Don't forget the H2O!

It's easy to remember to water the garden in the summer.  We can feel the scorching heat beating down on us and it's easy to imagine how it is affecting our tender veggies.

But if you are like most gardeners and you love to get an early jump on the garden in early spring, you still need to be mindful of watering.  It might even be more important this time of year because most of your plants in early spring are just trying to get started and can be very vulnerable to drying out.  Also, early spring cold fronts can usher in very dry air masses, unlike in summer when the air is always pretty humid.

Personally, I took a whirlwind watering tour of the onions, peas, and the new peach and apple trees that were planted on Sunday.  An easy way to gauge if garden plants need water at this time of year in your area is to keep your eye on the fire danger level.  Anything higher than "Low Danger", and you should probably get the hose running.

Time to wake up the garden!

Every year the arrival of St. Patrick’s Day reminds me of a few significant things, it’s my sister Patty’s birthday, I have to wear green to work, and it’s time to plant my first crop of peas for the season!

Depending on the nature of the winter season, I am usually in various states of preparedness for the beginning of the vegetable gardening season. Last year, of course we still had snow in the garden so the peas had to wait a while. This year though, I thought I might miss my chance to plant peas altogether, since the temps have been in the upper 70s and peas prefer cool weather. Don’t be fooled by the unseasonably warm weather though, because one cold snap like the one that is coming up this week and a lot of time and money can be wasted on plants that were put in the ground too early.

Many of the vegetables we grow in New England can’t be planted until what’s referred to as the “last frost date”. This is the average date, as determined by NOAA, of the last date the weather was cold enough to generate frost on plants for a series of past years. There is also a "first frost date" calculated for the fall, although that is less of an issue for most vegetable gardeners. These dates can be variable within a state like Connecticut, just like the daily high and low temperatures can vary.

For example, the last frost date for Hartford is May 12^th and the first frost date is September 23^rd. If you live closer to the shoreline, that gap widens a bit so that in Norwalk the dates are May 8^th and October 2^nd. Move further north of Hartford and the gap will narrow, for example to June 4^th and September 13^th in Thompson and other northern towns.  Remember that these dates are just averages, meaning that invariably we will get a late or early frost that will have you out there covering your more delicate plants.

This doesn’t mean you have to wait until May to get your hands dirty though. In addition to peas (both snow/snap and shell varieties), other things that can be planted right now are onions (I planted 45 onion sets over the weekend), cabbage, radishes, turnips, spinach, and kale. These are all cold-hardy plants, and most actually prefer growing in cooler temperatures. And remember, the sooner you plant them, the sooner you'll be eating them.  Now, get out there and plant some veggies!

Ban a banana?

As I am slowly trying to evolve into more of a "locavore", trying to eat more locally-produced foods to reduce the environmental and human costs of production pressures and transit, the simplest thing to do is to initially target fruits and vegetables. About 3 months ago, my main target became the banana.

Admittedly, the Sustainable Family used to consume a lot of bananas every week. I took one in my lunch bag to work every day, and occasionally our son would eat one cut up with breakfast or we’d make a smoothie or banana bread when they became over ripe. Targeting the unsuspecting banana was a no-brainer because no single raw fruit or vegetable in our house came from farther away and, considering what it takes to grow, pick, pack, ship, and sell a banana, there is no way 89¢ a pound is a fair-trade price (see “Banana Republic”).

There is a pretty good Op-Ed piece in the New York Times from 2008 that talks about some of the issues with mass production of the banana for worldwide consumption. Included in that is the fact that of the thousand or so varieties of banana that exist, only one variety is currently mass produced. That variety, the Cavendish, is the second iteration of the mass produced banana because the variety that was originally produced up until the early 1900s, the Gros Michel, was wiped out by a fungus called Panama disease. That fungus quickly spread due to the unnatural concentration of bananas that are grown on plantations. By all accounts, the Cavendish lacks flavor and hardiness compared to the Gros Michel, but the one thing it does have is resistance to Panama disease. That too is changing though, because a similar fungus is currently spreading that affects the Cavendish banana as well.

It is no mystery that most of the fruits and vegetables you buy in the grocery store are single or very limited varieties that are selected, or often genetically-modified, for disease resistance, uniform ripening, or ease of mechanical harvesting. The biggest trade off, as anyone who has ever eaten a real garden tomato knows, is flavor. You don’t need to become a complete "locavore" overnight, but you can make small changes to try to consume more local foods, by visiting farmers markets, shopping for some things at food co-ops, or joining a CSA. The direct cost might be a bit more than what you’ll find on sale at the supermarket, but if you consider all the indirect human and environmental costs as well (which you eventually pay for with your tax dollars), it’s probably a wash. And if flavor is something you savor, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

When is a small farm too big?

The Sustainable Family has been doing a lot of planning over the last month or so about how we are going to lay out our little 5 acre farm, given all the new additions that are coming this year.  Basically, if there is anything online or in print that talks about how to most efficiently utilize your acreage for food production, we have read it.

