Sweet Sustainability: Beekeeping

Wilson is the beekeeper on our homestead, but reading Garret’s post below has me inspired, too.  Please be sure to welcome Garrett to the Pantry Paratus blog by leaving a comment or two for him, & checking out his other work on his own website listed below the article.

–Chaya


Sweet Sustainability

Better Be Keeping Up with your Beekeeping

 

Honey from Beekeeping

 

What could be better with a spot of tea or a warm piece of toast than a dollop of sweet, golden honey? How about honey that you’ve harvested yourself from your very own bee colony? Yes, please!

 When it comes to making a living off of the land, few sustainable solutions are as diverse as beekeeping. As long as you take care of your colony, you can be sure they will take care of you with the myriad of options you can create from their annually-replenished product. Although it all begins with honey, that’s certainly not where it ends.

 In addition to beeswax, which is widely used as a main ingredient in candles and skincare products, other honey byproducts include tools used in the practice of apitherapy, or the medicinal use of honey bee products. For instance, natural healing properties are found in:

 • Pollen

 • Royal Jelly

• Bee Bread

• Propolis: As one of the most powerful antibiotics found in nature, this amino-acid-rich, antioxidant-filled and antimicrobial substance is effective against disinfecting and protecting cuts and abrasions.

 • Bee venom: This surprisingly beneficial resource is used to naturally treat and alleviate symptoms associated with serious conditions like arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus without creating dependency or imposing harmful side effects like manufactured pharmaceutical drugs.

 And because bees are able to access nectar and pollen from trees in arid areas and places where other crops have failed, beekeeping is a viable endeavor for many people across the globe who find themselves in need of a feasible alternative to a life of poverty or those who simply need a fresh start.

 So whether you’re just starting out as a beekeeper or you’re looking to take your hive to the next level, here are a few things to keep in mind as they relate to harvesting and storing your sweet and sustainable honey supply.

 

Bees collecting pollen

 

A Bit of Honey Background

Whether you are interested in beekeeping as a profession (as a sustainable livelihood) or a hobby to keep your friends and family stocked up with this sweet goodness, there are ways to subtly manipulate your season’s honey crop.

 Since honey takes on the flavor profile of the flowering source of its sweet nectar, if you identify a popular flavor within your community of customers (for example, you have an overwhelming demand for lavender honey but not so much for clover honey) or you simply prefer the taste of one over the other in meals from your own kitchen, you can “encourage” the bees to produce more of the favored flavor by cultivating that particular flower in close proximity to the hive.

 Although they will travel up to two miles to find a source, bees will work the closest fresh flower source first so if you can grow your own supply of flowers, you can help ensure they produce more of the product you need.

Harvesting Honeycomb

 How-To of Harvesting

No matter what types of flowers your bees have alighted upon, you know when to harvest your honey based on the condition of the cap. Check your top bee boxes (your “supers”) for the following:

 • Cells that have been covered or capped over with wax are ripe for the cutting because the honey has been created, cured and is ready to harvest.

• If there is no capped-over comb, all hope isn’t necessarily lost: check to see if the honey has cured. The easiest way to do this is to take the frame and with the open cells facing down toward the ground, give it a quick shake. If the honey stays put, it is cured and you can extract it.

 • Always remember that good things come to those who wait, so if the combs are completely cap-less and the honey inside leaks when you turn over the frame, leave it alone. The golden juice inside the cells is still nectar and hasn’t been converted into honey at this point. If you did try to harvest it, you would end up with a sugary, watery mess (the water content is too high at this point) that will likely ferment and spoil.

 Sustainable and Smart Storage

As soon as your honey is harvested, there are several things to keep in mind related to storing your honey and your hive for the winter.

 Store honey at room temperature. When it gets cold, honey firms up and crystallizes to the point that it is no good to anyone. This is also why you need to harvest the honey during the waning heat of summer’s end rather than waiting for cold weather – it’s too difficult to remove once it thickens up!

 Implement Site-Specific Precautions for your Hive. Much of what you do at this time depends on your individual circumstances.

 For example, if you live in a place that experiences windy snow storms or midnight raids from wild bears, you may need to strap down your hive. Or perhaps you need to establish a wind break around the hive.

 At a minimum, you should install a mouse guard at the entrance to the hive, which should be kept free of debris and dead bees. Also, ensure proper ventilation and moisture control around the hive itself.

 Finally, patch, repair, clean and store your equipment in a dry space for the remainder of the winter!

 What are some of your favorite tips and tricks you’ve picked up from your buzzing bees about harvesting honey from your own sustainable supply?

 


Garret Stembridge is a member of the Internet marketing team at Extra Space Storage, a leading provider of self storage facilities. Garret often writes about sustainable practices for the home and for businesses. 

 The pictures are from Garret, and all rights are reserved.  If you would like to pin or share them along with this post, feel free to do so but please keep proper attribution.


 

 

 

 

www.Hypersmash.com

Rhubarb Harvest: Dehydrate It!

How to Dehydrate Rhubarb

Rhubarb Harvest

–Dehydrating Your Surplus

 

  Rhubarb is a natural spring-time treat.  Its beautiful greenery brightens up the yard and it gives you an excuse to share something with your neighbors.  We all know how delicious it can be in preserves or muffins, in sauces or other recipes…but with the tangy-tartness not many of us can eat much at once!

