RE: [californiadisasters] Quakes: Victims rescue victims
Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:05 PM
[Interesting opinions, of folks interested in survival, some of these posters are Firemen, Rescue, and Police people.
It is the comments on the training that most of California has had for survival training in the past few days.
The messages are open for non-members to read.
You will need to go back a few pages, as there is a bad fire at Santa Barbara and for now, that is the current event for posting. Several homes have burned, 20 or more, all within about 5 hours.
I don’t subscribe to the discussion group, as I get the bare details from the disaster group.
Check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links
Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here
This message consists of the following:
1. JA-RU Recalls Toy Trains Due To Choking Hazard (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09041.html)
2. Swim ‘N Score Dive Sticks Recalled by Modell’s Due to Risk of Impalement Injury to Children (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09043.html)
3. Cobra Electronics Recalls Children’s Two-Way Radios with Rechargeable Batteries Due to Chemical Burn Hazard; Sold Exclusively in Toys “R” Us Stores (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09044.html)
4. CPSC Clarifies Certification Requirements: Agency Staff to Focus on Compliance with Safety Rules (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09042.html)
Bottled Water Quality Investigation: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pollutants
Executive summary and results from 2008 “laboratory tests conducted ... at one of the country’s leading water quality laboratories [that] found that 10 popular brands of bottled water ... contained 38 chemical pollutants altogether, with an average of 8 contaminants in each brand.” Includes description of methodology, policy recommendations, and suggestions for consumers (including avoiding plastic bottles). From the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
URL: http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/27041
MELAMINE CONTAMINATED FOOD PRODUCTS (07): WORLDWIDE ex CHINA
************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
[1] China (Macau SAR)
[2] Tanzania
******
[1] China (Macau SAR)
Date: Tue 11 Nov 2008
Source: GMA News.TV [edited]
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/132720/3-more-girls-suffer-kidney-stones-in-Macau
Macau authorities say 3 more children in the Chinese gambling enclave
have developed kidney stones that may be linked to Chinese milk
contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.
A government statement says the 3 girls aged from 4 to 8 are in
stable condition and do not require hospitalization.
The Monday [10 Nov 2008] statement says the children attend schools
where authorities provide students with free milk produced by Yili
Industrial Group Co.
Yili is one of several Chinese dairies implicated in a scandal on the
mainland in which melamine-laced dairy products have killed 4 infants
and sickened more than 50 000.
Melamine is used to make plastics and fertilizer.
—
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
[Macau SAR can be located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive
map at http://healthmap.org/promed/en?g=1821275&v=22.158,113.56,5
- CopyEd.MJ]
******
[2] Tanzania
Date: Wed 12 Nov 2008
Source: The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) [edited]
http://thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=8720
Samples of the Chinese milk impounded in Dar es Salaam and sent to
South Africa in October [2008] for tests have been found to be
contaminated with the killer chemical, melamine.
A confidential report seen by The Citizen indicates that the chemical
was found in 3 of the 9 samples the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority
(TFDA) provided during the investigation.
The authority had seized 34 tonnes in its crackdown on milk imports
following the Chinese scare, but the sample tested and found to
contain melamine, was taken from 7 tonnes, which a single trader had imported.
The news confirms the fears that Tanzania might have narrowly escaped
disaster, with traders having imported contaminated milk from China,
where baby milk laced with melamine caused the deaths of 4 children
last July [2008], and had by September [2008] infected 94 000 other
people across several continents.
Yesterday [11 Nov 2008], the TFDA director-general, Dr Singonda
Ndomondo, confirmed receiving a report from South Africa, indicating
that the Chinese milk was contaminated.
The news will shock many consumers and might jolt the market,
considering that about 70 per cent of the milk and milk products
consumed in Tanzania are imported. With a population of more than 4
million, Dar es Salaam needs at least a million litres (approx. 264
000 gal) of milk a day, but the local processors are able to supply
less than 60 000 litres (approx. 16 000 gal) a day.
“Yes, it is true that some of the samples we sent to South Africa
have tested positive with melamine chemicals, but everything will be
made public on Thursday [13 Nov 2008],” Dr Ndomondo said by
telephone, when contacted for comment.
She said the authority, whose responsibility is to ensure the safety
of drugs and food sold to millions of consumers every day, would
issue the full report on the Chinese milk saga at a press briefing in
Dar es Salaam.
Dr Ndomondo declined to discuss what steps TFDA was taking to
mitigate the consequences of the findings until the full report was
tabled before the authorities.
However, The Citizen independently established that the TFDA planned
to destroy the 7 tonnes of the contaminated Chinese milk impounded.
A total of 34 tonnes of imported powdered milk was seized from
several traders in September [2008], after the board banned imports
of Chinese milk.
