clean cilantro and mint, and discard stems.
Roughly chop jalapeno and onion.
Process cilantro, mint, jalapeno and onion in a food processor until finely chopped.
Press tamarind pulp through a wide strainer, leaving skin and seeds behind.
Add to food processor with salt. Process until smooth.
Posted by Chile

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/search/label/solar%20oven

An interesting page on Solar Ovens, different types and how to use them....with hidden links.

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/search/label/solar%20oven

[nw_arizona_granny]

Once again hidden links spoils all the fun.

This page is about gardens, growing, canning and other interesting tidbits:

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/search/label/garden

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/search/label/food%20from%20scratch

After reading The Tightwad Gazette years ago, I started stretching foods to make meals cheaper. I used less meat and increased the amount of vegetables and starch to cut costs. This had an added benefit of making the meals healthier. My tuna salad had more vegetables than tuna once I broke out of the standard recipe of tuna, mayo, pickle relish, and onion. Soon I was adding minced or shredded carrots, celery, and green pepper to it, too. I stretched guacamole by adding a little mayo, salsa, and more vegetables (red onion, green pepper, and green onion).

One of the tastiest recipes I created using this idea was meatloaf. For some reason, I got obsessed with creating the perfect meatloaf recipe. I’m not sure why since I don’t recall having meatloaf regularly while growing up and it wasn’t something I had previously craved. However, I scoured recipes and started trying to make them better. My first substitution was ground turkey for the beef. Then I looked at ways to make it cheaper: more meatloaf with less meat. The starch that worked best for extending the meat was regular rolled oats mixed with water to about the same consistency and moisture level as the ground meat. I was on a roll and wanted to go further.

The next step was to add vegetables for flavor and moisture. This seemed to work best when the vegetables were in small pieces. To save on chopping work, I eventually learned to throw them in the food processor and grind them up to the consistency of the meat. I used carrots, celery, onions, green pepper, and parsley. On a whim, I tried adding powdered dry mushrooms and found that added a huge flavor kick. My final recipe used one pound of ground turkey for two large meatloafs, and it was well-received by all who tried it.

Once I adopted a vegan diet, I had to ramp up the learning curve on substituting ingredients. There are far more vegan cookbooks on the market now than there were when I started so back then, cooking vegan meant adapting non-vegan recipes. I’ve already written about substituting for dairy, eggs, and meat so I won’t repeat that information here.

I do want to share a recipe with you, however, that built upon the lessons I learned perfecting my meatloaf recipe years ago. I added a small amount of oats to this recipe and they turned out wonderfully. I have one last package of the vegan sausage in my freezer. I plan to try this again but add more oatmeal along with some ground carrots and celery.

Not-So-Meaty Balls

1 package Gimme Lean sausage*
1/3 cup quick rolled oats
Water
1/4 cup ketchup
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted sourdough bread crumbs, ground fairly fine
2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic, pressed
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Stir water into the oats until they are the consistency of ground meat.
Mix all of the ingredients together. If the mixture seems really dry, add a little bit of water.
Spray a baking sheet with oil.
Roll into small balls, about 1” in diameter, and place on the oiled sheet without any touching each other.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes until they are lightly browned and have firmed up.

*You can find this in a tube, just like real sausage products, in the cold case of natural food stores. This can also be made with the Gimme Lean Beef flavor.

Very tasty with spaghetti!

If one of your dietary goals is to eat local foods, then you will almost certainly have to embrace substitution. At my CSA, members get produce that is often unfamiliar to them and they must learn how to use it to avoid waste. While there are recipes in each week’s newsletter and the website has a large collection of recipes, many people have their own favorite recipes they’ve used for years. Learning to substitute new vegetables for standard favorites helps them enjoy the local produce without giving up their familiar flavors.

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/search/label/food%20from%20scratch

Make a Good Stock - Frugally and Responsibly
Knowing how to make good stock is a very handy kitchen skill. Stock adds flavor and depth to your creations, an extra bit of nutrition, and is relatively inexpensive to make if done right. Now if you go to cooking school or refer to the tomes written by famous chefs, you will be instructed to use only the best vegetables and herbs to make your stock. Anything less, they warn, will yield an inferior product.

Yeah, well obviously these folks have never been poor. There is no need to throw perfectly edible vegetables and herbs into the stockpot to simmer and then discard. In a world with diminishing resources and escalating food prices, that would be irresponsible to the environment, social justice, and your pocketbook.

I propose here to give you the basic rules for making stock: what to include, what to avoid, how to cook it, and some other handy tips. Heck, I’ll even throw in a meat section for free. Of course, ya’ll know that I am really, really, detail-oriented. So, like the hot cocoa post, I’m going to take something pretty basic and easy, and proceed to blather on and on about it. It really isn’t all that complicated, but making stock frugally and responsibly is an art. The short version is: boil tasty stuff in water, strain, and use. Read on for the long version.

Little Known Facts about Stock

Stock is not essential to good cooking. Wipe that confused look off your face. It’s true. Stock is quite nice but it is not essential. In any dish that calls for vegetable or meat stock, you can get by with using just water. You may need to add a little more spice or herbs, or just a little extra salt and pepper, but it is entirely possible to cook your own meals for your entire life without ever making stock. But, it’s easy to make, so why not do it?

You have already made stock. If you have ever steamed or cooked vegetables in water, you have made “stock”. You probably just poured it down the drain when the vegetables were done, but you could have saved that water. It will have some of the vegetable flavor, as well as some of the nutrients, from the vegetable(s) cooked in it.

Stock is highly variable. There is no one perfect stock or recipe. As you’ll see, there are many ways to make stock and many ingredients that can be used. Every batch will be a little different since you will be making it from the ingredients you have on hand.

Stock Ingredients

Our goal is to make a frugal and tasty stock while avoiding food waste. That means you won’t be running to the store just to buy ingredients for the stock. Use what you have on hand, from your garden, your CSA, your Farmer’s Market, or, as a last resort, what you bought from the grocery store for your meals.

The idea here is to use the parts of the vegetables that have flavor but that you don’t normally eat - parts such as the skins and trimmings. These can come from raw or cooked vegetables. Be sure to start out all food preparation by washing your vegetables well, especially if they are not organic.

Roasting vegetables greatly enhances their flavor. However, roasting requires a lot of energy so it doesn’t make sense to crank up the oven to roast vegetables just for stock. If, however, you are baking something else and have room in the oven, toss in a pan full of the stock ingredients. You may want to toss them with a tiny bit of oil or you can just roast them dry. Another low-energy way to do this would be in a solar oven.

If you are cooking a lot on one day, you may easily have sufficient trimmings to make stock that day. Usually, though, it takes a few days to accumulate enough. You can collect them in a bag or closed container in the refrigerator, but don’t “hold” these more than a few days. If you wish to make stock once a week, put a large container in the freezer and add to it each time you prep your veggies.

How do you decide when you have enough? That’s very subjective. As a baseline, you want to fill your cooking pot at least half full with vegetables. Add water to cover by a couple of inches. You can vary the amount of vegetables and water based on what you plan to do with your stock. Do you want a really strong stock for gravies? Or is a flavorful but not quite as intense one fine for the soup you plan to make? Experiment and decide what you like the best.