  Dehydrate Your Extra Rhubarb

 It’s a matter of slicing it and arranging it onto the Excalibur dehydrator tray.  You do not have to do anything to it prior to dehydration.  Make sure you start with clean, healthy, freshly-picked stalks.  Remember that the leaves are poisonous and must be discarded onto your compost.  The best way to keep them away from young children is by snipping them off of the stocks before even bringing them in to the kitchen counter.  Little hands have a dangerous way of surfing the countertops for something that looks appetizing, so help protect your little ones by eliminating the temptation.

 

Rhubarb Leaves Are Poisonous 

Although you really need to start with the freshest rhubarb possible, dehydrating it is a great way to preserve stalks picked earlier that are starting to bend (like celery).

 

Slicing Rhubarb 

 Turn the temperature on your Excalibur to 125º.  Because the water content is so high, expect extreme shrinkage.  You might want to use paraflexx sheets (easier but not necessary on these).   In our dry Montana weather, it takes about 8 hours to dehydrate; it can take you longer depending on your climate.

 Dehydrating Rhubarb

 Ways to Use Dehydrated Rhubarb

 You can really use it in all of the same summertime rhubarb recipes you love.  Just remember that if you are baking with it that you will need to either reconstitute the rhubarb in water first, or to adjust the recipe’s liquids to reflect the addition of a dehydrated ingredient.

Dehydrated Rhubarb 

Meat Sauce:

Put approximately ½ cup dehydrated rhubarb in a saucepan with 1 cup water and 1 cup apple juice.  Stir over low-to-medium heat, adding either a starch (non-gmo cornstarch, tapioca starch, etc) or a pinch of flour that you have mixed separately into warm water, to prevent clumping. 

 It is so delicious with pork, that I rarely serve porkchops without this sauce served on the side.

 Meat glaze:

Pulse  dehydrated rhubarb in a coffee/herb grinder, and mix it in just like that into some homemade strawberry preserves.  Baste onto your pork chops—delicious!

 Kombucha & herbal tea flavoring:

This is how I have been drinking kombucha (fermented tea) all week.  I have been adding the dehydrated rhubarb to the jar of kombucha and refrigerating it until I am ready to drink it.  When I am ready to drink it, I strain all of the rhubarb (and the stringy bits associated with the fermenting culture) out.  Very refreshing!

 

Homemade Marshmallows:

 Making marshmallows at home has become extremely popular for lots of reasons.  The ones from the store taste like cardboard, filled with terribly unhealthy ingredients, and cannot compare to the delight of a homemade confection.  In fact, homemade marshmallow recipes abound  and I need not clutter the blogosphere with my adaptations of other recipes (maybe if I can perfect it, I will).  But this is what I do:  I pulse the dehydrated rhubarb in my coffee/herb grinder, and mix with organic cane sugar for sprinkling on the finished marshmallow.  It is wonderful!

 Sour Candy: 

I am sure you will come up with your own creative uses—my children like to eat it as a sour candy.  I have been known to sneak a piece or two for the same reason, but it’ll nearly make your eyes water! 

 Leave a message below and tell us how you incorporate the dehydrated version of a summertime favorite!

 


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Gardening Infographic: Soil pH balance

The pH of Soil

An Infograph

 

Do you know the pH of your soil, or how to check it?  What is soil pH anyway?  If you need to know how to lower soil pH or how to raise it…if you would like to do a home test with items you already have around the house, or if you need to know what you can plant in an imbalanced area… check out the graphic below!

–Chaya

Soil pH Balance

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Chaya’s Review: Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway

Note:  We do not sell Gaia’s Garden.  We thoroughly enjoyed the book and would like to share our opinion of it with you as well as some basic Permaculture principles that you can find within its’ pages.  If you would like to read the book for yourself, you can find it here.

Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway

 

What is Permaculture? Hemenway barely catches his breath when he tackles this question, and I’m rather glad he did in his typical systematic way because I’m asked this constantly in different forms—“What makes it different than organic gardening?”, “Isn’t that gardening-for-hippies?”.  Just last week I was asked, “If my mom went to a Permaculture meeting, would she just think it was another gardening club?”

 

“Permanent Culture” and “Permanent Agriculture” have joined to mean an interconnected ecosystem that is rich, diverse, and healthy by stacking the functions of the soil, water, and animal life.  Every piece of the garden impacts the other living organisms in that garden and you plan accordingly.  For instance, one plant attracts a pesky insect, another attracts the bird that dines on them.  You have now created a relationship between two otherwise unrelated plants.  Perhaps one of those plants is also known to improve the nitrogen content of the soil, but another needs strong nitrogen to flourish.   What that means is that the end goal isn’t just food or floral output.  It isn’t just about attracting birds or butterflies, nor is it just about preventing soil erosion or even just about rich soil. It’s about all of it—and using all of the pieces simultaneously to improve the quality of the other pieces.

 

It’s more of a gardening paradigm.  Organic gardening refers more to what is not done to the plants; it does not necessarily encompass the sets of processes by which those plants are grown (i.e., irrigation, recycling, composting, monoculture vs. polyculture, or harvesting practices).  Organic principles are excellent and Permaculture utilizes those, but it does not stop there.

 

And as for your mother, would she think it was another gardening club?  I would hope she’d bring her experience to the table for others and walk away with a few solutions, a few “never-thought-of-that” moments, and a few new friends.  She would likely see some distinct differences in approach.