There is a lot of information out there to be had, and it is a very interesting mix of advances in agricultural technology and "old timey" farmer wisdom.  Here is something that I ran across the other day that I thought I would pass along.  It is part of a paper presented at a small farm conference back in 2002 by John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri.

How do you know if your farm is too big? Your farm may be too big if…

· If the fence rows are either gone or so clean you no longer hear the birds singing.

· If gullies appear on slopes and road ditches are filled with muddy water after a rain.
· If the soil feels like pavement under your feet, or you don’t like walking across it anymore.
· If the farm begins to look more like a sea or desert, rather than a patch work quilt.
· If your cows no longer have names and your children wouldn’t know them if they did.
· If your animals never feel the sun, don’t have room to walk, or never touch the dirt.
· If your farm no longer smells like a farm but stinks like a sewer or a factory.
· If it’s no longer safe for anyone but an adult to work with your machinery or chemicals.
· If you work harder and harder, but it always seems there is more work to be done.
· If a bigger tractor, combine, or new pickup truck seems like it might solve your problems.
· If your banker or contractor owns more of your farm than you will ever own.
· If the farm is keeping the family apart, or tearing it apart, rather than bringing it together.
· If your children begin to dislike farm life and vow not to return to the farm.
· If you no longer feel good about asking your family to live on a farm.
· If you’re too busy to bother with community affairs, and rarely go into town anymore.
· If you drive right through “your” town to buy things in the city, just to save a few dollars.
· If neighbors complain about dust, noise, or odors from your farm, and you don’t care.
· If caring for the land no longer gives purpose and meaning to your life.
· If continuing the farming tradition feels more like a burden rather than a privilege.
· If you’re too busy to notice changing seasons, to watch the sunset, or to feel the wind blow.
· If farming is no longer exciting, no longer fun, if it’s hard to face a new season.
· If you have forgotten why you wanted to be a farmer in the first place.

If very many of these things ring true, odds are your farm is too big.

New life for old sneakers...

Since I issued a challenge for everyone to try to repurpose something rather than throw it away during the month of March, I figured I should try to get started this first weekend.  This is an idea I first tried about 10 years ago, when I read it in a home improvement magazine.

One big problem I have with my cordless drill is that I tend to store it in random places, usually somewhere in the vicinity of the last place I used it.  This drives my wife crazy because she is constantly finding it and imploring me to put it where it belongs so it's not cluttering up the house.  The problem is, since I got my new one last year, I really haven't had a place that it "belongs".  Here is the storage solution I've been using since I got it.

As luck would have it, I also have about a half-dozen pairs of old sneakers, boots, etc. that my wife is also imploring me to throw away so it doesn't clutter up the shoe area.  Here's an example of a pair of classic Nike Air Pegasus cross-trainers that have seen better days.

Time to use some repurposing power to make these old sneakers disappear and solve my drill storage problem!

And voila!  My old sneakers have found new life as a storage system for the drill and the spare battery.

Of course, the bigger your feet the better this will work.  But you could use this idea to store all kinds of loose stuff around the garage or workshop.  And, this can also serve as a great conversation starter if you are hosting a fancy dinner party!

Chicken radio

Just a quick note today before the UConn game starts. Yesterday's Colin McEnroe radio show on WNPR was all about backyard chickens! You can listen to the podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheColinMcenroeShow-Podcast .

Maybe this will encourage some of you to join me in the wonderful world of raising chickens? Enjoy!

The forgotten 'R'...

You know the 3 'R's... Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!  I think most of us though tend to focus on the first and last 'R', and kind of ignore 'Reuse'.  Oh sure, maybe we save a plastic bag that we had some pretzels in and use it again the next day, or we use a stainless steel water bottle instead of buying bottled water, but how many of us really give a good effort to repurpose our "stuff" before we bury it in the recycle bin.

For example, on my way outside to do my chicken chores yesterday my wife asked me to throw out an old purse she had lying around.  Rather than just send it to its final resting place in the trash, I took an opportunity to scavenge it for reusable parts.  As a result, I managed to remove two nice split-ring stainless steel hoops that were holding the shoulder strap as well as the leather strap itself, which has a pretty nice stainless steel buckle on it.  Undoubtedly, these will find a nice new home holding something together in the chicken coop or somewhere around the yard.  (My wife also pointed out that we repurpose our fruit and veggie scraps all the time for chicken treats!)

I thought this might be a good opportunity for another Sustainable Family challenge for my countless readers around the globe!  (Ha ha)  During the month of March (when I assume a lot of spring cleaning will be underway), before you throw out your old junk, see if you can repurpose some or all of it to reduce what goes into the waste stream.  I will do the same and when I happen upon anything particularly inventive, I'll pass it along.  I'd love to hear about your successes as well, so let me know!

A very fruitful harvest...