You can also boost the stock’s flavor by adding spices. I generally add black peppercorns, bay leaves, and/or dried peppers. Do not add salt to the stock; add it when you use the stock for a recipe.

Here is a list of vegetables and the parts you can use for making stock. As I’ve said, each batch of stock only contains whatever I happened to have on hand that week. In my opinion, however, good stock starts with onion parts. Luckily, I also think pretty much every tasty dish starts with onion so I almost always have some trimmings on hand to make stock.

* Apples – these are one of the few fruits appropriate to add to a vegetable stock. They add a nice sweet dimension to it. Use the skins, but not the seeds or core.

* Carrots – peel and trimmed ends

* Celery – trimmed ends, heart (if not eaten), and leaves (if not used for seasoning in your cooking)

* Corncobs - raw or cooked, after the kernels are removed

* Eggplant - peel from raw or roasted

* Fennel – tough outer leaves, heart, and trimmed ends. Will add a very strong licorice flavor. The feathery leaves can be finely chopped for green salad or potato dishes.

* Garlic – cleaned skins and trimmed ends

* Ginger – skin. Adds an Asian flavor.

* Green beans & peas – trimmed ends, and pods for varieties that are shelled

* Herbs – rough stems. Use the tender leaves for seasoning in other dishes.

* Leafy greens such as spinach, beet greens, mustard - any that are too wilted to cook, but not so bad they should be composted.

* Lettuce - any that are too wilted to go in the salad, but not so bad they should be composted. Rough outer leaves of Romaine lettuce can be chopped and cooked with spinach. No one will ever be the wiser.
* Mushrooms – trimmed ends. Also any that are dried out will add great flavor. Discard slimy mushrooms or any with mold.

* Onion (includes other alliums like leeks & shallots) – cleaned skins. Don’t use any with black mold.

* Peppers – core and trimmings. Caution: the seeds and ribs contain the heat, so use sparingly, or make a separate spicy hot broth to freeze in ice cube trays. Can also use skins cleaned off roasted green chiles.

* Potato - peel from raw or baked (if you don’t eat them)

* Pumpkin & winter squash – peel from raw or cooked. Compost the stringy guts and roast the seeds.

* Radishes – trimmed tops and tails (if you don’t eat them)

* Sweet potato – peel from raw or baked

* Summer squash (zucchini, yellow, pattypan, etc.) – trimmed ends and peel. The peel is generally quite edible unless the squash are extra large. Very large squash may also have seedy centers that can go into the stock.

* Tomatillos – core. Compost the papery husk. It is not edible and should not be added to stock. (See photo)

* Tomatoes – core; peel and seeds if recipe calls for peeled and seeded tomatoes.

Ingredients to Avoid

Cruciferous vegetables. Their strong flavor will overwhelm your stock. This includes asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, as well as greens such as kale and mustard. Almost all parts of these vegetables can be eaten directly. The broccoli stem can be shredded raw for use in salads or stir-fries if you don’t like it steamed with the florets. Cauliflower cores can be diced and added to soups and curries. The thick stems from the leafy greens can be chopped and simmered separately to be served as a side dish. Compost any trimmings.

Other strong vegetables. Based on your personal preference, you may wish to avoid vegetables that can dominate the stock’s flavor. Turnips and fennel are two examples.

Mucilaginous vegetables. Okra and nopales trimmings add too much mucilage to the stock. Compost instead.

Badly wilted or moldy parts. Do not risk making yourself and others sick by using vegetables that are beginning to rot! Feed the compost bin instead.

Dirty roots. Compost the dirt-filled roots from your onions and carrots, trimming them off right at the edge of the vegetable.

Bean cooking liquid. This stuff spoils quickly. Use it up the same day that you cook the beans, if possible. Otherwise, plan to compost it.

How to Cook Stock

You can cook your stock in different ways. Once it’s done, strain it through a sieve, pressing down hard on the soft vegetables to extract all the flavorful juice. Compost the solid vegetable bits. Aim for using the lowest energy option for your situation.

Fast. A pressure cooker is a fast and easy way to cook stock in a hurry. Bring the cooker up to pressure and cook for no more than 10 minutes. Strain when the pressure releases naturally.

Slow. A slow cooker or crockpot offers convenience. You can start heating the water as soon as you start working in the kitchen and just keep adding to it as you work. Let it simmer up to 4 hours or so.

Low Energy. Use a solar oven to simmer your stock. The amount of time this takes will depend on the heat of the oven, which in turn depends on the solar oven design and weather conditions that day. Or, try a hay box cooker.

Standard stovetop. You can, of course, make your stock on the stovetop. This option is very unappealing to me at this time due to the summer heat. It also would use more energy than the other options unless you used a woodstove that was already running for other purposes.

Use & Storage

Stock can be used in a multitude of ways: jump-start soup, cook rice or pilaf in it for tons of flavor, add it to stir-fried dishes, and make gravy. You can even use it as the liquid in baked savory quick breads, like cornbread or biscuits.

Stock keeps in the refrigerator for less than a week. If you won’t use it up within four days or so, freeze it. You can freeze it in small quantities using an ice cube tray or in larger amounts. Make this decision based on how you will be using it. If you’re going to use it to make soup next week, don’t waste your time pouring it into an ice cube tray!

What about meat?

Before I was vegan, I was frugal, so I learned how to make a good stock from meat. We rarely ate meats other than poultry but the same principles apply for using beef or ham bones. The one time I tried to make lamb stock, I had to air out the entire house. The smell was vile.

I am including this section because, if you do eat meat, I want you to get every bit of meat and flavor from it. This can help you reduce your overall meat consumption without feeling like a sacrifice, which will benefit the environment and your budget.

Poultry stocks, from chicken, Cornish game hens, and turkeys, are very easy to make. There’s no reason they couldn’t be made with other birds, too. You can use raw bones leftover from de-boning the bird if your recipe starts with boneless raw meat. However, the leftover bones from roasted poultry have considerably more depth to the flavor. Depending on how carefully the carcass was cleaned, you might even be able to pick more meat from it after it has simmered for stock for a while.

At Thanksgiving, I used to collect the turkey carcasses from everyone in the family. No one else wanted to bother with making stock, so I often had several available. (They keep well in the freezer.) After cooking, I was always able to get approximately two cups of meat from the bones by carefully picking through the entire carcass and through the debris that sunk to the bottom of the cooker. Free food! Of course, I always returned the favor by giving the carcass donors some delicious turkey noodle soup made from their bird.

Start with a large cooking pot and break up the carcass to fit in it. Add pan drippings if they were not used for something else. Toss in vegetable trimmings; the best choices here are onions, carrot, celery, and parsley. Tuck in a couple of bay leaves and about 6 black peppercorns. Add water to cover. If you add a splash of vinegar to the water, it will help pull calcium out of the bones and into your stock. I found that cooking poultry parts in a pressure cooker yielded more flavor than simmering this on the stovetop. It’s certainly less energy-intensive.

This stock only needs about 15 minutes of cooking at pressure. Let it cool enough to handle and strain through a sieve, pushing down on the bones and vegetables to extract all of the juice. Pick through it to remove edible meat. Unless you have a humanure-type compost pile that heats up to adequate temperatures, you should discard the bones and vegetables rather than trying to compost them.