Gardening Pottery

This book opened my eyes to both the beauty and purpose to ecological design.  It is not about color coordinating flowers.  It’s about creating a living, multifunctional, thriving ecosystem.  One of Hemenway’s stronger suggestions is to think of your garden in terms of zones.  Start right out your door!  Zone 1 is where you spend the most time, and so it needs to be logical for you; what do you need most from the garden?  This zone is also for those high maintenance plants, like things that will need to be covered and uncovered during those frosty nights, or the herbs that are easily choked out by weeds.  If this is out your door, you are far more likely to pick a weed here, or notice yellowing leaves in time to apply much needed water. These are your most utilized plants (if you eat tomatoes everyday in the summer, for instance) and the plants that are the neediest to grow. The zones going out from there should require less care, eventually leading to the “food forest” zone that only requires minimal maintenance.  In this way, you can increase your garden production without enslaving yourself to the garden.

 

Hemenway also focuses heavily upon multifunctionalism, and it’s this emphasis that brings the best charts to this book!  You can see the many functions of many, many plants in order to plan your garden for optimal performance.  He speaks of “stacking functions”; if every carefully chosen plant provides multiple things to the garden, and multiple things in the garden provide each one of those functions, you will not have a “weak link”.  No plant only does one thing and yet many of us grew up gardening that way.  For instance I have always loved lavender and used to grow it for the beauty in the garden and as a cut bouquet.  Apart from beauty and scent, what role does this single plant play?

 

A chart on page 278 shows this to grow well in my current zone (yay!) and shows that it’s an evergreen shrub (meaning that it retains foliage all year around and is a woody perennial with multiple stems arising from the base) and it does prefer full sun.  Okay, so most gardening books would have told me as much.  But continuing on I can now see the multiple functions of lavender: It does have aesthetic uses (as I mentioned),  and it’s a wonderfully plant for human medicinal use.

Bee on Lavender

It attracts many beneficial insects, it’s a windbreak species, and it’s also a hedgerow species.

Lavender as a hedge

So perhaps I can plant it next to species that need pollinating insects, perhaps I can plant that tender partial-shade plant next to it that would benefit from the wind break, and it would make a wonderful border to separate garden areas.  This is what garden design and “stacking functions” is all about.  Now, “Butterfly Bush” has the same windbreak and insectary functions, and would look quite nice interplanted.  Why repeat myself? Because if something were to happen to one plant, I have a backup plan!

 

If a chicken is something that only outputs eggs, then it is hard to understand Permaculture.  But if you look at a chicken as something that eats insects, and that my garden is an insect nursery.

Chicken in garden

Consider further that if I require the outputs of both the chicken and the garden—now you can see that stacking the functions is beneficial for every living thing involved.  My backyard (whether I realize it or not) is a complex ecosystem.  If I address it as such, start stacking the functions of all the components involved, now I am practicing Permaculture.

 

I have spent much of my life fighting the natural succession of plant life; I never understood the greater principles at work.  Think of plant succession as linear.  Bare earth, followed by fast-growing weeds and grasses.

prairie grasses in Colorado

These would then be replaced by taller perennial grasses and bushes.  Animal and bird life really move in at this stage, bringing life, insect management, and fertilizer.  Ultimately, grass lands are teenagers striving for the “adulthood” of forest.  This explains all of the thousands of oak saplings I’ve pulled from between my peony buses!  Those “weeds” are part of the process of healing barren earth.  The roots penetrate hard ground, the weeds die back and compost, and there is now food for a whole host of other living creatures.  Left alone that oak would start producing leaf litter by the metric ton adding precious organic matter to the soil.  How do we get this process to work for us?

 

Hemenway does a great job—better than I—of explaining these principles and giving practical application in this Permaculture primer.  The photos were inspirational.  I have seen mature permacultured gardens firsthand and so I know the wisdom of this methodology.  I didn’t know quite where to begin myself, though, until Gaia’s garden.  I now have a starting point.

 

Design, water constraints and solutions, extending the growing seasons, utilizing microclimates, building humus-rich soil, balancing the insect and animal life, developing nurse plant relationships, how to interplant for maximum production, and “guild building”—this book was not like the other gardening books I have read in the past.

 

The Negatives

 

For those of us who look at this amazing design and see a Designer, we often have to swallow the meat and spit out the bones of the modern evolutionary cliché.  I have heard Hemenway lecture with tremendous passion about Permaculture in which he makes great conclusions based on evolutionary assumptions.  I would depart with Hemenway in his assumptions, but his conclusions for a positive way forward are largely correct. Moreover Hemenway approaches Permaculture with a heavy hand in science (which I love), so his conclusions are even more convincing.  This book does reflect his evolutionary paradigm but is not heavy-handed with it.

 

I am naive enough that I did not know where the title came from—“who’s Gaia?”  According to some traditions, she is the goddess of earth.  Apart from the title of the book, there is no other mention of her.  I did see a pagan paradigm come through in the smallest of ways, such as the personification of earth as “mother”.  Again, those of us who worship the Creator and not the creation can agree with the large strokes of the conclusions but disagree with the philosophical underpinnings.

 

Conclusion

 

I could say that this book, listening to Paul Wheaton’s podcasts, along with the documentary “Back to Eden” have shifted my gardening approach 180 degrees.  I think that if you have the least bit of curiosity towards Permaculture, or if you have watched “Back to Eden” but do not know where to start, this book will put feet to that vision!

 

 


 

 

Photo credits:

Gardening pottery 

Lavender as insectary

Lavender as hedge row

Chicken in garden

Prairie grass

Interview: Cathy Cromell talks Composting

 

Composting for Dummies

 

Wilson: Cathy tell us, you are a Master Gardener—how did you get into that line of work?  Did it all start off as a hobby?

