February 8, 2010 at 10:21 am (Changing habits, Musings, green living)
Bugger. They’re trying to get genetically-modified (“Roundup-ready”) alfalfa approved by the USDA in a completely unregulated way. See the full report at http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=0900006480a6b7a1 – but basically, they’ve said even though they have documented some gene drift among closely-related feral/wild species (not to mention every hay field in N. America), and the problem of Roundup-resistant weeds (nto to mention that once you establish a field of roundup-resistant alfalfa, you can’t use roundup to get rid of it and, say, use that field for another crop), really the thing to do is just approve this stuff for general use.
They say their study proves there’s “not a significant impact” on non-GE crops, farmers, the environment or anything…even though they freely admit they can’t determine the economic impact GE crops will have because consumers have no way of knowing if crops are GE or not:
The analyses found no GE-sensitivity in domestic sales of organic alfalfa; however, this does not mean that GE products are necessarily welcome by organic consumers or producers. It is difficult to empirically quantify GEsensitivity in the domestic sales of organic alfalfa and byproducts in the marketplace because: there are no governmental standards for GE content in organic products; organic standards are process-based, not product-based (organic processes do not require a GE-free product); and researchers cannot quantify real-world preferences as consumers do not have the means to accurately discern between GE and non-GE products.
Ok, “organic consumers,” let’s let them know what the impact would be.
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a6b7a1
1 Comment
February 1, 2010 at 10:32 am (Preserving Traditions)
Ok…I need reviewers interested in Preserving Traditions to go to http://preservingtraditions.org/join.html, scroll down about halfway, and let me know what you think of the workshop outlines. The idea is to lay out everything a would-be presenter needs to know to run a workshop on a particular topic (assuming they are able to do the skill in question, but just need some help turning that into a workshop).
I also hope that other people will take the template and start submitting their own workshops (Mary…how ’bout writing up your pierogi workshop?) for inclusion on the site.
Ah, and I think I need to run my own instance of WordPress’s blog on pt.com so I can set y’all up as authors without having to get your own WordPress login…so much to do…it’ll happen, albeit slowly…
2 Comments
January 27, 2010 at 1:18 pm (Health, Musings)
So, I’ve been at the Kripalu Center since Sunday on an R&R retreat, hence the lack of posts. It’s quite lovely…great food, lots of sleep, some koosh-poi spinning, and oh, a bit of yoga. Mostly just doing whatever feels good at any time, and letting someone else do all the cooking. It’s quite luxurious, only having to be responsible for myself – and having help, at that.
I’m also working on some “facilitator guides” for Preserving Traditions workshops. I’ve had inquiries from several people who want to do workshops in their locales but aren’t sure where to start. These will help people teach their first workshops, and also learn how to plan their own workshops. More on that as things develop.
I’m also enjoying being offline, so you probably won’t hear much from me for a while. I trust that you will all soldier on without me. 
4 Comments
January 18, 2010 at 10:32 am (Root cellar)
This winter’s project is to build a root cellar in my basement. Our basement is unfinished, and only about 1/4 of the house has a full-height basement – the rest is a 3′ tall crawl space with a dirt floor (and 6 mil plastic sheeting covering the dirt). The house is about 55 years old and the basement definitely seeps moisture in the spring. It’s no beauty, but it’s actually got some good potential for a root cellar.
The way things are set up, I can close off one end of the full-height part and make an 8′x8′ room that will become the root cellar – just by building 1-and-half walls. There’s also a 2.5′x3′ extra space off the back right corner, which you can’t see in this picture, but will hold a Rubbermaid tub of veggies nicely.
In this picture, you can see the half-wall that I framed in this weekend. I still need to build the wall across the space, coming out from the half-wall about where that outlet is and going across past the drain. It’s hard to tell in this pic, but the outlet is outside the root cellar and the drain is inside. That space is exactly 8′ wide, which makes planning and building ever so easy.
You can also see the window, which will be modified to become a ventilation system. Root cellars should be very cold – about 35 degrees – and very humid, with really good ventilation. And, of course, I’ll need to insulate the ceiling so the living room floor doesn’t get cold.
I used to help my father build stuff when I was a kid, but I’ve never built anything remotely like this before. This seemed like a good project to practice on. No load-bearing walls; doesn’t matter if it’s not pretty. That stupid half-wall took about 3x as long with 4x as much effort as it should have because I apparently don’t know how to read a tape measure. I ended up having to take it apart and take 1/4″ off each upright so it would fit in its space. Ah, well.
Done so far:
- Researched root cellars and drew up plan
- Moved wiring from the joist above the half-wall so it’s outside the root cellar
- Moved everything out of that end of the basement (no mean feat!)
- Bought framing materials, some of which came from the ReStore (including an insulated exterior door, pre-hung, and still in the packaging!)
- Framed half-wall
- Walls prepped for painting: scrubbing the walls and floor with a stiff brush and a mix of TSP (well, phosphate-free TSP) and bleach.
Yet to do:
- Attach half-wall to cinder blocks with masonry nails
- Painting the walls will mildew-resistant paint
- Building the full wall
- Hanging the door
- Moving/replacing wiring for the light (including changing the outlet to an indoor-outdoor style one)
- Insulating the ceiling (fiberglass batts, vapor barrier, and rigid foam)
- Insulating the walls (same as ceiling, or maybe without the fiberglass)
- Install ventilation pipes
- Building shelving
I still haven’t decided what I’m using to sheathe the walls on the inside of the root cellar (which, ironically, has “exterior” conditions). I have one sheet of 1/4″ plywood that I found at the ReStore – so I might just get another one, paint it with exterior paint, and call that good. Anyone have other suggestions?