Nothing in your garden can even come close to the sustainable return on investment that a fruit tree offers. Did you know that a single semi-dwarf apple tree can produce several hundred apples in a single season, with a productive life of up to 20 years?

There are different sizes of trees available for whatever space you have available, and even in the colder zones in New England, there are any number of different fruit types and varieties to choose from. Fruit trees generally come in three sizes, dwarf, semi-dwarf, and standard. Dwarf trees are the smallest of the three varieties. They tend to have a smaller yield due to their smaller size, but they also take up less space (an 8’ circle of space is all you need) and are easier to prune and harvest than larger trees. At the other extreme are standard size fruit trees. These are the trees you plant if you want to recreate the stately old apple trees you used to climb in your grandpa’s back yard. These trees require the most space, reaching 20-30 feet if left untended, and are a bit more difficult to prune and harvest. Semi-dwarf trees (as the name implies) are somewhere in the middle. The great thing about these trees is that they produce just about as much fruit as a standard tree, but don’t grow quite as large, and so are easier than standard trees to prune and harvest.

When looking at what size trees to buy for your available space, also consider that some fruit types require cross-pollination with another variety to produce fruit. Even trees considered “self-pollinating” will be more productive if cross-pollinated with another variety. For the record, this year the Sustainable Family ordered three standard apple trees (three different cross-pollinating varieties) and a standard self-pollinating peach tree from The Arbor Day Foundation. These will get shipped as dormant bare-root trees in time for spring planting. There are several other online sources for fruit trees and most local nurseries sell fruit trees as well. The other benefit of a local nursery is that they tend to only stock varieties that will do well in your area, and have a lot of knowledge that they are more than willing to share.

One cautionary note, if you think you are going to save money by planting an apple seed and growing your own tree, don’t bother. Those big juicy apples you envision picking right in your backyard can only grow from grafted trees.

The key to firewood... what to cut?

For several years now, our Sustainable Family has been using wood as our primary heating fuel during the winter.  Since we started, I've been raving about it to everyone who will listen and have even managed to convince a few of my friends to make the switch.

In general, we use about 3 cords of wood per winter to heat our approximately 1700 sq. ft. house.  If you are thinking about burning wood during the winter months and are trying to guess how many cords of wood you might use, I will tell you that it is dependent on a lot of factors that are individual to each home and stove set-up, so it might take you a few years to figure it out.  You can use our experience as a rough guide, but my recommendation is for the first couple of years guess higher than you think.  Stacking an extra cord of wood is not much more work, and if you don't use it for winter heat you can always use it for campfire wood during the summer, or even use it the next year if you can keep it relatively dry and off the ground.

If you currently heat your home with wood, you know there are a couple of ways to get your fuel, either ordering it seasoned, split, and delivered for about $200-$250 per cord, or if you have the land available, drop it, cut it, and split it yourself for free* (*plus cost of chainsaw, chains, gas, bar/chain oil, hydraulic splitter, etc.).  The rule of thumb is for every acre of hardwoods you have available, you should be able to get that many cords of wood each year for eternity by cutting only the largest trees.  So the next logical question is how can you tell how much cord wood you'll get from a tree before you drop, cut, split, and stack it? 

The key to calculating cord wood from standing hardwoods is the diameter of the trunk at about 4 ½ feet from the ground.  If you have a flexible measuring tape (like a 100 ft. roll tape measure) the process is even easier, but if you don’t, you can use an ample size piece of rope and a regular metal tape.  Here’s how it’s done:

1. Figure out where on your body is about 4 ½ feet from the ground.  I had my son measure on me and it ended up about mid-chest, so I’m guessing for a 6-foot tall man it is right about armpit height.
2. Wrap your flexible tape measure around the trunk of the tree at this height and note the circumference in inches.  Or if you’re using a rope, mark the rope at the overlap point and measure the length of the rope.
3. Divide the circumference in inches by 3.14 to get the diameter of the trunk.
4. Use the chart below to determine how many cords of wood you can get from the tree.

Source:  University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. 
 
This method has worked pretty well for me in the past so I hope your experience with it will be the same.  Now the trick is knowing when we’re going to have an abnormally mild or cold winter so you can really maximize your conservation!  Let me know when you get that one figured out.

Winter Window Garden - Update #2

Two weeks into our experimental winter window garden of kale and lettuce and we are definitely having some success.  I was starting to get a little worried that the whole thing wouldn't be necessary since the temperatures have been around 50 F.  It was so warm last Sunday that I turned my garden over to get a first dose of leaf mulch and chicken manure mixed in.  This is not one of my usual early-February chores here in New England.  Luckily (or not, depending on your perspective), the temperatures are going to turn colder this week so it looks like the window garden will be necessary after all.  Whew!  You can see the curly leaves of the kale starting to sprout and some of the red lettuce leaves are starting to become apparent.

Of course, short-term success like this only emboldens the Sustainable Family to try something that is potentially even more exciting... do we dare to try to get actual garden tomatoes in the winter?  You bet we do!  I put together a few round pots of last year's compost, into which my wife happily planted two different tomato varieties.  One is a cherry variety and one is a plum-type.