 

Cathy Cromell: I grew up in a family that gardened and spent a lot of time outdoors, so a love of plants and nature is embedded in me. I have a communications degree from UCLA and my background is in publishing. When I moved to Arizona, I read a newspaper blurb about the Master Gardener program and signed up for their extensive training class to help me sort out desert gardening. It was 3 hours per week for 16 weeks, covering basics such as soil and botany; the specifics of typical landscape plants, such as cacti or citrus; and local issues, such as drip irrigation and water conserving landscapes. I started volunteering for the program, writing about a youth garden that Cooperative Extension sponsored, and my career path rambled along from there. I eventually was employed by the Master Gardener program to write, edit and publish books specific to desert gardening and landscaping. At the time, bookstore shelves were loaded with lovely options for gardening in the East, Midwest, or Northwest, which had no relevance to conditions or plant palettes in the Southwest. Career counselors always advise to “do what you love,” so the opportunity to combine writing, publishing and gardening has been terrific for me.

 

Here’s my shameless plug for the volunteer Master Gardener program. It’s available in each state, as well as some Canadian provinces, and is overseen by the Cooperative Extension Service of that state’s land-grant university. (The land-grant university is charged with public outreach, sharing useful research-based information geared to residents’ needs, in this example, gardening and landscaping.) Specifics vary locally, but university and industry experts teach courses and offer training, and in exchange, you volunteer a number of hours annually (in my experience it was 50 hours the first year, and 25 hours annually thereafter), sharing what you learned in a variety of ways with the public. According to a 2009 Extension survey, Master Gardeners donated over $100 million worth of time.

Maricopa County, AZ Master Gardner Logo

Volunteering as a Master Gardener is a wonderful way to develop friendships with other gardeners, learn from them and enjoy continuing education workshops, lectures and conferences. It’s also great for plant sharing! Here’s the national Master Gardener site link or do an internet search with your state or county Cooperative Extension office and master gardener.  http://www.extension.org/mastergardener. Okay, end of plug!

 

Wilson: No problem, that was a judicious plug!  I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca, AZ back in the early 2000’s and that is where I fell in love with the beauty of the Southwest desert.  I can only imagine how necessary it was to have someone put a voice to all of that knowledge set about growing down in that climate.  We have gotten lots of help when we first moved to Montana from a local master gardener at church.  Seek those people out and get educated!  Sharing the harvest is a proper way to say, “Thank you!” (by the way).  

 

Cornell Master Gardener Logo

 

Wilson: I look at the natural order and I consider your quote on page 9, “A single gram of soil–about the size of a navy bean–holds 100 million to 1 billion bacteria, 100,000 to 1 million fungi, 1,000 to 1 million algae, and 1,000 to 100,000 protozoa” (Cromell, 2010), and I think “Wow!”  You also talk about on page 32 of who is doing all of the work.  Do you still carry that sense of awe with you into the garden even after all of the scientific study? 

 

Cathy: Absolutely. I was enchanted by nature as a kid and still am. I think it helps that I also write profiles of gardeners for a living. Gardeners are the most entertaining, inspiring, engrossing, cheerful and downright helpful people on the planet. And generous. Admire one of their plants and they’ll start potting up an offshoot or cutting for you while you continue chatting. There are a zillion distinct passions that gardeners dive into, so I learn something useful and/or miraculous—lots of things actually—every time I talk with another gardener.

 

Wilson: It was only after I discovered Permaculture that I truly appreciated how balanced nature is.  For example, no plant-based system survives without animal input and no animal system survives without plant input.  On page 36 you mention the nemesis of the gardener–“snails and slugs.”  Would you care to comment on Bill Mollison’s quote, “You do not have an excess of slugs, you have a deficiency of ducks”?

 

Cathy: That’s both an elegant and common sense way to approach the issue, isn’t it? I recently interviewed a long-time desert dweller who remembered seeing huge 6-foot rattlesnakes on a very regular basis around his landscape back in the 1970s and 80s. Rodents and rabbits were present, too, but not a problem in numbers. As development encroached, the rattlesnake population went down, due to fear and loathing, as well as being run over by cars when their 6-foot bodies stretched across the road. Now, he very occasionally sees much smaller rattlers. Of course, the rodent and rabbit population skyrocketed, creating indignation from new residents as creatures munch on recently installed landscapes! Nature provides tidy checks and balances if we could figure out how to stay out of her way.

 

From comments I hear and questions I often get asked, it seems obvious that advertising has done a bang-up job in the last couple generations to demonize “pests.” They must be eradicated swiftly and conveniently before threatening the family! (And, in fairness, the media sometimes piles on with sensational stories about lurking creatures to grab ratings during sweeps week.) Not enough people are asking, “What is this insect/creature? Do I need to do anything about it? What are my options?” before jumping directly to, “What can I spray on this pest it to kill it?”

 

I like to share information whenever I can on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a method that covers all available means of coping with specific pests, starting with identification and using chemicals only as a last resort. (It astounds me how many people spray chemicals around their house without knowing what the insect is, or what the chemical is.) UC Davis IPM is a good starting point for your readers throughout the West: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/. Or they can check with their local County Cooperative Extension.

 

Wilson: You are so correct about the bad rap of “pests” or “invasive species.”  I love what Toby Hemenway says about local councils organized to eradicate “invasive species” plants.  Funny, how they are often cooperating with chemical spray companies who can recognize a repeat customer when they see one.  Hmmmm . . .  What is nature’s function for the insect or plant?  What natural enemies does the plant or insect have?  Too many snakes?  Give cats a try.  In Afghanistan I saw other NATO troops keep cats around the camp so that the cats predator skills could out compete the snakes for the rodent link in the food chain.  “No mice, no snakes.” 