Local tests didn’t yield anything, hence the decision to send the
samples to South Africa, which has more sophisticated laboratories.
A source told The Citizen that the Dar es Salaam trader who brought
in the contaminated milk cargo had been informed about the findings.
He said: “A condemnation certificate has been issued to him. Among
other things, he will be required to pay for the cost of destruction
of the tainted milk.” However, The Citizen couldn’t establish when
this will be done.
Tanzania reacted quickly to an alert issued by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) at the height of the Chinese milk saga.
TFDA also suspended the issuing of import licenses for milk products
until the investigation is concluded.
Senegal, Liberia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, and Togo also slapped bans on
Chinese milk imports after investigations in China found in milk
traces of melamine, a chemical used to make plastics.
The Chinese milk scandal involved milk and infant formula, and other
food materials and components, which had been adulterated.
The scandal broke on [16 Jul 2008], after 16 babies who had been fed
on milk powder produced by Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group were
diagnosed with kidney stones.
With China’s wide range of export food products, the scandal has
affected countries on all the continents.
According to scientific journals, melamine is a hard synthetic
substance better known for its flame retardant properties. The
nitrogen-rich molecule is sometimes illegally added to food products
in order to increase their apparent protein content. It has also been
employed as a non-protein nitrogen, appearing in soy meal, corn
gluten meal, and cottonseed meal used in cattle feed.
Melamine is known to cause renal and urinary problems in humans and
animals when it reacts with cyanuric acid inside the body, sometimes
present in drinking water and in animal feed, so its use in food
production is universally banned.
Melamine adulteration of food products made headlines when pet food
was recalled in Europe and the United States in 2007.
A number of arrests were made following the scandal in China. The
head of Sanlu, 7 local government officials, as well as the director
of the administration of quality supervision, inspection, and
quarantine were sacked or forced to resign over the scandal.
The WHO described Chinese milk saga as one of the largest food safety
concerns it has had to deal with in recent years.
In late October [2008], it was discovered that the problem had spread
to eggs and possibly other food categories.
[Byline: Deogratias Kishombo, Tom Mosoba]
—
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
[The HealthMap/ProMED-mail map of Tanzania is available at
http://healthmap.org/promed/en?v=-6,35,5
- CopyEd.MJ]
Date: 12 Nov 2008
Source: Herald Tribune [edited]
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/12/asia/13chinafood.php
Contaminant found in fish feed from China
continued.
Date: 12 Nov 2008
Source: Herald Tribune [edited]
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/12/asia/AS-Hong-Kong-Tainted-Food.php
HK finds melamine in fish feed from mainland China
Date: 13 Nov 2008
Source: The Wall Street Journal [edited]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122649318324720585.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Toxic Chemical Is Found in Fish Feed in Hong Kong
continued.
Many links and info for making crafts, simple to complex.
Difficult to decide which to look at.
http://getcrafty.com/columns/west_coast_crafty/handmade_holiday_crafts_part_2.php
Make custom wrapping paper- we use some paper that I got from a printer who was getting rid of extra stock, so it is big enough for pretty large presents.
Using an alphabet stamp pad we stamp holiday messages and people’s names etc on the paper. It’s pretty cute- and fun.
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8672
[I may be out of date, but in the old days, one could buy the roll ends of the paper the printers use to print newspaper, for almost nothing, a dollar or two.
It is an off white paper, I had the idea that Bill was going to saw it into pieces and make me a never ending page for typing on, LOL, Of course, that was before we got computers and when I was writing, I hated loosing my train of thought, while putting in new pages to type, plus they are not cheap.
LOL, Now I would use cheap photocopier paper or the the computer paper that is one long sheet.
It is useful for covering tables for a messy job, lining shelves in closets, etc.
Back in the days that I did make wrapping paper, I used a fern frond, laid on the paper, and hit it with a light coating of spray paint, LOL, you know a glob of sprayed paper, with the fern out line.
Or using different leaves for stamps.
Maybe I like stamping things.
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8293
Growing Your Way to Winter Happiness
Every December I give myself a present; I go to the farmer’s market and buy potted flower bulbs. I try to get them as small as possible so that they will have the longest growing period in my hot apartment.
The best flower bulbs for winter are narcissus, hyacinth, daffodil, and crocus, because you get the most flowers for your money. If you start them in mid-December with a bi-weekly watering, you should have flowers by mid to late January. Narcissus and daffodil come in all white, all yellow, and trumpet shades of ivory, red and coral. Hyacinth and crocus come in solid and striated white, blue and pink.
[What a nice gift this will make, even if it is given, as a gift and is not in bloom, waiting is half the fun...
With over a month to Christmas, you would have some of them close to blooming and vases from the dollar store or thrift shop would be cheap.....granny]
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8293
Start Your Own Apartment Farm!