Saturated fat is not healthy in any diet, so the next step is to de-fat the stock. Cover and refrigerate the strained stock overnight. Because fat rises and saturated fat is hard when chilled, you will be able to easily skim the solidified fat off the top of the cold stock. You can also use a special de-fatting pitcher to remove the fat while the stock is hot, but the refrigerated method is easier and removes virtually all of the fat. Your stock may be firm like jell-o as a result of the natural gelatin from the bones. It will melt back into liquid form when heated.

“Meaty” Stocks for Vegans

Some folks interested in trying a vegan diet just can’t escape their cravings for meat, or at least the meat flavors. This often results in them falling “off the wagon” so to speak. I avoid animal products for health and environmental reasons primarily but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss the flavors I grew up with. I was thrilled when I found a cookbook, Simply Heavenly! The Monastery Vegetarian Cookbook by Abbot George Burke, in a used bookstore that tipped me off on how to get meaty flavor without meat.

To avoid copyright issues, I don’t want to post the recipes for the un-meat broths here, so I highly recommend you check out the book. However, I will share the basic principles. If you’ve ever cooked meat without any seasoning whatsoever, you know that meat does not have that much inherent flavor on its own. There is some, to be sure, but it takes salt, spices, and herbs to really make it shine. You can use the same seasonings used for particular meats to create the sense of that meat, such as poultry seasoning for chicken flavor.

There are other characteristics of a meaty broth, though, that herbs just can’t replicate. Consider this. Meat has amino acids that contain sulfur. While they are not the same thing as the amino acids in meat, onions contain complex sulfur compounds. Adding onion powder to stock seems to give a sense of depth usually only possible from meat-based stocks. The addition of nutritional yeast seems to boost this effect. Try it and see for yourself.

******

Now, get in your kitchen and make some stock this weekend.
Posted by Chile

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://chilechews.blogspot.com/search/label/food%20from%20scratch

A highly successful meal!

There was enough leftover seitan for sandwiches, too. I sliced the remaining corned beef for Reubens. As often happens, though, I didn’t have many of the ingredients I needed. And, quite frankly, during my involuntary car-free period, I opted for substitutions more often than jumping on the bike to go to the store for an ingredient or two.

The first substitution was easy: thousand island dressing. I mixed vegan Nayonnaise with ketchup, sweet pickles, and a dash of onion powder. Pickle relish is better but I didn’t have any of that on hand either so minced sweet pickles had to fill in.

The second substitution was harder: sauerkraut. I looked up recipes for sauerkraut and saw that I was several weeks away from making my own. Yikes! Would I have to go to the store after all? This is an integral part of a Reuben. I decided to make “Quick Sauerkraut”. Did I find a recipe for this? Nope. I made it up and it worked reasonably well.

Chile’s Quick Sauerkraut

Shredded cabbage
Salt
Hot water
Vinegar

Toss shredded cabbage with plenty of salt. I used about 2 tbs for half a head of cabbage.
Stuff tightly into a large glass jar.
Pour water over cabbage, not quite covering it.
Let sit for two hours, poking the cabbage down into the brine occasionally.
Pour in a little vinegar, about a quarter as much as the amount of water.
Let sit for two more hours.
Dump the entire contents into a large saucepan and simmer briefly until the cabbage is tender-crisp.
Drain and refrigerate. Can be rinsed to remove more salt.

The final substitution was fairly easy: Swiss cheese. Vegans have an ally in Jo Stepaniak, who wrote the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Her basic formula for obtaining cheesy flavor is soymilk (or other nondairy milk), onion powder, salt, lemon, and nutritional yeast. Other ingredients tweak the flavor or thicken the sauce. By combining ideas from two Swiss uncheese recipes, I made a very tasty spread for the sandwiches.

I am all set to make the St. Patrick’s Day meal again today, possibly with the addition of homemade Irish soda bread. I have one problem though. I broke my electric coffee grinder this week. When I made the seitan recipe last weekend, I tried to grind the caraway and fennel seeds with my marble mortar and pestle. Those darn caraway seeds were tough little buggers, and I made little progress before giving up and using the electric grinder. How will I grind them today? I’ve tried using a manual coffee grinder for spices but the seeds are so small they slip through without being ground. They even slip through peppermills. Can anyone provide a workable alternative here? I sold my electric blender this week and I don’t think my manual one would work for this. How is this issue solved in non-electric households?

Another issue that will be a problem in the future is the availability of vital wheat gluten. There are two ways to make seitan. One is by adding water to flour and kneading the dough while running water over it to wash away the starch. This leaves you with only the gluten. The easy way, without the waste of flour or water, is buying vital wheat gluten. I had to go to three natural food stores this week before I could find any and then I paid an outrageous price for it. I wonder if this is due to the wheat crisis. It seems surreal that I should have to pay as much for a wheat product as for a slab of prime cow.

One of the stores is willing to order it for me, but I’d be required to purchase a 25 pound bag. The price per pound is significantly better than what I paid for a small bag, but I don’t know how well this keeps, even in the freezer. Maybe I could find someone to split it with me on craigslist? Ah ha. A little searching on the handy dandy Internet yielded the option to order it in smaller cans which supposedly keep for 7-10 years. Good to know.

Well, for today’s meal, I have enough vital wheat gluten on hand. As soon as I figure out how to crush the hard little seeds, I’ll be cookin’!
Posted by Chile at 6:46 AM

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry/veg_leathers.html

How do I? ...Dry
Drying
Vegetable Leathers

Vegetable leathers are made similar to fruit leathers. Common vegetable leathers are pumpkin, mixed vegetable and tomato. Purée cooked vegetables and strain. Spices can be added for flavoring.
Mixed Vegetable Leather

* 2 cups cored, cut-up tomatoes
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1/4 cup chopped celery
* salt to taste

Cook over low heat in a covered saucepan 15 to 20 minutes. Purée or force through a sieve or colander. Cook until thickened. Spread on a cookie sheet or tray lined with plastic wrap. Dry at 140ºF.
Pumpkin Leather
# 2 cups canned pumpkin or 2 cups fresh pumpkin, cooked and puréed
# 1/2 cup honey
# 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
# 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
# 1/8 teaspoon powdered cloves

Blend ingredients well. Spread on tray or cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap. Dry at 140ºF.
Tomato Leather

Core ripe tomatoes and cut into quarters. Cook over low heat in a covered saucepan, 15 to 20 minutes. Purée or force through a sieve or colander and pour into electric fry pan or shallow pan. Add salt to taste and cook over low heat until thickened. Spread on a cookie sheet or tray lined with plastic wrap. Dry at 140ºF.

This document was extracted from “So Easy to Preserve”, 5th ed. 2006. Bulletin 989, Cooperative Extension Service, The University of Georgia, Athens. Revised by Elizabeth L. Andress. Ph.D. and Judy A. Harrison, Ph.D., Extension Foods Specialists.

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/

Make Your Own Flavoured Schnapps
Flavoured schnapps tastes good. It’s quite easy to make and requires no special equipment.

You can enjoy it anytime and anywhere.

As appetizer or after dinner drink. Served with hot and cold dishes. Or added to foods and drinks, teas and coffees.

Thyme schnapps

Home made flavoured schnapps is based on natural ingredients like fruits, berries and herbs that are infused in high proof spirits, such as Danish schnapps, vodka or pure grain alcohol.