 

Wilson: I am pretty new to all of the science behind composting, more specifically the C:N ratio (Carbon/Nitrogen).  I had no idea that you could tune your compost pile to make it hotter.  Have you heard of Jean Pain’s work with compost hot water heaters?  Any thoughts on that?

 

Cathy: Thanks for sharing the link, I wasn’t familiar with it. It’s encouraging to me that there are people who identify a problem or issue, and then devise creative solutions that push the envelope. In the best-case scenario, their ideas can be incorporated or adapted by others in a variety of circumstances. I can return your favor and share a local example with you. Brad Lancaster lives in Tucson, Arizona, in the Sonoran desert. It’s hot and dry, obviously. City streets are paved, and existing sidewalk medians are typically barren, with very few trees lining streets as they do in some regions. All that hardscape adds to the urban heat island effect, which is rising. Although average rainfall is about 11 inches, development codes typically required that rain be shunted off residential and commercial properties as fast as possible, sending it on down the pike. Brad looks at the existing situation (Why do we waste precious rainwater? How do we get more shade to cool things off?) and over time he implements a system to retain rainwater on his property and surrounding neighborhood. Rain is channeled to soak into sidewalk medians that are now planted with desert species. The sidewalk has been transformed to provide a shady and inviting stroll, with all sorts of plant material and the urban wildlife attracted to it. Similar projects spread around the city, and Brad has become a well-known authority on rainwater harvesting, authoring two books on the subject. My description of his effort is greatly simplified, but you can find more info and photos of some of the projects at Brad’s website: http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/.

 

Wilson: Wow, any “system” designed to get rid of water as fast as possible is really in need of a reconsideration.  Permaculture would say make the water take the longest, slowest, most productive route out of the area—so that it accomplishes the most good.  Geoff Lawton describes a desert as a “flood waiting to happen.”  I really wish that more Permaculture principles were taken into consideration with municipal design.

 

Wilson: I love your quote opening chapter 5 on page 59, “Mother Nature doesn’t enclose her organic debris in containers, yet aromatic black humus–the beneficial result of her successful composting process–covers forest floors” (Cromell, 2010).  I get a real appreciation for history when I pick up a handful of humus in a forest and sift it through my fingers.  What would you tell the readers about the Permaculture principle of observing nature? 

 

Cathy: Hiking through the desert, it’s easy to spot dozens of examples of “nurse” plants. Stately saguaro and other cacti get their start in life growing in the shady canopy of desert trees such as mesquite and palo verde, which are called nurse plants. Birds sit in tree branches, leave a “deposit” that drops to the ground, and some of the seeds germinate. As the cacti mature, they grow up and through their old nannies’ canopies, no longer in need of protection. So, how does observing that natural scenario help someone grow plants in their landscape? Lots of native and desert-adapted species thrive beneath the understory of a tree where they receive sufficient light, but protection from too-intense sun, especially in summer.

Saguaro Tree

  Saguaro growing beneath the protection of a Palo Verde Tree nurse plant.

You can see mature Saguaro growing in full sunlight in the background.

 

Getting out and about in nature is invaluable in many ways, but what nature has to teach us may not be immediately obvious. For example, I don’t know that a hike in the desert will automatically help me return home and grow better vegetables! I highly recommend that people absorb the knowledge of local experts, who are generally delighted to share it. When I moved to Arizona, I learned so much, so quickly, from others that would have taken me quite a long time to figure out on my own, even though I grew up gardening and had a fair knowledge bank. (The nurse plants were explained in a class I took at Desert Botanical Garden when I first moved here.) I encourage people to check with their County Cooperative Extension office, public gardens, municipal parks and/or water conservation offices, local garden clubs, any nature related group, such as bird watchers, plant societies, hiking groups, and so on. Groups devoted to permaculture are becoming more prevalent as the concepts spread. Of course, online sites are great, too, especially for folks in rural environments.

 

Wilson: I am also a huge fan of Joel Salatin who also says the same thing about soil—it truly all starts there.  Soil is not just something to hold up the plant!  Nurse plants are one more example of nature’s efficiency.  I grew up in New England where every fall we would rake up all those “pesky” deciduous leaves.  Looking back at that now, I cringe at the wastefulness of exporting all those nutrients out of the system. 

leaves

 

Wilson: Your funny anecdote on page 105 about the softball infield benefiting from the chicken feathers really got me thinking about how many other things can be composted as opposed to sitting in a landfill.  As you studied composting, what one ingredient surprised you the most as being useful for composting? What is the average family overlooking as a common composting source?

 

Cathy: Well, basically anything that decomposes can be composted, so people should use whatever is convenient and safe for them, but funny timing with your question. Today I was on a walking path near a desert preserve and I saw enormous puffballs of cream-colored fur, like from a cat or dog. I thought, “Oh, oh, a coyote grabbed someone’s pet,” which is not uncommon here if pets are allowed to roam at night. But a few minutes later I saw a woman on the path who was vigorously brushing one of her dogs, letting the fur globs float off in the breeze. It was no doubt much tidier than brushing fuzzy dogs in the house! Pet fur and human hair both contain nitrogen, and they are two things that most people don’t think about composting. If you know a barber or pet groomer, voila!  Another really obvious source that people seem to forget is shredded documents. When shredding your personal papers to prevent identity theft, soak them in a bucket of water and add to your compost. They also make perfect worm bedding.

 

Wilson: Amazing!