I’m a big fan of gardening, especially in the edibles department. The satisfaction I get from starting seeds and raising them into big healthy plants that give me something back in return is immense. And I love a good, fresh salad. And do you know what’s extraordinary about my salads? I grow them all inside my apartment!
You don’t have to have a quarter acre, or even a balcony, to be a garden. I’m a firm believer in gardening where you are.
But where to start? Get yourself a few good seed catalogs. A few of my favorites are Landreth Seed Company, Territorial Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Pinetree Seeds (especially affordable— lots for 75 cents!). There are a ton to choose from, so just browse which ones look interesting to you online.
Once you have your catalog in hand, choose your veggies. I think a simple salad garden is the best way to get acquainted with indoor food production— so some lettuce, green onions and cherry tomotoes are good to start. You’ll want to pick varieties that are small in size, and good for container growth. For example, this year I grew Tom Thumb Lettuce (a butterhead the size of a softball), green bunching onions, and Tiny Tim Cherry Tomatoes (the plants grew about 3 1/2 feet tall).
Once you’ve got your seeds, you’ll need containers. I like to grow lettuce in rubber maid flats that are about 6-8 inches deep. You can run two rows of lettuce in one of these. Spread about an inch of pea gravel on the bottom and then top it off with container potting mix, leaving about an inch of room at the top so things don’t get messy when you water. For the tomatoes, a round pot is great— about 8 inches deep and 6-8 inches in diameter. Same concept in setting up the pot— gravel in the bottom for drainage then soil on top. Since the bunching onions are so small, you can put a row in between the lettuce (a practice called intercropping) or put them in a smaller rubber maid flat of their own.
Follow the directions on the seed packs for instructions on how deep to plant the seeds and how far apart. Since the quantity you’re planting is relatively small, you can plant just as many seeds as you want plants right into the containers (as opposed to starting them in smaller containers or seed starting flats). Planting just as many seeds as you want plants also prevents you from having to thin (a tedious, heart-wrenching chore) but you will have to re-seed any spots where the seeds don’t germinate. Once everything has been planted and watered in, put the lids on the rubber maids and a layer of plastic wrap on the tomato containers. This will create a nice greenhouse effect which will help your seeds to germinate.
Once your seeds have germinated and you see a mini field of green, remove the coverings from the containers and let there be light! If your window doesn’t get a steady 8 or so hours of pretty direct light, you should supplement with lamps. Grow lights are fancy (i.e. expensive) and flourescent bulbs will do the trick— get one “cool” and one “warm” and put them in a desk lamp over your containers. You can even get all high-tech and get a timer to plug the lamp into so they will go on and off automatically. Remember to water but not overwater— while the seedlings are young the soil should never dry out, but it shouldn’t be sopping wet either.
So, keep them watered and well-lit and watch your farm flourish! Gardening isn’t hard, and the learning curve is half the fun. For further tips and instruction on the wide world of gardening, a few great books include “You Grow Girl” by Gayla Trail and Rodale’s Guide to Gardening by the Organic Method.
_________________
http://apartmentfarm.wordpress.com
[Link not checked, I did not know about the light bulbs, being different for best growing.
I have ordered from Pinetree Seeds many times, I like the mixed variety packets.
granny]
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8293
Gardening in the Problem Apartment
Very few people have the perfect apartment for gardening—too hot, too cold, too shady, too dry. The problems are numerous, but fortunately so are the solutions! Here are some easy ideas for gardening in your micro-climate:
Too hot/too sunny: Plants that will work the very best are tropicals and heat-lovers, like peppers, tomatoes, rosemary and lemon grass. They won’t mind the sun or the warm spells. To help everything else along, you can put a translucent window shade or film on your windows, so the plants are getting light, just not direct, burning sun. You can also put plants near the windows instead of in them, out of direct light. Keeping air circulating around your plants by cracking a window or running a small fan will help them stay cool, and if it’s overly humid, you can run a dehumidfier or put charcoal in the trays of the pots in order to draw excess moisture out of the air.
Too cold: Hopefully your apartment will never get so cold that you worry that your plants might suffer! But it is possible that your apartment is too cool and/or drafty to get seeds started well. First, you don’t need to stick your newly planted seeds in a drafty window—they won’t need light until they germinate and are pushing their little green selves above the soil. You don’t have to spend cash on one of those seedling heat mats (though they are quite nifty)—there are some opportune spots around the house that are warm enough to get seeds off to a good start. The top of the refrigerator, microwave, computer, or hot-water radiator are all great spots to germinate seeds.