Here in Denmark it’s a very old tradition - and also a popular hobby - to make your own flavoured schnapps. Because it’s fun, fascinating and highly rewarding.

For years I have collected hundreds of Danish schnapps recipes. Some are new. Others very old, handed down from generation to generation.

I can’t say I have tried them all. But here on my website you will find more than sixty of my favourite recipes.

Plus a great deal of useful information and articles to help you get the most out of your schnapps making - and enjoyment.

Over time I’ll add more and more recipes and photos. And also more useful information, tips and ideas. So, do come back often and check out my latest additions.

Sincerely,

Vivi Labo
Copenhagen - Denmark

My Schnapps Blog
This blog is a kind of journal. It contains short messages to let you know about new pages, updates and changes to my web site. Special or useful information will also appear here.

Useful Information About Flavoured Schnapps
Lots of useful information and guidelines. Learn about alcohol bases for flavoured schnapps, natural plant flavours, infusions, steeping periods, schnapps blending, sweetening, and more.

Schnapps Recipes
Now more than sixty of my favourite schnapps recipes. All based on vodka and different plant material like fruits, berries, herbs and spices. The recipes are very informative and easy to follow.

Schnapps Related Articles
Articles about liqueur making, cooking with alcohol, buying on eBay online auctions, Danish Christmas glogg, spirits to experiment with, crystal glasses and how to care for them. More will follow.

Danish Schnapps Recipes - Site Policies
Disclaimer and Privacy Policy of Danish Schnapps Recipes.

Contact
If you have any questions or comments on schnapps making, please use the form on my contact page. I’ll reply as soon as I can. But it may take a while, depending on the amount of inquiries I get.

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.burnsidewriterscollective.com/social/2008/12/goldfish_generosity.php

A writers group with a thoughtful article.

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.bigmedicine.ca/bioscitech.htm#Fate_and_effects_of_the_drug_Tamif

Pseudoephedrine use common among young children [Dec 1 Boston MA]—Researchers from Boston University’s Slone Epidemiology Center have found that exposure to pseudoephedrine, a decongestant found in many cough-and-cold and allergy medications, has been common among U.S. children, especially those under the age of two years who are at the highest risk for toxicity and for whom safe dosing recommendations are lacking. These findings appear in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Pseudoephedrine has been associated with deaths and adverse events in young children. However, the absolute risks of pediatric pseudoephedrine use are difficult to determine because the number of children exposed to this medication and typical patterns of use are unknown. In addition, use may be changing because of the Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005, a law which limited availability of pseudoephedrine-containing products.

To define the frequency and patterns of use, the researchers analyzed data from 1999 through 2006 on pseudoephedrine use among 4,267 children, aged 0 to 17 years, who were enrolled in the Slone Survey, a national random-digit-dial telephone survey of medication use in the U.S.

The researchers found 4.9 percent of children took pseudoephedrine in a given week. Use was highest in children under two years of age (8.1 percent). Sixteen children (7.5 percent of users) took more than one pseudoephedrine-containing product within the same week, including six children under two years old. Of the pseudoephedrine products used, most were multiple-ingredient liquids (58.9 percent) and multiple-ingredient tablets (24.7 percent). Fifty-two subjects (25 percent of users) took pseudoephedrine for longer than one week, including seven children under two years of age. Perhaps reflecting reduced availability, use in 2006 (2.9 percent) was significantly lower than in 1999-2005 (5.2 percent).

Concerning patterns of use identified in the study include taking more than one pseudoephedrine-containing product at the same time and using pseudoephedrine for long periods of time. Pediatric pseudoephedrine use appears to be declining since the institution of the 2005 Combat Methamphetamine Act.

“Pseudoephedrine exposure, mostly in the form of multiple-ingredient products, is common among U.S. children and needs to be monitored closely because of the potential for this medication to cause harm, particularly to children under two” said lead author Louis Vernacchio, MD, MSc, an assistant professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine.

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.bigmedicine.ca/bioscitech.htm#Fate_and_effects_of_the_drug_Tamif

Investigating a new injection therapy to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder [Dec 1 Tel Aviv Israel]—Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects as many as one in five of all Americans who survive a harrowing experience like rape, assault, war or terrorism. It has emotionally paralyzed survivors of 9/11 and broken up survivors’ families.

There is no broadly accepted treatment that can lower the chance of developing the disorder, but thanks to a Tel Aviv University researcher, a medical means of preventing PTSD may be just around the corner.

Prof. Joseph Zohar from the Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv University, has found that an injection of cortisol shortly after exposure to a traumatic event may prevent the onset of PTSD. He is now taking his animal model findings to the U.S. National Institute of Health and hopes to start clinical trials on this exploratory research within the next year.

The research was recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

PTSD Can Strike “Anyone, Anytime”

Currently, a diagnosis of PTSD is made only after an individual has been living with an acute stress reaction for one month. By then it may be too late to counteract the syndrome.

“Ten to twenty percent of all individuals exposed to trauma develop PTSD,” says Prof. Zohar. “The challenge is to try to prevent or reduce these numbers. Until now, the clinical and research focus has been on treating PTSD once it developed. We propose to shift the focus to prevention. Based on an animal model, our new clinical findings pave the way for a potential preventive treatment for future victims via cortisol injections.”

Although experienced widely among soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, PTSD can strike anyone anytime who has witnessed or experienced a life-threatening event. Its victims dissociate from loved ones and may relive the traumatic event through everyday triggers, such as the smell of a neighbor’s barbecue or a sound on TV.

Normally, the production of cortisol, a stress hormone, increases immediately after the trauma, but with time returns to normal levels. In those who are diagnosed with PTSD, however, the body’s hormonal system is dysfunctional: there is less secretion of cortisol after exposure, and researchers believe that this underproduction increases vulnerability to PTSD. Researchers propose that cortisol might be linked to the individual’s ability to forget memories of the traumatic event.

The Persistence of Memory

Researchers from both Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University, found in an animal model that a high dose of corticosterone, when given immediately after the stress event, reduces the effect of trauma in mice. They believe that corticosterone may dampen an animal’s ability to “remember” the initial trauma time and time again.

The “stressor” in the mouse experiment was litter soaked in cat urine. Twenty-five percent of the mice presented with the litter showed signs of extreme stress, which the researchers correlated to acute stress reaction in humans. Mice that were given shots of corticosterone shortly after their exposure were significantly less “tense” when reminded of the initial trauma by the presentation of a “stressor reminder” stimulus.

The researchers’ next step is to try this potential treatment option on humans in a controlled clinical setting. “The animal model we developed has given us the basis for investigating this important condition, and it has become an essential tool for clinicians around the globe,” adds Prof. Zohar, an internationally recognized expert in the field of PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorders. He has established important international organizations in these fields and advises institutions like the World Health Organization.

In Israel, Prof. Joseph Zohar leads the Israeli Defense Force initiative for treating PTSD, and serves as a special advisor to the Ministry of Defense. He is also director at the Psychiatry Division of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center Tel Hashomer in Central Israel.