 

Shredded documents, RGB Stock

Wilson: I loved chapter 10 on vermicomposting.  My wife Chaya and I did a hilarious podcast with Paul Wheaton where he retells a funny story about his vermiculture epic failure.  Are there any down sides to worms? 

 

Cathy: None whatsoever! Well, maybe a few, depending on one’s personal tolerances and where you live. If you have worms indoors, sometimes a worm or three may escape, making a run for the border, and you’ll find a little worm body in an unexpected place. Worm bins usually support some mites as part of their ecosystem, but in my experience, this is not a problem, although I live in a very arid climate. Odors can arise. However, as I explained in Composting for Dummies, potential problems are likely the human’s fault for overloading the bin with more food than the worms can eat or not balancing the essentials such as moisture and air for your region’s temperature and aridity. Just like a regular compost pile, vermicomposting systems can be managed and problems prevented by understanding the elements required and making necessary adjustments. Like Goldilocks, it may take a few attempts to get the conditions “just right.”

On another note, people may think you peculiar for keeping worms. Although, this can just as easily be considered an advantage! I used to keep my Wormingtons in a bin in the guest bathroom. The majority of people who came out had a smile on their faces and said something like, “Wow, cool, you’ve got worms in there!” If it wasn’t someone I already knew well, I could be pretty sure that they would make congenial like-minded friends. As for the other folks—with quizzical looks and scrunched up faces, asking something like, “Why are there WORMS in your BATHROOM?” I could tell I probably wouldn’t have much in common with those vermiphobes!

 

Wilson: Worms inside, cool. I love these new ideas for sequestering nutrition out from the waste stream.  My friend puts it this way, “take it to the dump or take it to the bank.”   

 

Wilson: Last question: You say on page 130, “A healthy garden starts with healthy soil.  You don’t need to worry about applying miracle elixirs or wielding new-fangled tools.  Adding compost to garden beds is the best–and easiest–thing you can do to produce a bumper crop of vegetables and bountiful bouquets of flowers.  Reread that sentence and commit it to memory!”  With the ever-rising cost of food, I envision a sea change in food production hopefully not to far away in the future.  Can you envision a paradigm shift in agriculture where people or even communities produce say 20% of their own food?  If so, in addition to composting, what would help spark that initiative into reality? 

 

Cathy: Wow, you raise a huge topic with all sorts of offshoots. As a kid, everyone on my street had a large productive vegetable garden, partly as a way to affordably feed a family, but also, I think, just because that’s what everyone knew and did. Kids learned from grandparents and parents how to plant, harvest and preserve. Compost piles were just there as part of the process, not something to be thought about in particular. Nobody needed to read a book about composting.

 

In a relatively short time frame, many drifted away from gardening for significant food production and we lost that cycle of passing information along to the next generation. I’m encouraged that growing food is on the upswing again, fueled by a variety of factors that have been well-covered elsewhere, such as health and environmental concerns about chemical use, soil depletion, and the direct and indirect costs of transporting food thousands of miles. Flavor is another factor. No wonder kids despise fruits and vegetables if they are raised on the tasteless cardboard bred for shipping and shelf life!

 

Movements such as Slow Food (http:/www.slowfood.com), Locavores (http://www.locavores.com), Community Supported Agriculture (http://www.localharvest.org/csa), chefs seeking out local food producers, and an increase in community and school gardens (www.communitygarden.org/ and www.kidsgardening.org/) help people understand their options and point the way to the paradigm shift you mention. Getting kids involved is key. We observed locally with a Cooperative Extension supported youth garden that kids who sow, tend and harvest their own veggies will consume those veggies with gusto and pleasure, and take the experience home to share with their family! I recall reading formal research that supports similar results. So how can we encourage school or children’s gardening in a widespread way? I appreciate that Michelle Obama is helping to shine a spotlight on the benefits, especially as related to nutrition, obesity and long-term health to jump start the conversation. It’s a huge issue.

On the other hand, I’ve seen development in my area swallow up significant productive agricultural land. The Phoenix area used to be covered with orange groves, but only a smattering remains. Recent news reports covered the expected spike in juice prices because of the fungicide scare related to Brazilian oranges.  Is it economically and environmentally feasible to get enough people growing citrus in their desert backyards (often inefficiently in regards to water and fertilizer use and/or productive harvest) to replace a significant portion of our better-managed but lost local orchards? I don’t have the math skills to figure that out!

There’s also been a cultural shift in how we value (or don’t) our food preparation and meal time that needs addressing—that “fast food nation” component of gulping junk food in our cars and at our desks in lieu of a slow-paced meal that includes conversation and appreciation for carefully prepared food. Wilson, I don’t have easy answers to your question but I appreciate that you raise it for discussion!

 

Wilson: Sounds like we could do a whole other interview just on that topic.  We have not even gotten to cover crops yet!  Thank you for all of the links, and the food for thought.  There is so much potential for individual contributions and plain old-fashioned backyard ingenuity. 

 

Wilson: Cathy, great book and thank you so much for stopping by.  The door is always open to you here at Pantry Paratus.  Your Composting for Dummies is not available in our store, but I would tell people to check with local independent book sellers to see if they have it in stock.  It is definitely within easy reach here on my shelf!

 

 

Click here to read Part 1 where I review the book Composting for Dummies.

 

Wilson

Pro Deo et Patria

 

 

Cromell, C., & Association, T. N. G. (2010). Composting for dummies. (p. 9). For Dummies.

Ibid. (p. 36).

Ibid. (p. 59).

Ibid. (p. 106).

Ibid. (p. 130).