Too shady: Plants that will work the best in shady spots are lettuces and greens. These types of plants bolt in hot weather, so they will thrive in cool, shady locations. To grow plants that want a bit more sun, you can always supplement with grow lights—a warm bulb and a cool bulb together in a florescent shop light will do the trick, and it’s pretty inexpensive to install. Hang it from your window or a shelf with chains so that you can adjust the height as your plants grow.
Too dry: Most plants like a bit of humidity, and indoor air can often be a bit dry, especially during the winter months. A quick fix is set your plant pots on top of a tray filled with pebbles and water. The pebbles will keep the pots elevated over the water so the soil doesn’t remain constantly soaked and your plants drown, and the water will provide a humid microclimate that your plants will love.
_________________
http://apartmentfarm.wordpress.com
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8293
Rooting Boost
Gather young fresh willow twigs. Any willow will do, but you can easily find some scrubby black willows along streams rather than butchering your neighbor’s pussy willow or weeping willow. Snip the twigs up, stripping and discarding any leaves, and place short lengths of one, two, or three inch twigs in the bottom of a bucket. Cover with water. That’s it. You could mash it around a bit, or use warm water, or only make it in the spring of the year. All you really need is willow cambium and water. (Cambium is the inner bark, the pale yellowish or greenish soft layer that is just above the woody part, and just below the bark.)
Soak the twigs over night, and then drain off the liquid into a jar or watering can. Discard/compost the twigs.
This liquid contains two things that are beneficial to rooting plants, cuttings, and encouraging seed sprouting. The salicylates from the willow bark are the precursor to aspirin. They discourage rot, fungus and nematodes, and salicylates make the soil a bit more acid. The other part of the willow water is the major player: Enzymes, baby! Those prevalent enzymes in the bark are fragile but powerful. Water your cuttings or seeds with this enzyme loaded liquid to promote the cell growth for rooting.
Enzymes will break down quickly, so don’t store the water, don’t let the twigs soak for too long, don’t use heavily chlorinated water, don’t expose to the sun. Do make and use willow water only as you need it.
[Why not allow the Pussy Willow buds to form and have a bouquet...granny]
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8293
Source (almost) free plants for your garden or patio- part 1
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We’ve all sprouted apple seeds and avocado pits, haven’t we? Maybe we’ve grown carrot tops and a chunk of sweet potato in water, and taken a slip from Aunt Suzy’s pothos. What else can we grow for free?
Do you have any garlic or shallots or green onions that are going to waste? Pop them in a little seed starter mix and wait. You probably won’t get a fully developed garlic or shallot bulb, but you will get fresh and tender tops sprouting from something you might have thrown out.
There are plenty of things from the grocer’s that can be satisfying plants. And if you were buying that hand of ginger anyway, what’s a knuckle less?
Ginger is easy if you have the warmth and the long season. If you are in a cooler or darker area, you’ll have to supplement those needs if you plan to harvest any ginger. I live in a hot sultry area, and even I don’t grow giant hands of ginger, but I do get marvelous bamboo-looking clumps of dark green lance shaped leaves, tiny yellow orchid like flowers, and tender pink ginger nodes, followed by the fall harvest of a couple of fingers of ginger. I need part sun, but you may need full sun for most of the growing season. Ginger also requires a rich moist soil, well drained but watered frequently.
Lemon grass is fun and cool and will eventually forma large clump, sort of like pampas grass. Also a warm wet area crop needing good drainage. Check out the fresh stalks of lemon grass in your grocery, or an Asian food store. Look at the base of the stalk for the tiny little nubs of roots coming through the base of the outer leaves. Just the tell tale nub is sufficient for rooting. Sometimes they are cut off above that area, though, so check what you buy first. Keep only three or four inches for planting. You don’t want all the energy to go into maintaining the foliage, but into making new roots. Stick your sections in a prepared pot, clustering several together for the best effect.
Malanga, yucca, or other rough looking tropical root vegetables can produce beautiful foliage as well as an edible root. Yucca is often coated with a heavy layer of wax when you buy it. You can scrape off most of the wax. Don’t use hot water or flame because that will kill the cells you need for rooting. Plant sprouting end up if you can tell. These plants grow a large leaf often called an elephant ear. Only a few varieties produce an edible leaf. Most species will have large amounts of oxalic acid in them. Tastes lemony but forms burning crystals in your mouth and digestive system. Don’t eat the leaves unless you know what exactly you have planted and that it’s edible. I grow these for the pretty foliage and for the edible roots.
One more tropical and then I’ll talk about the more temperate stuff available. Chayote! Have you ever tasted chayote? AKA christophene? It has a mild squash flavor, looks like a cross between a pear and a pale avocado, and has an edible large seed. I love it steamed with butter. It is a tropical vining plant, and one good producing plant can feed a family of four all season. Look for a chayote that has a peek into the bellybutton. You’ll know it when you look at it. The blossom end will be puckered like a baby’s behind, but sometimes you can peek between the firm cheeks and see a tiny bit of sprouting leaf. It doesn’t matter if that leaf is dark or pale or dry. If the chayote itself is still plump, you can plant it in shallow well drained soil. The tender vine that sprouts will climb and will eventually take over a trellis or fence section, but that makes it easier to pick the fruits.