[nw_arizona_granny]

[This site is always full of medical news.]

http://www.bigmedicine.ca/bioscitech.htm#Fate_and_effects_of_the_drug_Tamif

Household exposure to toxic chemicals lurks unrecognized [Nov 23 Providence RI]—Although Americans are becoming increasingly aware of toxic chemical exposure from everyday household products like bisphenol A in some baby bottles and lead in some toys, women do not readily connect typical household products with personal chemical exposure and related adverse health effects, according to research from the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Brown University sociologist Phil Brown is a co-author of the study.

“People more readily equate pollution with large-scale contamination and environmental disasters, yet the products and activities that form the backdrop to our everyday lives — electronics, cleaners, beauty products, food packaging — are a significant source of daily personal chemical exposure that accumulates over time,” said sociologist Rebecca Gasior Altman, lead author of the study, “Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal: Women’s Experience of Household Chemical Exposure.” Altman received a Ph.D. from Brown in 2008.

Altman and the team examined how women interpreted and reacted to information about chemical contamination in their homes and bodies. After reviewing their personal chemical exposure data, most women were surprised and puzzled at the number of contaminants detected. They initially had difficulty relating the chemical results for their homes, located in rural and suburban communities, with their images of environmental problems, which they associated with toxic contamination originating outside the home from military or industrial activities, accidents or dumping.

“This work underscores the value of having sociologists collaborate with life scientists to examine the personal experience of environmental problems,” said Brown. “While there has been a rapid rise in bio-monitoring and household exposure assessment, we’re lacking social science data on how people respond to research that involves their homes and bodies. Our findings are among the first to examine the full ‘exposure experience.’”

“This research illustrates how science is beginning to play a paramount role in discovering and redefining environmental problems that are not immediately perceptible through direct experience,” Altman said. “Pollution at home has been a blind spot for society. The study documents that an important shift occurs in how people understand environmental pollution, its sources and possible solutions as they learn about chemicals from everyday products that are detectable in urine samples and the household dust collecting under the sofa.”

Though some scientists and government officials worry such information will provoke fears, the interdisciplinary team discovered that people who learned about chemicals in their homes and bodies were not alarmed and were eager for more, not less, information about how typical household products can expose them to chemicals that may affect health.

The researchers interviewed 25 women, all of whom had participated in an earlier study, the Silent Spring Institute’s Household Exposure Study (HES), which tested for 89 environmental pollutants in air, dust and urine samples from 120 Cape Cod households. The study found about 20 target chemicals per home on average, including pesticides and compounds from plastics, cleaners, furniture, cosmetics, and other products. Nearly all participants in the HES chose to learn their personal results, and the 25 selected for the current research were interviewed about their experiences learning the results for their home and the study as a whole.

This new study is among the first to apply the tools and perspectives of sociology to biomonitoring and exposure assessment research, and is the first to investigate the experience of personal results-reporting in a study of a wide range of contaminants. According to the researchers, the Household Exposure Study has set an example that is shifting scientific practice, as it was among the first to adopt a right-to-know framework for reporting all results to interested participants.

In addition to Altman and Brown, this study was co-authored by Rachel Morello-Frosch, epidemiologist and environmental health scientist at the University of California–Berkeley; Julia Green Brody and Ruthann Rudel, environmental health scientists at Silent Spring Institute; and Mara Averick, a 2006 graduate of Brown who served as a research assistant as an undergraduate.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Science Foundation.

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Granny has a thought on all these household chemicals, over the years, I have noticed that the people in households that are spotless, due to the use of many chemical products, are also likely to have cancer.

No, not based on science, but years of observing, I first really began the nagging thought, when as a real estate agent, I noticed all the cleaning supplies under the sinks and in the cabinets, of the homes that I was listing and selling for people with cancer.

granny

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.bigmedicine.ca/bioscitech.htm#Gulf_War_research_panel_finds_1_in_4_veterans_suffers_from_illness_caused_by_toxic_exposure

Gulf War research panel finds 1 in 4 veterans suffers from illness caused by toxic exposure [Nov 19 Washington DC]—At least one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness, a condition caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas, and no effective treatments have yet been found, a federal panel of scientific experts and veterans concludes in a landmark report released Monday.

The Congressionally-mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses presented the report today to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake at VA headquarters in Washington.

Scientific staff support to the Committee is provided by the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH).

“The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,” the report says.

The 450-page report brings together for the first time the full range of scientific research and government investigations on Gulf War illness and resolves many questions about the condition.

“Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War had the distinction of serving their country in a military operation that was a tremendous success, achieved in short order. But many had the misfortune of developing lasting health consequences that were poorly understood and, for too long, denied or trivialized,” the Committee’s report says.

The report found that Gulf War illness fundamentally differs from stress-related syndromes described after other wars. “Studies consistently indicate that Gulf War illness is not the result of combat or other stressors, and that Gulf War veterans have lower rates of posttraumatic stress disorder than veterans of other wars,” the Committee wrote.

The report concludes: “A renewed federal research commitment is needed … to achieve the critical objectives of improving the health of Gulf War veterans and preventing similar problems in future deployments. This is a national obligation, made especially urgent by the many years that Gulf War veterans have waited for answers and assistance.”

Panel Chairman James H. Binns, a former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, said the report “provides a blueprint for the new Administration to focus resources on improving the health of Gulf War veterans and avoiding similar consequences in future military deployments.”

Committee Scientific Director Roberta White, PhD, associate dean for research at Boston University’s School of Public Health, stated: “Veterans of the first Gulf War have been plagued by ill health since their return 17 years ago. Although the evidence for this health phenomenon is overwhelming, veterans repeatedly find that their complaints are met with cynicism and a ‘blame the victim’ mentality that attributes their health problems to mental illness or non-physical factors.”

White said the Committee’s findings “clearly substantiate veterans’ beliefs that their health problems are related to exposures experienced in the Gulf theatre. It provides a state-of-the-art review of knowledge about Gulf War veterans’ health concerns that can guide clinicians and researchers, and offers a scientific rationale for the new Administration to further our understanding of these health problems — most importantly, by funding treatment trials to develop effective treatments of the veterans’ symptoms.”

Large numbers of British Gulf War veterans also are ill. “Recognition of the full extent of the illnesses suffered by these veterans of the conflict and the obligation owed to them is long overdue,” said Marshal of The Royal Air Force Lord David Craig, Chief of the Defence Staff (the British equivalent of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. “They are victims of the war, as much as any one struck by a bullet or shell. Moreover, medical treatments for their conditions are needed to protect current and future military personnel at similar risk.”

The Committee evaluated evidence related to a broad spectrum of Gulf War-related exposures. Its review included hundreds of studies of Gulf War veterans, extensive research in other human populations, studies on toxic exposures in animal models, and government investigations related to events and exposures in the Gulf War.

Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain, and may also include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and skin rashes.

The new report says that scientific evidence “leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition,” and it cites dozens of research studies that have identified “objective biological measures” that distinguish veterans with the illness from healthy controls. Those measures relate to structure and functioning of the brain, functioning of the autonomic nervous system, neuroendocrine and immune alterations, and variability in enzymes that protect the body from neurotoxic chemicals.

The panel cited two Gulf War exposures consistently found to be causally associated with Gulf War illness: (1) the drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB), given to troops to protect against nerve gas, and (2) pesticides that were widely used, and often overused, during the Gulf War.