When There Is No Land

It was a moment of silence in our house, which does not happen often.  With the younger children napping, I was folding clothes on the couch while my 5 year old, enthralled with legos, silently lined up his men and their belongings into a settlement just like what we had read about in Daniel Boone.

Sycamore Shoals

Lying on his stomach with these plastic people spread out before him and with his chin resting on his arm, he looked up at me and asked, “Mommy, do we own land?”  This question, for most, would invoke a yes-no answer.  For me, it invokes that aching pain to my heart that only the absence of something can create.

Daniel Boone Historical Site

I tried to explain to him that we do own land, just far away and useless, and for sale but yet won’t sell and that’s keeping us from creating a better life here.  The questions kept coming: if it’s useless why did we buy it and if no one else wants to buy it why did we want to buy it?

 

I took a deep breath and grew silent.  My five year old could hang a shingle and dispense better advice then that which we had followed long before the real estate bubble burst.  “Why don’t we just live there?” he asked so innocently, and with the perfect common sense that only children can possess.  We adults like to make things more complicated than logic allows.

 

My Mom always used to interrupt my whining with a simple phrase, “Bloom where you’re planted.”  In other words, make the most of any situation.  As my Dad would say, “It is what it is.”  It’s so simple, so basic, that upon first hearing it almost seems nonsensical.  But the truth remains: if you cannot change it, thrive anyway.    Stop discussing the situation.  Stop comparing, contrasting, mulling and obsessing.  There is nothing new under the sun.  Move past that and live.

 

Existing happens to all of us.  Thriving is a choice.  In another lifetime– one that seems like a distant fairytale– I used to help people with disabilities rehabilitate for re-entering the workforce.  I learned much about human nature.  I learned even more about the power of faith and the motivation of a dream.  I saw those with simple, everyday illnesses and struggles (the kind common to most average people—let’s face it, we all have some kind of discomfort in our lives) roll over and give up.  Why try?  Why attempt?  Vanity vanity, all is vanity, so to speak.

 

And then I saw some thrivers.  I knew a woman, an older Black American who remembers the back of the bus; she had one of the most devastating life stories I have ever heard.  She was an alcoholic once, she was homeless once, she had suffered great injustices, and she saw a child die once.  Her illnesses were severe and her prognosis was grim. Her pain was great, but her smile was infectious.  She would wheel her chair a great distance to visit me so that she could spread her joy and peace to this young and inexperienced war-bride.  She filled her time with meaningful activities that enriched her life and the lives of others.  She knew what mattered.

 

We have a beautiful, healthy family.  We have an amazing community that has taught us much about life in the country.  We’ve had chickens, a garden, and greater abundance from (others’) fruit trees than I can personally process!  We have our dreams and goals that propel us forward and we are not giving up on those.

 

Right now I’m only seeing through a dark, cloudy glass, the shadows of what truly are.  One day I’ll see the entirety of my life’s story as one who looks back from the finish line to see the race completed.  This is the middle of my story.  I can choose to stop here, or I can keep running towards those goals.

 

We live in both the now and not yet, and I choose to thrive.

 

“One day, son, we’ll have our land.  For now, let’s bloom where we are planted.  Who wants hot chocolate?”

 

________

The two photos from the Daniel Boone Historical sites can be found here.

The Seed Catalog

The kids were crying when we walked into the house, hungry from the lunch delay caused by “just one more stop”.  I threw the mail on the table, unsorted, un-scanned, even.  Lunch was the crisis of the moment.  But when the kids settled into the subtle murmurs of leftover-laments, my eyes caught something in the stack.  Seed Saver

It’s my seed catalog.

 

Some women cry over the heroine’s hardships in the newest romance novel. I have my catalog.

 

This isn’t just any catalog.  These are heirloom seeds; these are someone’s family inheritance, someone’s genealogical record found within grandma’s kitchen garden.

Seed Saver Catalog

I am enthralled with the pictures, yes.  But I’m enthralled with text.

There was a little old lady who took seeds to her friends, saying that her great grandfather brought them on the wagon train; all of her family is dead now.  She died six months after that visit.  Because of her gift, you can now sauté her family history with butter.  A tear dashes to the page.

 

There was a family reunion in the bean garden: grandma loved her beans, but the kids didn’t garden.  The granddaughter’s renaissance into the things of her grandmother’s day led her to a magazine article featuring her grandma and her beans! Those beans were brought to Missouri in the 1880’s by that granddaughter’s great-great grandmother! The granddaughter and the beans have been reunited.

 

Romance novels don’t have recipes for canning stuffed peppers! Did you even know that there is an heirloom breed of pepper called chocolate? This calls for a trip to the cupboard.  I settle back in, this time with some herbal tea and the chocolate covered hazelnuts my sister-in-law sent.

Tea, chocolate, and my catalog

Chocolate peppers, crimson carrots, white beets. Orange watermelon, blue potatoes, rainbow swiss chard!

Chocolate Peppers through Seed SaversDragon Carrots from Seed SaversAlbino Beets through Seed SaversMountain Sweet Yellow Watermelonblue potato from Seed Savers5 color silverbeet swiss chard from Seed Savers

 

We have snow on the ground here.  My dreams of summer vegetables get me through these cold months, sheathed in winter’s darkness.  My garden is only limited by my dreams.  For now.  In July I will tell you it’s the weeds, or drought, or something eating my radishes.  But for now?  It’s my vision of what the garden can hold—glossy pictures of glossy vegetables beckon me to dream. The stories of gardens-gone-by inspire me to try.