There are many more tropical fruits and veggies to grow for foliage or for eating. Boniato, papaya, sugar cane, loquat, all the citrus, guava, pomegranate, et al.
Source (almost) free plants for your garden or patio- part 2
The more temperate fruits are satisfying, and may produce edible fruit. Don’t count on that, though. If you do plant some in your back yard or orchard, make a stake or plant tag identifying the specific fruit, such as Gala apple, Bosc pear, Red Globe grape, or “Chestnut from City Park”. The reason is that five or ten years later, you may not remember exactly what it is supposed to be. If it requires more specialized treatment or is more susceptible to diseases, or is needed to pollinate another tree, you won’t know.
Grapes are variable in taste depending on soil conditions. You can grow grapes of any kind, unless you are in the subtropics or tropics, like me. Fruiting vines take five or ten years to really get established and there is some specialized care if you plan on starting a vineyard. But for fun and some occasional nibbles, growing grapes from seed is easy. Not all grapes will sprout their seeds. Hybridized grapes, or most on the market, can be iffy.
Every time you get a bunch of grapes, every time you get a few on a salad or fruit plate or garnish, every time you pass a fruiting vine overhanging a public right of way, that’s when you grab a few mature grapes. In the wild, they would sprout from the rotting fruit buried in leaf litter. Don’t wait for Mother Nature. Split the grape and pop out the plump seeds, plant and label.
Once a vine is established, you can eat the lemony leaves. They may feel kinda prickly, but you can steam them for a chewier leaf texture. More like cabbage than lettuce, eh?
A lot of perennial plants that produce fruit are grafted onto specific root stock. Your peach pit or apple pips may never give you lush fruit because of that, but the trees are nice to look at and adapt to bonsai and large pot culture as well as providing flowers and shade in the yard.
Most nuts you get in a store have been dried and cured to prevent sprouting. The shells may be waxed and polished and dyed. Still, some nuts in some places will sprout for you. Try pecans from a farmers’ market, or raw peanuts from the grocery store. Chestnuts, beech nuts, black walnuts and others can be found in city parks occasionally. They’ll take a long time to sprout, then a long time to grow into a tree. It could be twenty or more years for some nut trees to produce.
Jerusalem artichokes, a sunflower relative, are also easily grown from grocery tubers. The flower is pretty and they can grow fairly tall. The tubers, while edible, are disagreeably gassy for some people. You can build up tolerance to that. If you only have the one plant, and you dig up what you think are all of the tubers that winter, you will probably still have them growing for the next year. There are always tiny bits left behind. Don’t plant them if you can’t stand policing your adventitious sprouting.
Beans from the dried bean section will grow true, usually. Any of the squash and cucumber seeds from very mature fruits will grow. So a black watermelon seed will grow, but a tan one probably won’t. Cuke seeds that are still green won’t sprout, but the chewy ones that are yellow to tan in a somewhat sour cuke will. If the zucchini is still edible, the seeds are not ripe enough to sprout. Tomatoes and peppers and sometimes overlarge eggplants will have mature seeds. I’ve even seen seeds from them sprouting inside market purchased veggies.
Sometimes sunflower seeds are roasted, but sometimes you can get interesting seeds from a bird seed assortment. Millet and sunflower, thistle, and others. Sesame seeds, like sunflower seeds, are often roasted so they won’t sprout.
Source (almost) free plants for your garden or patio- part 3
How about herbs? You can buy packages of some herbs from some groceries and root cuttings. It will be hit and miss, but with enough slips you may be happy with a few plants. Get the freshest herbs you can, with nodes that don’t look dried or shriveled. Most herbs do not like wet soil, and they don’t like very rich soil.
Stems of rosemary stripped of most of the leaves and all of the leaves on the bottom half will root fairly readily in plain water. Getting them to take transplantation to a pot or the ground is a little trickier some of the time. Rosemary doesn’t like being transplanted for one thing. For my own personal gratification, I put a dozen or more prepared stems in willow water or plain water, and wait for a few days until I can see the barest little translucent white bumps on the lower stems. Then I transplant into peat cells, usually two or three to a cell. I keep them misted, but not dripping. Once they are established and growing a little bit on top, or show fine roots outside of the peat ball, I plant in pots I’ll keep them for a couple of years. They make a nice potted shrub, or in the subtropics you can plant them directly in the well drained ground.