Less than a week later, here they come!

For all your apocalyptic... drinking needs.

Did you know there are people out there referred to as "preppers"?  I had never heard that term until a couple of months ago.  These are people who are convinced that some kind of worldwide economic meltdown, or some similar apocalyptic event, is coming and it will end with complete anarchy.  Remember the people who built bomb shelters and hoarded food before Y2K... this is them.

Anyway, due to forces outside of my control (e.g. spouse and neighbor) the Sustainable Family movement in our house at times seems to be taking on some subtle tones of "prepping"... much to my dismay.  The latest is the question of how will we get water when this inevitable apocalypse starts affecting infrastructure and there is no longer any electricity.  Lucky for us, when we first bought the house we bought a generator and had a switch box wired to power, among other things, our well pump.  Problem solved?  Not quite.  The great thing about preppers is they think on the one-in-a-million level whereas your average human might only think on the "things that actually might happen" level.  As such, the natural next question was what are we going to do if there is no gas available to run the generator.  Yes, that's right, no gas available.  [roll eyes here]

So anyway, there are a few ways that I've found to get water out through a well head.  These include the old fashioned "little house on the prairie"-style hand pump, an Amish-style well bucket, or a submersible pump that can run off of a solar cell.  Initially, I thought the pump and solar cell would be super cool to have, but the cost of something like this is way too much for me, especially since it is very likely that it will never get used.  I moved on to the old-style hand pump.  These can be a little expensive too, especially if you are trying to get water from 100 feet down.  Again, the likelihood of it not ever being used makes this option less than desirable in my mind...  especially when the 3rd option, the Amish-style bucket, seems like it would be so simple to build myself.  This is the trade-off I guess, these seemingly crazy ideas allow me to do some DIY experimenting!

Basically, an Amish-style well bucket is a big tube with a check valve on one end.  As the tube gets lowered into the water down the well shaft, the one-way check valve allows water to flow into the "bucket" and as it is retrieved, the check valve closes and the water is drawn up.  I'm planning on tackling this project over the weekend, so I'll post an update soon.

A chance to grow some knowledge...

A few weeks ago, I came across a great learning opportunity for those of us in Connecticut and surrounding areas and I wanted to pass it along.  On Saturday, March 3rd, the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA) will be holding its 30th annual Winter Conference at Manchester Community College.

The keynote address will be delivered by Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception who will speak about GMOs.  But, even if a talk about the evils of "big agriculture" isn't your kind of thing, there is plenty more for everyone to enjoy, from the beginning gardener to the full-time farmer.  Other workshop topics include pasture raising laying hens, growing garlic, nuts, and mushrooms, managing honey bees, composting, animal welfare, and just about everything else you can imagine.  Check out a copy of the full program here.

Early bird registration ends February 18th, and the cost is $45 for NOFA members, $55 for non-members, and only $30 for seniors and students.  After 2/18/12, the registration fee only goes up $5.  Better yet, if you volunteer 2 hours of your time at the meeting you'll save $10 off the registration!

Hope to see you there!

Winter Window Garden - Update

I posted recently about attempting to grow some fresh greens in the window this winter at the behest of my son.  That was a couple of weeks ago and this weekend I finally got my act together to get my winter window garden going, so I thought I would give an update on the progress.

I bought a couple of black plastic small dishwashing tubs for a buck apiece at the local discount store.  I drilled a few small holes in the bottom of each tub so the plants won't get overwatered.  I bought a couple of cheap aluminum cookie sheets to put under the tubs to catch any extra water.  I also picked up a packet of mesculin mix lettuce seeds and a packet of kale seeds from the local Agway.  I took a short trip out behind the stone wall and filled the two plastic tubs to within about an inch of the rim with some great compost from last year's pile that I turned out this fall.

Now, to find a prime sunny window spot for the tubs.  Luckily, we just happened to have the perfect height table hanging around that we salvaged from our neighbors at a tag sale!  I set the compost-filled tubs on the table in the window, spread and covered the seeds, gave them a little water, and covered them with plastic wrap.

That was Sunday morning, and so I fully expected to wait the usual week or so for the seeds to germinate.  But, when I came home after work on Tuesday (yes, 2 days later) this is what I saw.

Kind of hard to tell from the picture, but all those little green dots are plants!  Needless to say, the Sustainable Family is very excited about the prospect of enjoying some fresh greens in the coming weeks, long before we could enjoy them from the outside garden.  Of course, the temperature was in the 60's here today (that's right, February 1st in New England), so maybe I should have just planted the seeds outside?!

Certified plutonium-free!