The Committee found that an association between Gulf War illness and several other exposures could not be ruled out. These included low-level exposures to nerve agents, extended exposure to smoke from oil well fires, receipt of large numbers of vaccines, and combinations of neurotoxic exposures.

Department of Defense reports indicate that about 100,000 U.S. troops were potentially exposed to low-level nerve agents as a result of large-scale U.S. demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah, Iraq in 1991. In 2007, a federally funded study led by White, chair of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health, found evidence that low-level exposure to nerve gas could have caused lasting brain deficits in Persian Gulf troops. The extent of the changes – less brain “white matter” and reduced cognitive function — corresponded to the extent of the exposure, that study found.

In addition, the Committee said, Gulf War veterans have significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than other veterans, and troops who were downwind from the Khamisiyah demolitions have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans.

The report found that historically, federal Gulf War research programs have not been effective in addressing Gulf War illness. While the Committee applauded promising new programs at VA and DOD, it noted that overall federal funding for Gulf War research had declined dramatically in recent years. The panel urged policymakers to devote $60 million annually for such programs.

The Committee further recommended that the VA instruct the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to re-do its previously completed Gulf War and Health reports, saying the IOM’s series of reports have been “skewed and limited by a restrictive approach to the scientific tasks mandated by Congress, an approach directed by VA in commissioning the reports.”

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses is a panel of prominent scientists and veterans, charged with reviewing federal research on the health of Gulf War veterans. The Committee was mandated by Congress and appointed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Additional information about the Committee and its activities can be found on its website.

The full report is posted at: http://sph.bu.edu/insider/racreport

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.bigmedicine.ca/americas.htm#New_Mexico:_State,_feds_investigate_rare_infant_illness

New Mexico: State, feds investigate rare infant illness [Nov 27 Santa Fe]—As part of its investigation into a rare infection that can be associated with infant formula, the New Mexico Department of Health is advising people on the safest way to prepare formula.

The Department of Health is investigating two cases of Enterobacter sakazakii illness, a rare cause of bloodstream and central nervous system infections, in a female infant from Lea County and a male infant from Otero County. The male infant has died, and the female infant is hospitalized.

E. sakazakii can cause severe, invasive disease among infants and has been associated with powdered formula, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been about 120 cases recorded across the world in all age groups, but infants are at particular risk. Some proportion of powdered formulas that have been tested have contained E. sakazakii or other bacteria that can cause disease.

The Department of Health is working with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and New Mexico Environment Department to try to determine what caused the babies to develop the infection. The Department of Health has interviewed families and conducted environmental and food testing. The Department expects test results to be available in about a week.

Testing at the Department of Health’s Scientific Laboratory in Albuquerque has determined that the two infants had different strains of the bacteria. Both babies did consume powdered formula in addition to other foods. In past investigations in other states, powdered infant formula contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii has been associated with infant illnesses. However, that association was not documented in many of the cases investigated.

“We extend our sympathy to the family who is coping with a loss and the family whose baby is hospitalized,” said Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil. “We encourage people to breast feed when possible, follow directions provided when preparing formula and always practice good hygiene by washing your hands often, especially before preparing formula and feeding a baby.”

The Department recommends the following advice for feeding infants:

The best option for your baby is to breastfeed if possible.

Talk to your health-care provider before trying or changing to a new formula.

Prepare a small amount of formula for each feeding to reduce the amount and time that formula is at room temperature before your baby drinks it.

If you have prepared formula and your baby has not had any, throw the formula away within two hours of preparation. If your baby drank out of the bottle, throw away any leftover formula within one hour.

Always wash your hands before preparing formula or any food for yourself or family members.

Prepared formula in a refrigerator should be used within 24 hours.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

The reality is that interest in really, really local food is growing, and so is interest in food production, as food prices skyrocket and quality falls.

It just hit me this morning (sometimes it take repeating something about a thousand times before it sinks in, but that's another story LOL): When food prices went up this summer, so did gas, and we all said, "Whoa, what's happening?" Then gas prices started to slide back down and since we drive past gas stations with prices prominently displayed, we thought the crisis was over.

OK, then why is bread still close to $4 a loaf? Why are rice and flour and other commodities still as high as they were last summer? I heard the commodities market bubble burst as the oil market bubble burst... so where are the lower food prices?

When we get back up to the mountain we are going to start stocking up on food, and I am going to learn to can the food we grow. This situation is crazy. I want to be as self sufficient as possible and learn to live on one salary so I can stay home and take care of my garden and my home and my family.

Thanks for staying on this topic, it's the most important issue these days!!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Poverty Garden - Blog Action Day

When designing a garden to feed your family throughout the year, consider what is required to live and thrive. I know some of my readers do not agree that a strict vegetarian (vegan) diet can meet human nutritional needs. However, I've listened carefully to what Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. John McDougall, and Dr. Neal Barnard from Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine say about the subject and I've read their books as well as numerous others. I'm personally convinced the science is sound and that I won't fall over dead from a lack of animal bits and pieces in my diet.

Eliminating livestock from the homestead saves time, energy, and resources usually diverted to their care, feeding, and "harvesting". Yes, livestock can graze on less arable land, control pests, and produce manure. However, soil can be built up even on top of bedrock, hills can be terraced, and saline soils can be improved by good management. Integrated Pest Management techniques can help control pests. And manure doesn't have to come from livestock.

What are the necessary building blocks for health? Carbohydrates, protein, and fat, in that order. "But what about all the micronutrients"?, you may ask. If you eat a varied plant-based diet, you'll meet all those needs. Wait, that's not quite correct. In this article, Dr. McDougall mentions a study from 1925 where a healthy adult couple lived on a diet of white potatoes with minor additions of oil, a few fruits, coffee, and tea for six months. They were active during this time and did not suffer nutritional deficiencies.

Plan a Poverty Garden to meet your nutritional needs. To figure out what plants will grow in your area, start with a climate zone map for local conditions. Then, tap into the experience already present through local farmers and gardeners, cooperative extension services, and local guides. Select plants to give you carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Filling carbohydrates are available from grains, and starchy vegetables such as tubers, winter squash, and corn. Grains take quite a bit of space and can take more energy to process, but they store well and are very versatile in their uses. Familiar tubers include potatoes and sweet potatoes. Potatoes can be grown vertically with a relatively small footprint and can be stored for up to six months in a root cellar. Winter squash plants spread out tremendously but can produce quite a lot of pumpkins and squash. (In addition, the blossoms and seeds are also edible.) Corn also takes space but has the advantage of drying very well for long term storage and is versatile in its uses.

Other non-starchy vegetables provide phytonutrients and variation in flavor. Use intensive gardening techniques to maximize production in the space you have available. Fruits provide phytonutrients as well as simpler carbohydrates good for quick energy. The edible seeds of some, such as watermelons, also provide protein and fat. In a poverty garden, all edible parts of the harvest should be utilized.

Humans can easily meet their protein needs from plant foods. Plant different types of legumes in your Poverty Garden to provide variety in your diet. All beans and lentils store very well when dried. Some nitrogen-fixing trees also have edible pods, making them doubly beneficial in the garden.