10 Comments
January 16, 2010 at 3:54 pm (Cooking, Root cellar)
This weekend’s docket: cheese and construction.
2 Comments
January 13, 2010 at 5:05 pm (Changing habits, Energy, carbon budget, green living)
Well, we just got our first propane fill-up of 2010. Usually by Jan. 12th, we would have had fillups totaling around 500 gallons. This year, we’ve had a total of 371 gallons – about a 25% reduction in propane use and a savings of $325 and 1625 pounds of carbon.
What we’ve done differently this year: We’ve kept the heat at 55 pretty much all the time and used wood to heat the living room evenings and weekends. We do still occasionally turn the furnace on to heat the whole house – maybe once or twice a week when it’s really cold and we’re only going to be here for two hours or something.
We also have the thermostat programmed to come on and raise the house temp one degree in the morning while we’re working out. Having the heat on makes it feel warmer, and we’ve learned that just getting the heat to kick on is sufficient to keep us warm in the mornings – it doesn’t need to come up to “normal” room temp. Keeping it to one degree also helps me not have nightmares in the early mornings, which beset me when I’m too warm while I sleep.
6 Comments
January 12, 2010 at 10:12 am (Greenhouse)
I have quite the vole infestation in my greenhouse. The ground is polka-dotted with tunnels as they sweep through, eating every earthworm they can find. This weekend, I decided to fight back, and set out traps.
When I first went out, one trap was sprung, and the other was…missing. I finally found it several feet from where I’d set it. It was wedged into a fresh tunnel, sprung, but empty. Or so I thought.
When I opened the trap, there was the head of a vole, neatly trimmed off to the edge of the plastic trap. All I can conclude is that one of its fellows dragged it (trap and all) to the tunnel, where it was eaten by its brethren.
Or perhaps they just took as much of it as they could for a proper volish burial. But somehow, I’m more inclined to believe voles are just nasty little carnivores.
I caught two more that afternoon and threw them out immediately. I haven’t checked the traps in over 24 hours, though, and I’m wondering what I’ll find when I go out there tonight…
4 Comments
January 11, 2010 at 11:18 am (Organic gardening)
I grew a total of 367 lb. of produce in the garden in 2009. Those 367 lb. translate to about 63,000 calories – enough food for one adult for about 25 days. So I wouldn’t say I’m anywhere near self-sufficiency on that score. Not that total self-sufficiency is really my goal. Sure, I am curious to see what it would take to grow my all my own food, but I don’t feel a particular drive to be my own farmer. I’d rather have community sufficiency, and besides, I have a day job (knock on wood) and an aversion to getting up at 5am to milk goats.
However, there are a couple foods where I think I could grow our yearly supply.
- Kale. I planted something like 25 kale plants last year. Once they started producing, we had all the fresh kale we could eat, and we harvested a total of 4 giant Rubbermaid containers of kale which cooked down into about 9 quart freezer bags (2-3 meals in each bag). I’m still hauling armloads of it out of the greenhouse. It’s starting to look a little worse for the weather (it was 15 in the greenhouse overnight) and I expect I’m pretty much done harvesting until March, at least. But there’s all that kale in the freezer…if we are judicious, we might just make it the whole year without buying any kale.
- Onions. I didn’t grow all the onions we need this year, but I think I could do so easily. I planted about 15 square feet of them last spring, which yielded about 12 pounds of onions total. I think double that would get us through the year. I probably need to plant my storage onions later if I use sets, so I’m not harvesting my storage crop in July. Or better yet, grow them from seed. Seed-stated onions are supposed to keep better, but starting them from seed requires grow lights and the transplanting of finicky little seedlings. So I’m not sure what I’ll do.
- Green beans. Ok, this is a bit of a cheat, because I almost never buy green beans. If they’re not straight from the garden, we just eat something else. But this year, I grew more than just snack-sized portions; I had enough for many meals and six or eight quarts to freeze. I also gave away five pounds of them when I just couldn’t stand to deal with another bean at the beginning of August.
- Snow peas. Again, we don’t really buy these, but they were the surprise success of the year. My sweetie loves them so much, he’ll harvest them before work and take them for his lunch instead of carrots. Which is great, because I can’t grow carrots worth a darn.
- Tomatoes. We don’t eat a ton of tomatoes, and they generally produce like crazy, so I usually come close to growing what we need for diced-tomato and salsa purposes. Pizza sauce is another thing entirely, but we love Dei Fratelli pizza sauce, which is local-ish, non-GMO, and grown on fairly small farms. And at $1/can, it’s hard to beat the price. So I have no plans to try to grow all our own pizza sauce, even though I probably could.
- Potatoes and squash. Again, we don’t eat tons of these, and they are generally easy to grow and store, so I’ve found I can grow more or less what we need.
Money-wise, if I just grew all our kale and onions, I’d save about $300 per year. So at least my hobby pays for itself!
What about you? Is there something you grow enough of that you don’t need to buy it? If you were going to try to grow all your own of one crop, what would it be?
7 Comments