When you buy eggs at the grocery store, do you make sure you choose the "cage-free" eggs?  Or when you're buying vegetables, do you select the ones labelled "organic" (instead of the presumably inorganic ones?)?  All things being equal, people will most often choose a product that has such a label over a similar product that doesn't have the label.  The presumption, of course, is that the "certified organic" fruit or the "cage-free" eggs, "grass fed" beef, "non-GMO" vegetables, etc. are either healthier for you, better for the environment, more humane to animals, or all of the above.

My co-worker Meg turned me on to this after our book club at work read a particularly disturbing account about where our food comes from.  During our discussion, she gave us all a brief overview of the various labels that were on the food products we all buy and what they mean, and more importantly what they don't mean.  That was a couple of years ago, and since then I read a similar story online from a writer who was in a grocery store and was agonizing over whether to buy the "hormone-free" chicken or just regular chicken.  Someone near her in the store saw her conundrum and let her know that the USDA doesn't allow any hormones to be added to any chicken, so saying chicken is "hormone-free" is the same as saying it is "plutonium-free".  A funny story, but also a little worrisome.

In general, I think if people are given a choice, they will choose foods that are healthier for them, better for the environment, and more humanely produced, but with all the different labels being thrown around, it is hard to know what they really mean and who, if anyone, is verifying them.  Fortunately, the good people at Consumer Reports are once again here to cut through the marketing and get to the facts with their eco-labels database.  This database of popular food labels provides information about who is responsible for the label and how reliable the label is.  For example, did you know that "fresh poultry" is certified by the USDA as never being below 24 F.  Last time I checked, that was frozen.

Anyway, I encourage you to check the database out for yourself and get educated about where your food comes from.  Of course, if you really want to know where your food comes from, you can produce it yourself!

Sustainable Family Challenge: Don't eat out for a week

I am beginning to realize that the most important key to living a Sustainable Family lifestyle is changing habits and rethinking how you operate within the confines of what has become our uber-capitalist society.  That includes recognizing the difference between “want” and “need”.  Can you believe that only 10 years ago, most of us had to call our spouses before we left work to tell them that we were on our way because we had no way to contact them in transit?  Now we “need” to ask Siri what is on our calendar for today!
 

All this came to a head for me about a week ago, when I realized that one of our new kittens had chewed almost completely through my only iPod charger, rendering it useless.  Oh, the humanity!  How was I to check text messages, or game scores, or Words with Friends^®?  I realized it is time to start getting myself in check and practice what I preach.  What better way to do it than to come up with some little challenges to change my habits from consumerable (is that a word?) to sustainable?  I encourage you to join me in this quest!

Here’s the challenge:  For one whole week, don’t eat anything that doesn’t come from your (or better yet, a friend’s) refrigerator or pantry.  Go ahead and buy whatever groceries you think you need for the week, and then just say no to restaurants, cafeterias, vending machines, and any other “instant gratification” food source you currently use.  If this sounds easy to you, think about how many cups of coffee or lunches you bought last week.

I’m going to start after I buy my usual pizza lunch on Thursday and see how long I can stick to my principles.  I guess I’ll have to try to sneak a soft pretzel and a beer into the UConn game on Sunday.  If you decide to try it too, please leave comments here on the blog and let me know how you did and what, if anything, was your downfall.

Firewood warms you three times!

If you cut your own firewood like I do, you probably already have what you need drying for next year.  If you don't have all you need yet, get on it because the sap is already running!  There is no better feeling than getting all the wood you need for the next year neatly piled for 9 months worth of "seasoning".

Our Sustainable Family switched to burning firewood a few years ago for several reasons.  Since we have 5 acres of property, most of which is wooded, we have a free and available source of fuel.  In addition, wood is a sustainable and renewable resource unlike fuel oil, which is limited by the dwindling numbers of dinosaurs currently roaming the earth and subsequently dying. 

We used to burn about 750 gallons of oil per year to heat the house and fulfill our hot water needs.  Now, we only burn about one tank (250 gallons) per year for domestic hot water (showers, hand washing, etc.), which currently saves us about $2,000 per year.  [Yes, you read that right.]  The entire cost of the wood stove plus all the triple-wall stainless steel chimney pipe, cap, through-the-wall kit and everything else came to about $3,000.  I saved money by installing it all myself, but even with installation costs factored in, you can get your money back in three years instead of two.  And, even if you don't have 5 acres of hardwoods to harvest, you can have split seasoned firewood delivered right to your house for about $200 per cord.  We burn about three cords a year for our approximately 1,600 sq. ft. house, so use that as a guide.  Even buying all of your wood, you'll probably make your money back in five years instead of two or three.

Sounds great right... but what is the catch?  The catch is, just like with anything else, the more you are willing to do, the more money you will save.  In my case, the wood we burn warms me three times throughout the year... first when I drop it and pile it, again when I split and stack it, and then finally when we burn it!  The biggest bonus for us is that our house is significantly warmer in the winter now than when we relied on oil.  We used to keep the thermostats consistently in the 64-67 F range all winter and layer on the sweaters.  With the woodstove, the temperature is consistently around 70 F and with a little practice we can now get the fire to last pretty much all night.