Nuts and seeds provide fats as well as protein. By eating them in their whole form, rather than as free oil, you get all the fiber and nutrients packed into the kernel. Growing nut trees will provide you with shade, leaves for compost, wood (from pruning), and food. If you're lucky, you live in a zone where homegrown avocados or olives are a possibility.

For seasoning, plant some herbs appropriate for your climate zone. Some culinary herbs also have medicinal uses, which gives you more bang for the buck in your poverty garden.

When you sit down to plan your garden, spend a little time figuring out how to grow the most nutrition, and flavor, for the last amount of money and effort. This will help ensure you continue to have food even during times of poverty.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

In Britain they say the water is contaminated with birth control chemicals and that Viagra-type components are starting to be found in fish. By taking all these unnecessary medicines we are contaminating everything else!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

FAST COMPOSTING—In 21 Days—Really!
An Alternative to Backbreaking Work!

by Fred Davis, MG, MC, Hill Gardens of Maine (To view previous articles, click: Archives) (This information was taken from the downloadable book, "Keys To The Garden Gate" on this site)

   Most of the old-fashioned composting methods are actually labor intensive and often a little too slow for my taste and purposes. The pile must be turned to re-introduce air into colonies of oxygen-starved bacteria, fungi and other organisms. There is an easier way which incorporates very nearly all basic composting principles but which vastly improves on two crucial factors: aeration and time.

    Here's my system for producing finished "black gold"—fully decomposed, rich, dark, nutrient-saturated, weed- and disease-free organic matter ready to be worked into garden soil—in 21 to 28 days, with no turning!

    The Enclosure. A diversity of materials may be used for the enclosure—concrete blocks, timbers, wire mesh or boards, for example—but for economy's sake, I have constructed my "no-turn, self-aerating, 3-week" compost bin from salvaged pallets commonly used by truckers in the transport of equipment or supplies. Other sources of these used—oftentimes perfectly usable—pallets are large hardware stores, plumbing/heating suppliers, lumber yards...and don't overlook your local landfill or waste transfer station. A friend or neighbor who works at large discount stores or on construction sites may be of some help, too. As interest in using recycled or salvageable pallets increases, it is likely that you may have to pay for them. $5 would not be an unreasonable amount for sound, fully-intact pallets. Most medium-to-full-size automobiles are wide enough in the trunk to accommodate one or two pallets. 

    Recall that biological composting does not rely on bright light and sunshine, so you can secrete your bin in a dark corner of the yard, behind shrubbery or "back in the woods" where it won't be seen. Place the least attractive pallet on level ground where you want your compost pile to reside. This base or "foundation" allows air circulation (remember that free air movement is key to the composting process) and prevents tree roots from creeping in and feasting on your compost. You might consider nailing additional narrow strips on this "foundation" pallet between each top-surface board, leaving just enough space for air to pass without difficulty, while preventing your shredded garden wastes from falling through (1/2-inch gaps work for me).

    Next, stand the remaining four pallets on edge with the closely-spaced boards facing inward and vertical (perpendicular to the ground) to form a box just outside of the foundation pallet. Lash them together using wire or synthetic (so it won't decay in a few weeks) cord. I've used plastic clothesline cord with lasting results. Later, you'll want to untie the pallet which constitutes the "front" in order to access finished compost— so select your knots carefully.

    Allowing For Maximum Air Circulation. Important to the function and success in this new system are appropriate length sections of (also salvaged) 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" black plastic water or drain pipe. Most discount salvage stores (here in Maine they're called "Mardens") sometimes sell such pipe for a fraction of what the same material would cost at a builder's supply. You'll need ten or twelve lengths about 4-1/2 feet long. Use a half-inch "spade" drill bit and an electric drill to create random perforations about every four or five inches all around the pipe. Precise spacing is not important. All right - ready?

 

4 -1/2 foot, 1-1/4 inch diameter perforated black plastic pipe - 10 minimum

    Let's assume you've gathered all your shredded "greens" and "browns" and are ready for some serious composting action. I like to mix these two main ingredients together before tossing them into the pile. Place a layer of mixed material 4" to 6" deep on the foundation pallet of your new, high-efficiency, low-cost, no-turn composting bin. Make certain that the material's moisture level is adequate (recall that it should feel like a wrung-out kitchen sponge) and do not press the layer down. Place two of your perforated aeration pipes on top of this layer so the cut ends protrude through the side pallets. Space a pipe about 16" in from each side so, when you look down at the layer's surface, it looks as if it's been divided into thirds. Recall that I suggested making the boards in your pallet walls stand vertical. Perforated aeration pipes can now slide down freely as the pile settles during the accelerated composting process. Had those boards been placed horizontal, your pipes would have hung up, bent—and possibly "kinked"—in a short time. You can guess what that'll do to the flow of air into the pile.

    Now it's time for a second six-inch layer of shredded material followed by a second set of perforated pipe at right angles to the ones in layer #1, below. Continue, layer by layer, adding another set of pipes to each layer as you go, until you've reached the top (and the end of your supply of pipes). Remember to alternate the direction of each layer of perforated pipes. It is not necessary to install aeration pipes above the top layer. But it is recommended that you lay on an additional 4" or 5" layer of some coarse, insulating organic material like pine needles or whole leaves. This insulating layer allows generated heat to penetrate all the way to the top of your mixed material, thereby destroying most—if not all— weed seeds, undesirable insects and disease organisms.

    What happens next is pure simplicity and efficiency! Mass temperature immediately begins to rise until, between 48 and 96 hours later, it has topped out at between 140° and 160° (F). As bacterial decomposition consumes oxygen in the process, air passes through the aeration pipes to replenish supplies. As material quickly decomposes, the pile begins settling. In about seven to ten days, temperatures will have begun to fall until, by the end of about 3 weeks, it should have reached ambient outside air temperature and the pile's mass will have shrunk to a little over half its original size.

    There is one small problem, however, which must be dealt with during the high-heat stage. Because fresh, cool outside air is flowing through the perforated pipes—and therefore into the pile—a small area of the mix near each perforation will remain cool enough to prevent the destruction of seeds and pathogens by heat. To overcome this small handicap, it is recommended that, for one 24-hour day (only) about 3 days into the high heat stage, the open ends of each aeration pipe be plugged, thereby allowing high heat to thoroughly penetrate throughout the mix. At the end of this 24-hour period, remove the plugs, and the process continues essentially unaffected by the missing days' worth of air. Wadded-up newspaper makes a good temporary plug.

    It's done! Actually, I like to allow the finished product to just sit there for another week or two to stabilize. At this rate, given a large enough supply of greens and browns, you should be able to produce close to a square-yard of finished compost every five weeks. You guess what that'll do to the health of your garden—and your success rate!

---

FORUM

6-8-99 - A 20+-year composting veteran raised a couple of minor objections to the above method, partly referring to the need for additional "stabilization" after the 21-day composting period is complete; and partly because the method is so fast.  "Where's the fire?," he objected, "Most of us can afford the luxury of watching at least a little of the gradual richening of compost which goes on improving with age for many months if properly managed." Indeed, there is some concern about potential (and I emphasize potential) toxicity in freshly-composted material which has not been allowed to remain undisturbed to stabilize for a couple of extra weeks. As I stated in the last paragraph of the above article, "Actually, I like to allow the finished product to just sit there for another two weeks or so to stabilize."   Consider that most real live gardeners will (at least should) incorporate compost into a soil's foundation a few days before actual planting. That would allow the chemistry and biology in most healthy soils to "stabilize" the material.