Basil and mint can root from grocery purchased cuttings. Mint is a cinch if you have any trace of the rhizome or whitish fleshy root trailing from the slip. Both like a more moist soil than most herbs. Trim off any funky stem ends, the lower leaves, and then clip the remaining leaves in half. Don’t leave flower buds or very soft new growth on the cuttings. You can root in water or in soil.
Thyme, oregano, marjoram, and even sage can root in soil for you. Chives will not unless you have a substantial bulb bit showing.
Many herb whole seeds from the spice section will root. Some are treated to not sprout, and some may be cured, but fennel, caraway, dill, celery seed, and others will grow readily for you. I’ve scattered dill seed that was six years old on a dry patch of earth, thinking that the scent was gone and maybe the birds or the bugs would eat it. Maybe so, but I also had a surprise crop! I did the same with flaxseed, too.
Source (almost) free plants for your garden or patio- part 4
Sometimes the floral section of markets will have bits you can grow, other than the ubiquitous African Violet. (You do know how to propagate them, right?) You might find some alstroemeria stems with a bit of root attached, or a black berry or tiger lily with fruiting bodies near the flowers. Sometimes the greenery will be rootable woody shrubs. Trim off most of the foliage and any flowers to allow the stem time to grow more substantial roots. The lily bulblets may not grow true to type, but the belamcamda or blackberry lily always has for me. Some of the feathery fillers may have seeds forming that will continue to mature. You can shake them over paper to see if any seeds come out. If you know there are seeds to be harvested, trim the leaves and soft growth, tie the drying stalk in a paper bag and let it sit until it rattles. Things like amaranths or goldenrods will do this.
Outside of grocery and ethnic markets, there are many other places to get free or almost free plants. (Sure you have to pay for the ginger at the market, but growing a new ginger hand and plant is all on you!)
Source (almost) free plants for your garden or patio- part 5
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If you live in suburbia, you will most likely have a yard waste trash pick up day. Cruise or walk around on those days and look for interesting things trimmed from people’s yards. Someone thinning out their daylilies or iris? All you need is a bit of fleshy rhizome to grow them. Branches cut from lilac and crape myrtle, from magnolia and from rhododendron? Try rooting them. Some of them are harder to establish than others, but you may find you have the perfect conditions for growing azaleas from cuttings.
I know I have a green thumb. But I’ve had one yard that rooted crape myrtle and another that couldn’t. Azaleas that rooted on one side of the house, but not another. Try different spots with different soil conditions and different lighting to root your finds.
Some people cruise the curbs on those pick up days just to get compostable material. There’s always something for a gardener.
You won’t likely know the flower color or size of the shrubs you root this way, but that’s part of the charm to my mind. If you plant in pots, you have more latitude in placement when you do discover the traits. Sometimes, if you have a good memory, you may know that your cuttings came from a house with huge standard pink azaleas, or from the church with the rusty colored chrysanthemums. This is another time when attaching a plant stake with that information on it is a good idea.
Occasionally you’ll find bulbs or roots, other than the daylilies. Daylilies are the sluts of the lilies. They’ll spread for anybody and their joy of living is so obvious. I love them. But amaryllis and cannas and crinums (all big southern blooms from bulbs) can outwear their welcome. I don’t know how, but they do get cast off from time to time. Whatever the reason, I scoop them up. You can’t easily tell a large amaryllis from a modest crinum bulb with only a blade of foliage, but you will know that you can eventually get it to rebloom if you feed it with calcium. Bone meal, either purchased or made in your pressure cooker from roast or chicken bones and egg shells, is your stinky friend. People also discard tired caladiums and cannas (which also go to seed: hint, hint) and mounds of ground covers like pachysandra and ajuga. Both of those will root and spread easily in the right conditions.
Around holiday times, even before holiday times, people will toss seasonal plants. Look for azaleas, tulips, poinsettias, chrysanthemums, crotons, Norfolk Island pines, and so much more. Think about it: People buy them sometimes in anticipation of the season, perhaps for a party. They bloom or put on a display and then die back, drop the remaining blossoms, or just seem too seasonal to be kept by a non gardener. So they toss them, and maybe buy another if the season is still ripe.
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=8293&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
This series of articles were written by Lizzy Mahoney
Source (almost) free plants for your garden or patio- part 6
Another very odd place for the conventionally minded to scavenge for plants and cuttings is some cemeteries. You have to check at the cemetery you choose. It’s sometimes very not okay to scrounge, and you always have to be wary of offending any of the bereaved, even if you are just removing some trashed plants.
Very nice memorial gardens of the perpetual flavor will usually have a gardeners shed or work area where the excess of bouquets from interment services will go once or twice a week. They might have a huge pile of blooms tossed willy nilly. Among them will be faded shrubby things and bulbs and perhaps some branches that might be rooted, such as forsythia.