Using firewood as your main heat source in the winter is definitely more work than getting fuel oil delivered, and it is not for everyone, especially if you live in an urban or tightly populated area.  But if you can do it there is a plus side... for some of us it may be the only significant exercise we get all year!

Beating the blues... with greens!

The other day, my son asked me if we could grow kale now because he liked it so much last spring and summer.  I told him we couldn't because the ground is too frozen but that we would plant some more as soon as the ground thawed.

Then I read an article in Urban Farm magazine about container gardening and I started thinking maybe we can start growing kale now.  Our front windows get great southern sun exposure and my thought is that I can mount a couple window boxes in front of the windows inside the house and have a little green vegetable garden to break up the winter blues.  The consensus seems to be that things like leafy greens (like kale and leaf lettuce) and most herbs can produce with only about 6-7 hours of sunlight a day.  At this time of the year here in New England, we are up to almost 10 hours a day so that part is at least feasible.  Now all I need is some dirt, seeds, and water and hopefully we'll be eating fresh greens sometime in the next few weeks.

I'll keep you all updated on the progress, but in the meantime if you have tried this or something similar, let me know how it worked for you and any tricks and tips you can share.  If you have never tried it, maybe you want to see if you can do it too (and keep us all updated)!

Now we're cooking!

Through trial and error we have decided that a solar oven in winter (see previous post "For all your apocalyptic cooking needs") is not the most efficient way for the Sustainable Family to cook "off the grid"... especially when our cast iron wood stove is cranking pretty much non-stop.

My wife is nothing if not determined, so she decided to put the wood stove to some dual use and try cooking on top of it using some of our cast iron pans.  First she put a big deep frying pan on top with one of our cast iron pizza pans over it to see if she could get the temperature high enough to cook. 

In no time, it was up to 350 F!

Now for something easy to be the sacrificial first attempt.  Since we decided to have chili for dinner, the logical choice was cornbread.  So, the batter went into a baking pan and then into the "oven".  (Lesson one: put the baking pan on a metal trivet or else the bottom will burn.) 

Twenty or so minutes later, we were treated to the most moist cornbread we ever had!

Absolutely amazing!  Needless to say, my determined wife was now even more determined to cook other things on the woodstove.  So, this morning's breakfast was off the grid as well...

Mmmm... perfect eggs, toast, and pancakes!  If you have a woodstove, I highly recommend trying this... and let us know how it works for you.

Bring some history to your garden

It's the time of year when many of us are inundated by seed catalogs.  Whether it's Michigan Bulb, or Gurney's, or Burpee, these catalogs offer us an opportunity to take a break from the winter cold and daydream about our vegetable gardens... the snap of the green beans, bees on squash blossoms, the taste of that first tomato.  Have you ever noticed that when you are picturing your garden in your mind, you conveniently leave out the weeds?

Anyway, if you're looking to change it up a little this year, and manage your garden in a more sustainable way, consider using heirloom vegetable seeds.  Vegetables considered "heirloom varieties" are generally those that are 100 years old or more and were widely planted before the advent of large-scale commercial farming.  As larger and larger commercial farming operations spread across the US after World War II, hybrid vegetable varieties developed for production and simultaneous ripening, often at the expense of taste, dominated the gardening landscape.  Over the past decade however, an effort has been underway to reintroduce heirloom vegetables into home gardens to preserve and proliferate some of these historic varieties. 

There are many advantages to planting heirloom vegetables.  Most are naturally well adapted to variable environmental conditions and disease resistance due to natural selection over hundreds or even thousands of years, rather than man-made genetic modification.  In addition, these historical vegetable varieties provide an opportunity for the Sustainable Family to learn about historical agriculture and the need to sustain viable seed strains for future generations.

You can find many companies across the country that specialize in the preservation and sale of heirloom vegetable seeds.  My personal preference is Comstock, Ferre & Co. located right here in Connecticut.  You can order heirloom seeds right from their website, or request a catalog and picture yourself in a new and exciting garden this summer... oh, and don't forget the weeds.

A taste of summer in the winter.

During the summer months, there is a glut of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products, crafts, and just about everything else at local farmers' markets. Our family makes it a point to visit any and all of the farmers' markets in our area as frequently as possible each summer, if not for the great food available then for the overall atmosphere. Fortunately, that same atmosphere is still available in the winter here in Connecticut, and in most every other New England state, in the form of winter farmers' markets!

 

There are many winter farmers' markets operating this year from one end of the state to the other. Some operate as indoor markets but a few of them actually maintain an outdoor presence despite the cold weather (or in the case of this year... the unseasonably warm weather). The Connecticut Department of Agriculture website maintains a list of winter farmers' market locations that include Hartford, Litchfield, New Haven, North Guilford, Stonington, Coventry, Storrs, Hampton, and Westport. Similar lists are maintained by agencies that license farmers' markets in other states. The dates and times of operation for these markets varies in some cases, from once a week to once a month, so check the website link to see when the market in your area will be open. And if you are worried that a winter farmers' market might be a little lean on actual locally-grown food, here are some things you can expect:

 

Lettuces, arugula, bok choi, kale, collards, cabbage, chard, apples, cider, cranberries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, garlic, radishes, mushrooms, fresh herbs, hops, lavender, wheat grass, beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, winter squash, chicken, beef, pork, cheeses, eggs, honey, maple syrup, and lots of other great stuff!