He also raised the specter of potential blooming and spreading of plant pathogens, and that unstabilized material can provide harborage for vectors. A near-total impracticality, in my many years of composting experience (beginning in high school, and up to teaching several Master Composter courses in the not-too-distant past; I was 63 at the time), since a mere 140° (F) for a very few days destroys significant pathogens. The 21-day method described above attains 155° to 160° (F) usually within 72 to 96 hours, which is then sustained for approximately 4 or 5 days. Virtually nothing survives the heat. Since I began using this method some five years ago, I have not seen any sign of pathogen proliferation or toxicity to amended plants as a result of immediate use of the 21-day material.

As for the "Where's the fire?", in this real world of abbreviated growing seasons, very chilly nights (even in "summer") and the press of other duties, most busy gardeners would prefer to spend their precious time doing something other than turning, turning, turning and turning again...or standing around twiddling their greenish-thumbs waiting for the stuff to "finish" at its routine slugs-pace. We use a LOT of compost in our gardens during it's 120 day (+/-) growing season! Having nearly a yard of rich, thoroughly composted material ready every 3 or 4 weeks keeps our beds bursting with growth, health, color and pleasure...and no indication of the dreaded toxicity—or exploding populations of plant pathogens.

I should add that he concluded with: "Regardless of all that, the composting system you teach is one of the best all-around designs I've seen. I just wouldn't use the product quite so fast." — signed: Wild Bill      

—— I couldn't agree more!   —Fred

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

by Fred Davis, MG, MC, Hill Gardens of Maine

(This information was taken from the downloadable book, “Keys To The Garden Gate” on this site)

http://www.hillgardens.com/articlearchive.htm

http://www.hillgardens.com/keys-intro.htm

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

http://www.hillgardens.com/potatoes.htm

Potatoes: Nearly A Half-Bushel Per Foot
by Fred Davis, MG, Hill Gardens of Maine (To view other articles, click Archives)

 

Welcome through Fred's Garden Gate! Well, it's too late for this season—at least in Central Maine—but there's still time to prepare and plan a very different way to grow potatoes next season. 

Early this Spring (2000), I ordered my Dark Red Norland potatoes from Johnny's and decided I'd had enough of rows and rows of spuds taking up most of the prime space in our veggie patch. So....I borrowed a concept from a distant friend, highly refined it, and now grow them vertically! The up-side: where 5 pounds of spud "seed" formerly planted about 40 feet of row, now the same plants occupy a circular space 2-1/2 feet across by 36" tall. And considering the harvest rate, that cooks down to just short of a bushel and a half for the space used! The only down-side that I can see: the planting tends to dry out quicker than if planted directly in the ground.  Here's the deal: 

    Find yourself about ten feet of 36" wide "hog wire" that has wire spacing of 1" by 2", then roll it into a vertical "cylinder" (now 3-feet tall) and lace it together with either wire or synthetic cord.

Once laced securely, it's time to cut the openings through which your potato "seed" will be inserted. Each hole will be approximately 3" by 4" - just large enough to push the "seed" through, and for the plant to grow through. I arranged mine so there were four openings tall on the cylinder, and 10 openings on each of the four tiers.

Stand this now completed cylinder on one end in the full sun, and drive a stout stake outside on each side (at "9 O'clock" and "3 O'clock") to keep it standing on end.

The next step involves a wheelbarrow and some elbow-grease: fill this wire enclosure right to the top with the freshest compost or very high organic matter soil— not the usual stuff ("dirt") you usually grow your potatoes in!—you can get your hands on, and slightly shake the cage a little to settle it down. I used 100% compost—a biologically hot-rot product using my own 21-day, no-turn composting method (see the article in archives: Fast Composting! (use your Back-Button to return directly to this page). Moisten thoroughly and then let it sit for a couple of hours to drain out.

Note: Another system similar to this uses, instead of wire, a relatively rigid recycled plastic sheet with convenient holes drilled for the plants, which you're supposed to roll into a cylinder, fasten, and plant as you fill. In my experience, planting in layers from the bottom up inside the enclosure is fraught with an annoying handicap: by the time planting has reached the top, the bottom layers have compressed, forcing the already planted potato seed down and away from the hole. As it sprouts, more often than not it misses the hole and spends the entire season trying to get to the top rather than expending all that wasted energy producing a good crop.

When you fill and settle first—especially when using wire—the seed is pushed through the openings, where they stay put...and can "see" daylight so they know which way is "out"! 

OK!...all filled up, settled down and ready to plant! But first, you should have cut your potato "seed" into smaller pieces about 24-hours ago so the cut surfaces have a chance to "heal". Most seed potatoes can be cut into thirds or fourths (+/-)...just be dead certain each piece has at least one "eye" or growing point. After cutting, spread them out on a clean surface (an elevated screen will allow good air circulation) in an airy, dry place out of the sun.

Actual planting is pure simplicity. Gently press each piece through each hole in your compost filled and moistened wire cylinder so that just the slightest bit remains visible.

You should end up with several pieces left over....nudge them into the top surface about 6" apart and a couple inches deep. If you still have a couple pieces left, keep them in a cool, dark place because one or two of the ones planted may turn out to be "duds", and you'll have replacements (I didn't keep any in reserve and, consequently, there are a couple of gaps in my y2k vertical potato "field". Oh, well....there's always next year!). Here's what it should look like about 3 weeks after planting (some seed-pieces may be a bit slower than others, so have patience:

Now comes the boring part: Maintain moisture throughout the remainder of the season - remember that it'll dry out faster than if planted directly in ground-level soil - and, after about 5 or 6 weeks, you may enjoy "stealing" a few little, 1-inch "baby" spuds from the top layer...to put into soups or stews, or just wash off and crunch down on the spot.

At the end of the season, after the tops have wearied, turned yellow-green and have obviously done their duty, remove all the external plant parts, push it over, give it a good shake to liberate the wire cage (or untie the lacings and remove wire that way)...and harvest your potato crop without the necessity of digging up 40 or 50 feet of row! The photo at the right shows a few of the 45 pounds of spuds retrieved at harvest...nice size and almost totally devoid of distortions and scab. We'll be doing this again!

All that's left to do is retrieve the wire, clean it off a bit and store it for next years' crop. Spread the compost around the rest of the garden and till it in to improve your soil. Oh, I almost forgot: don't  use any kind of manure as part of the mix....chances are you'll end up with scabby spuds. And you might also consider moving the planting around to a different - possibly distant - spot each year to make it more difficult for the Colorado Potato Beetles to find your crop (they spend the winter in the ground very near where they were originally hatched....but if there aren't any potatoes there the next season, that should help keep their numbers down).

An alternative method:

Some years back, customers of ours recommended this also-very-effective (but not quite as space-saving) method of growing spuds: they made foot-tall raised beds out of old planks, filled them with high-organic-matter (probably compost), laid out their seed potatoes and covered them with straw—lots of it, apparently. Their potato plants grew up through the straw, looked magnificent, entertained no beetles, and harvesting involved little more than removing the straw and picking up spuds.

Return to Success-Oriented Vegetable Gardening, Part 4