Some really old and not perpetually cared for burial grounds will have a few newer graves or even some from fifty years ago that get floral attention from relatives. In this sort of place, the dumping area is most likely in the wooded areas on the edges of the grounds. You won’t find so many fresh plants there, but could find dried up potted plants that need a lot of TLC. I’ve gotten a few azaleas over many years from such places. The way to tell if there is any life in that old brown scruffy thing with the dead leaves is to bend a few twigs. Dead ones snap. Live ones bend. Trim the tips radically, then soak the pot thoroughly, drain, then wrap in a tent of plastic to hold in the humidity. You will be rewarded with new growth.
I’ve also found that the old neglected cemeteries will have more native plants. Rarely, you might find something in seed or a small offset you can discreetly remove. It’s more likely to be a place for you to see what will flourish in your local climate, as long as the soil is similar to yours. For my area, I can see what wild flowers grow best, what subspecies of pine or oak will tolerate the heat and drought, and how mature specimens will look.
The last source I’ll mention for providing plants to the creative gardener is dumpster diving. Again, not for the squeamish. Garden nurseries are absolutely the best, but in some areas you can go behind the big box stores to their dumpsters for them. Also apartment complexes at the end of the month will often have cast off plants by their dumpsters.
At a chain store or nursery, you’ll find out of season plants and trees. Aside from holiday related things you might find overgrown tomato plants at the end of June or spent bulbs once spring’s rains are past. They might discard a shrub that happened to be beneath a rip in the awning during a sudden rainstorm. So the soil washed away? It’s not like you can’t replace it. These plants will often not be in great shape. If the fix was immediate, they would have done it already, like patting it back into the planter or cutting off the broken twig.
At an apartment complex, expect larger plants especially. Dracaenas and Ficus trees, Scheffleras, palms, monsteras and that sort of plant. Anything people find awkward to move. Small ones are usually tossed into the dumpster, and may not be visible at all. I’d rather get the ficus and leave the Pampers alone, if you know what I mean. Often I’ve had to do the radical trim and then tender loving care to get the plant back in shape, but with some plants that’s only a matter of days. And with the larger plants you can determine that your two months and minimal expense was worth it to get a specimen that could have cost you two days pay.
All of these things are not past usefulness to you, the crafty gardener. You can nourish them and nourish yourself by watching their renewed vigor.
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=3598
Several good posts on paper making.
hey punkinpie_prod...I found some very detailed websites for you, with step by step instructions. It’s very easy, so i think lots of people take the recipes for granted when explaining how to make it. Here you go:
http://www.coxes.com/paper/index.html
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/makingpaper.html
http://www.handpapermaking.org/ArticlesforBeginnersIndex.html
I have used both newspaper and brown paper bags, and both turned out really well. With the newspaper, I just tore up a whole bunch, filled up my crafty blender with the paper (just a normal blender), squirted a bunch of elmer’s glue, and just kept adding water until I could get it to move evenly in the blender. I didn’t have any measurements, but those websites should help with that. I also tried adding construction paper for color, but I was using blue, so the pulp turned just a bluer version of grey. But you could experiment. Then I poured it in my mold screen (I just took a piece of window screen and staple gunned it to an old wooden picture frame....worked pretty well), took a spoon and pushed out the water, and let it dry. My ‘paper’ is very thick and stiff (about 1/8”, I think). With the brown paper bags, I mixed newspaper in and while it was drying, I set some fall leaves into the paper....that piece turned out really cool. And I did this all 3 years ago and still have those papers I made, and they are still stiff as boards and all together, so with newspaper, I think as long as you’re making it thick, it will be alright.
Have fun playing around with it!
[Links not checked..granny, who has been to them in the past..]
http://getcrafty.com/viewtopic.php?t=10210&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
One of my favorite gift-as-food ideas was the “Ingredients-in-a-Jar” thing. Find a recipe you really enjoyed (such as a brownie recipe or cookie recipe) and assemble all the dry ingredients and fill a large mason jar.
Decorate the lid with some cute fabric and include the recipe on some cute paper.
Tip: It looks very nice to add the ingredients in even layers.
This was always a very popular gift among my friends and everyone always enjoyed sharing their recipes!
Here is a great cookie recipe to try in a jar:
CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
• ¾ cup butter or margarine (softened)
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• one tsp vanilla extract
• 2 fresh eggs
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 2¼ cups flour
• 2 cups large milk chocolate chips
• one cup walnuts (chopped)
• ½ cup dried shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt, baking soda, and shredded coconut. Add walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop one-inch balls of dough two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake cookies at 350°F for 12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.
Hope everyone enjoys!