 

So when (or if) the snow (eventually) hits the ground here in Connecticut and you start to feel the mid-winter blues, make it a point to visit one of the state's many winter farmers' markets. You might find it is just the little taste of summer you need to carry you through until spring.

 

You can catch more flies with vinegar...

If you are like us, you might have a container in your kitchen to store your compostable scraps temporarily until your lazy husband takes them out to the compost pile. Or maybe you just like your fruit and veggies to be "well-ripened". Either way, you probably have had a fruit fly or two (or a hundred?) annoyingly buzzing around your kitchen from time to time. Even in the winter, these annoying pests can find solace in a warm cozy home, especially if you have houseplants anywhere near the kitchen. This past summer seemed to be a particularly bad one for fruit flies in our house, so I was determined to find a no-cost solution to rid us of this pestilence!

Remember the old adage, "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"? Well in this case, exactly the opposite is true. This easy and effective solution to fruit flies not only worked like a charm for us, but also by several other of our friends and family who have tried it since. Here's how to do it: 

 

Get yourself a small cup-like vessel of some sort. We used a very small bowl we had, but a teacup will work fine. Fill the bowl or cup with apple cider vinegar to within about an inch or two of the brim. I haven't tried other types of vinegar, but I would guess they would work the same way. For some reason, I assume apple cider is the "sweetest" of the vinegars we have in our house, so that's what I went with. Add two or three drops of dish soap to the bowl. This eliminates the surface tension on the liquid so when the flies land on the vinegar, they fall in. Place the bowl near wherever you are having the problem and watch the magic happen! 

 

We collected about 30-40 flies in just a few days. Let me know how it works out for you.

Start shopping for next Christmas!

Well, I finally took the lights off the tree and dragged it out the front door so for us, the holidays are officially over.  But is it too early to start thinking about next year?

Taking the lights down got me thinking again about whether this is the year I'll switch from incandescent mini-bulbs to LEDs.  I guess if I'm going to blog about being a Sustainable Family, then I better really consider it.  When I bought my current lights a few years ago to replace my last set, LEDs were not as readily available and the few that were seemed too expensive to pay for themselves through increased efficiency.  But is that still true?

With a quick scan of online sellers, I found that LED mini lights seem to cost about twice as much as incandescents ($18 vs. $9 for 100 lights).  So now the question is how much energy will you save using the LEDs?  According to ConsumerReports, you’ll probably save enough to justify the purchase.  They tested LEDs and incandescents side-by-side using an independent laboratory.  What they found was that, during 300 hours of use, 50 LED lights use about 1-3 kilowatt hours of energy, while the incandescents used from 12-105 kWh.  On average, the cost to operate 100 mini lights for this amount of time is about $2 for LEDs and $22 for incandescents.  So, at a savings of $20 per 100 lights, you have more than paid the difference in initial cost of the lights… and that’s only for tree lights.  Obviously, if you are one of those people who tries to make the front of your house look like the Las Vegas Strip, your savings will be much greater.

Need more reasons to switch your holiday lights to LEDs?  How about durability?  After 4,000 hours of testing by Consumer Reports, all the LED lights in their test strings were still lit, while each of the incandescent test strings had one or more lights burn out in less than 2,000 hours.  In addition, LED mini lights are generally encased in plastic, which makes them less likely to break when dropped or stepped on as opposed to their glass-encased incandescent counterparts.

Bottom line:  If it's time for new Christmas lights, switch to LEDs.  In addition to the obvious cost savings, they are better for the environment, they are less of a fire risk because they run cooler than traditional incandescents, and they last longer.  And now is a great time to buy them and get even more "post-holiday" savings.    If you’ve already switched to LEDs, I’d love to hear about your experience with them so feel free to leave a comment.

Mmmm... Pizza Fridays!

One thing that we have found to be critical to the health of the Sustainable Family is great friends.  Another equally important thing is cheap meals.  For a few years now, we have had a standing "date" with our friends at our house for "Pizza Fridays".  This tradition has included pizza in many forms, but we have now found a groove with homemade pizza cooked in cast-iron pans.  I will NEVER cook a pizza any other way again.  In my opinion it is the quickest, easiest, and least messy way to cook pizza at home... by far. 

I'll explain how it's done in our house, but understand that there may be a little trial and error necessary before you can perfect it in your kitchen.  The good thing is you can still eat the mistakes.  We use store-bought pizza dough, but there are plenty of great recipes for pizza dough on the web.