 

Get your free catalog at Seed Savers.

Elderberry Tincture

The Elderberries were a gift from a friend.  It was a gift of health.

 

Last year was my first winter in Montana.  As with all moves, our immune systems were not prepared for the onslaught of every flu and cold, every bacteria and virus in which we came into contact.  I thought I was going to die at one point.  A friend sent my husband home with a bottle of Oregano oil and a set of instructions for me to mix a few drops with water and drink up.  Not only did I think I was going to die, my husband very nearly did that day.  If you have ever tasted the burn of Oregano oil, you know what I’m talking about.  But I recovered immediately.

 

So this trusted friend (who just might have saved my life once) gave me a bag of Elderberries.  They were so delicious, I very nearly ate the bag of them; I restrained myself in the name of health for the long upcoming winter.

 

 I am not in a medical profession so please understand that I am not giving any medical or miracle claims.  I can only tell you what others typically use the tincture to treat and I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

 

To make a tincture, you can either use glycerin or a strong alcohol.  However, which of those two options you use has everything to do with the herb or berry used itself.  The chemical compound may not be drawn out simply by using glycerin, as is the case with Elderberries.  Alcohol is needed to draw the medicinal properties out of the plant in this particular case.  You should research each individual plant to determine which type of tincture will give you the most benefit.

 

Elderberries can provide excellent immune support, and many natural products you buy claiming to do so will have Elderberries in its’ contents.  It’s also an antioxidant and is used to treat coughs and colds.  They say that it can combat both viruses and bacteria, and even help with tonsillitis!

Elderberry Cluster

 

I did refer to this site for very easy-to-follow instructions. The whole process took less time than pouring a glass of chocolate milk.  Seriously.  The hardest part for me was when my husband asked the church pianist, “Where can you buy liquor on a Sunday morning in this town?”.

 

Supplies:

A clean  jar with tight fitting lid

Vodka (or Brandy) with the highest alcohol proof available (100-proof desirable)

Elderberries

A wooden spoon and colander (preferably non-metal)

 

 

  • Wash and strain elderberries in the colander.
  • For a tincture, you do not need to worry about the seeds.  Remove the stems with a fork.
  • Mash the berries as much as possible with your wooden spoon in the jar.
  • Pour alcohol over them until just above the berry-line.
  • Label the jar clearly, including contents (so that you’ll know which tinctures on your shelf contain alcohol and which ones do not).  Date the jar.
  • Occasionally shake the jar during the next 6 weeks.  This is the ideal length of time to allow the tincture to fully “cure”.  You can certainly use it before then if you need to.
  • The tincture can be stored in the jar for up to 2 years.  I recommend placing it in the refrigerator once the jar has been opened.

Optional—if you would like to remove the berries after 6 weeks, simply strain out as much of the tincture as possible and rebottle it.  This is not necessary.

Chaya's Elderberry Tincture

 

Picture of Elderberry Cluster is from this (really informative) site.

My Less than Altruistic Motives for Kitchen Self-Sufficiency

Top ten list

 

Self Sufficiency, it is a goal.  To that end, we started Pantry Paratus to help other people produce, prepare and preserve their own food surplus.

So how do you know when you have gotten there?  What is the definition of self sufficiency?  Do you get there when you reach food self sufficiency?  How about economic self sufficiency? 

It is my goal, so I may never reach complete self sufficiency (as in autonomy), but here are the top ten  reasons why I make the pursuit: 

10.  If I take some time when I might have it then I have worked ahead on my kitchen prep for dinner on those days when I just do not have it in me to get it all done.

Rolling Pin

9.  I am cheap.  Frugal.  Economically inclined.  However you wanna say it. 

Tater Skin Crispies by Kitchen Stewardship
Tater Skin Crispies by Kitchen Stewardship

8.  If my house smells like fresh bread straight from the oven, it does NOT smell like poopy diaper or sweaty boy. 

Challah Bread with Frontier Sesame Seeds
Challah Bread with Frontier Sesame Seeds in Bulk

7.  A garden fresh tomato is not to be compared to the hormonally-ripened red replicas you buy in the grocery store.  And since I ca not grow them all year around, dehydrating or canning them gives me that instant mental vacation back to summer days. 

 

bowl of tomatoes

6.  Most of my daily tasks do not result in immediate gratification; a row of cooling jars on the counter from an hour in the canner, now THAT is something I can see!

canning_basket.jpg

5. Most of my daily tasks do not require a great deal of skill (diapers, dishes, laundry), and I enjoy trying a new recipe or developing new skills to stretch myself.

soft_cheese_1635-228x228.jpg

4. I want my sons to marry girls who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and who know how to work hard.  I figure I probably ought to model that for them. 

carrots potatoes from garden

3. I want my daughter to be feminine, yet rugged in her ability to work from sun-up to sundown (and in a Northwest Montanan summer, that’s saying something) and I figure I probably ought to model that for her. 

Chaya building the goat shed
Chaya building the goat shed

2.  I still love to wiggle my naked toes in cool dirt.  I still love to eat produce straight out of the garden, unwashed.  My kids do too; these are the memories of summer.


1. I get better and faster at these skills as I go, and I can whip something up to wow last-minute dinner guests with very little effort! 

Gluten-Free Nacho Pizza
Gluten-Free Nacho Pizza

Self Sufficiency, it is a worthy goal.  What are your reasons?  Leave a comment below!

Chaya

 

Photos Credits:

Rolling Pin by scottchan http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1701″

Tomato by Simon Howden http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=404

Carrots by Simon Howden http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=404