Healing foods of the Holy Bible - inexpensive way to stay healthy during a Great Depression
October 8, 2008 by derekclontz
Copyright © Derek Clontz./4-Page Media, Inc. Reprint permission is authorized for any non-commercial use but copy cannot be altered or edited in any way, and copyright notice must be left in place. If you would like to use this article in a commercial application, contact 4-Page Media, Inc. Permissions.
THE Holy Bible pointedly refers to dozens of healthful foods that you might want to consider adding to your diet as part of an overall wellness plan.
And here you’ll find 10 of them as referenced in “Hertel’s New Standard Bible” - an 82-year-old “classic” that was published in 1924 and has been passed down through my family for generations.
Hertel’s New Standard contains a comprehensive dictionary that, as the editors themselves put it, “answers all questions pertaining to persons, places and things of the Scripture.”
guaranteed-potency jungle herb for 96 different illnesses will come in handy after economic and social collapse.
Una de Gato: guaranteed-potency jungle herb for 96 different illnesses will come in handy after economic and social collapse.
The dictionary is a rich source of information on foods of the Bible, many of which are recommended by modern nutritionists as good choices for those of us who are concerned with our health.
Don’t forget: If you are seriously ill or think you might be, always consult a doctor before you try to diagnose or treat yourself.
1. Almonds. Almonds are a storehouse of nutrients, including magnesium, arginine and dietary fiber. True believers insist that just three raw almonds a day will keep sickness at bay.
2. Apples. An apple a day, as the saying goes, keeps the doctor away - and it’s easy to see how they got that reputation. Apples are chock full of vitamins - vitamin C especially.
And apple “pectin” - the pulpy part of the fruit next to the peeling - is reputed to help flush environmental toxins from the body, lower cholesterol, help regulate blood sugar levels, and reduce the risk of heart disease.
3. Barley. Believed to be mankind’s oldest cultivated crop, barley is a rich source of calcium and iron and contains essential amino acids, bioflavonoids and enzymes.
4. Beans. Beans are a good source of low-fat protein and more vitamins and minerals than you can shake a stick at. If you are dieting, beans can help. Studies suggest that beans function as appetite suppressants, taking the edge off hunger pangs for four hours or more after you eat them.
5. Coriander. This spice is sometimes referred to as “the healer from heaven.” New studies show that coriander can help reduce the inflammation associated with arthritic joints and it has long been used as an aid to digestion.
6. Figs. Figs have been used in the folk-treatment of constipation, scurvy, hemorrhoids, liver problems, cancers, boils, and also to increase energy, stamina and endurance.
7. Garlic. Garlic is widely used to fight infection, thin blood, reduce blood pressure, guard against heart disease and stimulate the immune system.
8. Honey. Honey kills bacteria, is a disinfectant, and is reputed to relieve symptoms of asthma. It’s an energy booster and - like morphine - it seems to reduce the perception of severe pain, an intriguing study has shown..
9. Olive Oil. Olive oil helps to prevent heart disease and high blood pressure, leading one researcher to call it: “Humanity’s best health oil.” It also is a rich source of vitamin E, an antioxidant that is reputed to protect against cancers, arthritis and diabetes. The oil is excellent for skin. It’s a mainstay of the heart-healthful “Mediterranean Diet.”
10. Onion. The onion can lower elevated cholesterol levels, lower high blood pressure and even ease the sugar “spiking” that plagues diabetics when eaten in moderation.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
* New study confirms it - 8 of 10 workers are smarter than their bosses; read…
* 10 foods that can benefit your health
* How Laughing is Good for You?
* 7 Foods to Keep You Young
[I have not researched the Cats Claw herb, so have no knowledge of its powers, should do so as there is a tree in my yard called Cats Claw.
granny]
Phyllis’s Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
... Stringers try it, then buy it.
from Phyllis Fewtrell
Nat and Russ, Kay and JohnA take tentative bites of Phyllis’s chocolate mayonnaise cake. It was excellent.
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
by Phyllis Fewtrell.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
MIX TOGETHER:
Two cups of mayonnaise
Two cups of water.
quarter-cup (four tablespoons) of grape jelly
Two teaspoons of vanilla.
ADD:
Four cups cake flour
Two cups of sugar
Half cup (8T) of cocoa
Four teaspoons baking soda.
And salt.
Add dry ingredients to liquid, mix thoroughly.
Bake one hour until done, at 350.
Use two nine-inch pans or one baking dish.
FROSTING:
One stick of margarine
One box of 10x confectioners sugar.
Half cup of cocoa.
Quarter cup of milk.
Mix with egg beater until fluffy.
Put on cake when cool.
I received this recipe from Marie Carnella in late 1960. My ex-husband loved it and it was a regular on my baking list.
One day I changed it to do a spice cake and used mint jelly. It came out green. He was teased by the people he worked with.
September 5, 2003