If you have an electric oven like we do, set it to about 475 F and let it preheat a bit while you build your pizza.  If you have a gas oven, you will want to wait until the pizza is in the oven to turn it on.  Coat the bottom of your cast-iron pan with a thin layer of olive oil and press the dough into the bottom of the pan.  Add sauce (or just some olive oil for a white pizza) and any spices you want... I generally put garlic powder and Italian seasoning.  Add shredded mozzarella, toppings, and even a little Parmesan cheese if you like. 

Place the pan on the bottom rack of the oven, and place a cookie sheet or something similar on the rack above (we have a pizza stone that is always in the oven).  The idea here is that you are trying to heat up the cast-iron pan so it perfectly cooks the bottom of the pizza crust while not cooking the top too fast.  In a gas oven, waiting until the pizza is in to turn the oven on (reportedly) works well, but in my electric oven heating the coil a bit first seems to work best.

The pans we use are Lodge brand cast-iron pizza pans.  You may be able to find these in a local store, but we couldn't so we ended up ordering them online.  You don't need to buy the pizza pans specifically though, any flat bottom cast-iron skillet you have will work, your pizza will just be limited to the size of your pan.

Try it and let me know how it works for you.  Or, if you're really up for a challenge, try it on your grill!

For all your apocalyptic cooking needs...

My wife and my neighbor have been on a real "let's get ready for the apocalypse" kick lately, so when our Urban Farm magazine arrived with an article touting the virtues of the solar oven, my wife pounced right on it.  Using the sun to cook a meal sure sounds like a neat idea and I hadn't heard of it before other than the old adage about frying an egg on the pavement in the summer. 

Solar ovens come in all shapes and sizes from the do-it-yourself version to the $300 prefabricated model (personally, I'll pass on that one).  Under the right conditions, or apparently even less than ideal conditions, you can cook actual real food at 325 F or even higher, basically for the entire time the sun is out.

In literally 15 minutes, she had transformed a couple of cardboard boxes, some black spray paint, aluminum foil, and clear glass from a picture frame into something that looked as if it had the intent to cook something. 

Now the big test... insert a thermometer, point it toward the sun, and wait.  Upon further review, the weeks surrounding the winter solstice may not be the best time to try solar cooking.  The temperature only got up to about 90 F inside the box, but that is pretty impressive considering the outside temperature was right around 50 F.  My wife has already identified some inherent design flaws in her solar oven v.1.0 though, and I'm sure this is not the last we will see of this apocalyptic appliance.  I expect my neighbor to try something similar soon, only probably on a more commercial scale.  Stay tuned!

New Year's Resolutions for the Sustainable Family

I was going to post something today about estimating cord wood, or something else similarly utilitarian, but today my friend Meg Harvey sent me something that I just had to post instead.  What she sent was a list of 10 Practical New Year's Resolutions for Parents, which she ascribes originally to Bright Horizons Family Solutions.  Personally, I think most of these would work equally well in all of our relationships, both internal and external.  I thought they were the perfect way to start the first year of Sustainable Family!

1. Say yes more: to spending time and doing things together.
2. Say no more: to I want, I need, everyone has it, and everyone does it.
3. Worry less: about all the large and small highly sensationalized harm that exists out there. The overwhelming odds are with you.
4. Listen more; talk at less: Ask what do you think? What are you feeling? Tell me about it. What would you do?
5. Negotiate less; explain more: Kids deserve to know the thinking behind our decisions and expectations, but should not be equal partners at the bargaining table. We are the parents.
6. Read a little more: to your child, with your child, and in front of your child - books, magazines, newspapers, notes.
7. Write a little more: notes of love, recognition, encouragement, responsibility, and daily appreciation of life.
8. Expect a little more: good behavior, responsibility, manners, kindness, and all of the goodness that lies within our children.
9. Expect a little less: constant scheduling and enrichment filled days. Slow down, you move too fast. Children need a lot of slow to grow.
10. Connect more: to family, friends, the community, those less fortunate, and the natural world.

Thanks Meg!

Welcome to Sustainable Family!

Welcome to the first installment of a new blog for readers who are interested in living their lives in a more simple and sustainable way.

So, what is a Sustainable Family?  Well, I'm not sure an official definition currently exists, but it's the best descriptive title I could come up with for a way of life that our family is trying to live for our health and well-being, and the health of our community, and the planet. 

Basically, this blog is for people who are interested in any or all of the following...

downsizing your life and repurposing your “stuff”

finding local food and even growing some of your own

doing-it-yourself to save money
bartering and unconditional giving

protecting, utilizing, and enjoying nature

getting active and involved in your community

and anything else that promotes plain and simple living!

My wife, son, and I are not experts in any of these areas, but we have become pretty passionate about living a more plain, simple, and sustainable life.  If you are an expert, or if you think something I write is unclear, incomplete, or just plain wrong, your comments are always welcome.  Or if there is something you’re particularly interested in and would like to have me write about it, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.