A View from Sierra County

Having A Great Time; Wish You Were Here

Really.  I DO wish you were here... all of you.  I am learning SOOO much important and hopeful information at my Permaculture Design Certification Course that I wish everyone else could have the same opportunity!

My days are very, very long... I get up by 6 AM, get to the site for breakfast at 8 AM, and then we carry on until at least 6 PM, when I head home... and try to catch up a bit there!  I am loving all of it, even the very hot weather on Sunday afternoon, and the hailstorm of yesterday afternoon and near-freezing temps this AM... there's a saying here in the Sierras that if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes, and the week so far has certainly lived up to that.

We have covered basic permaculture principles, climate, soil, trees, cooperatives and their role in the permaculture motto of "Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share", as well as much, much more.  I have managed to knit the entire sweater body up to the yoke and one and a half sleeves during the lecture portions, while covering building a Berkeley compost pile, sheet mulching, soil sampling, garden measurement and mapping and wildcrafting in the hands-on portions, and there's still six days ahead!

I still plan to have a Sustainable Sunday post up, but probably will have to catch you all up on the rest after the course ends next Wednesday.... hope you enjoyed the postcard of a fava bean covercrop!

Sustainable Sunday: Post-Earth Day

OK, we all gathered round and celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.  Just as New Years Day is a great opportunity to take stock, make new resolutions and start new plans, I imagine many of you signed pledges, dug out your shopping bags and made new intentions to live as eco-friendly as you can!  We all need to....

So what's next?  Many of my regular readers are much like me... I have been using canvas bags for over two decades, though I will readily admit that I only became really vigilant about taking them shopping with me each and every time over the past four years. Before that, they spent time languishing in the back of the car, schlepping kids' gear places, and hauling produce we picked, especially apples each fall.  I used totes to carry craft supplies, and overnight gear.  I washed them and wore them out, and eventually I managed to stop using bags provided by stores.  Habits can take a while to form.

I have been a hiker and a backpacker for several decades, so I also carried a personal water bottle... some of the time.  I gradually got better about always having one filled and ready as I left the house, but I still find that I run out of water when I am out and about in our hot Sierra summer climate.  I get really excited when I find good, clean water dispensed for free at public events!  It keeps me from needing to purchase a disposable bottle as a refill.

I also walk to work, and some of you do too, or ride a bike, or take public transit.  My friend Gail just retired after many years of commuting by train (think of the knitting time!  I saw her steadily improve).

You changed all of your lights over to compact flourescents, and even installed solar lights out in the driveway... though you wish they were a little bit brighter when you are stumbling in late at night.  You garden or buy local foods from the farmers market or a CSA.  You support your local food cooperative. You still want to do something more.... something that you know you could improve but haven't thought of yet.

Here's my suggestion... convert to an on-demand water heater! According to SMUD, water heating accounts for 15% of your home's energy use.  These are also known as tankless or instantaneous water heaters, and here's a great diagram of what they look like on the inside.  Why are they better?  First, they are usually installed very close to where hot water is needed, and second, they don't store the water but heat it starting from the moment you turn on the tap.  You are smart cookies and are beginning to think about that large, 30 gallon tank of water that is heating up, cooling down, turning back on and heating again, all while you are sleeping at night!  You can save a lot of your heating energy costs annually (SMUD estimates 15%) by converting to on-demand hot water.

We made the decision to convert our family's water heating system about eight years ago.  This is a photo of our Bosch Aquastar, which we have come to dearly love.  Every time we step into the shower, there's enough hot water (and we use a low-flow shower head, so there's only enough!).  This was a giant luxury, after living with five other people, and worth the cost for that reason alone!  The temperature gets adjusted downwards (i.e., you add in more cold as needed) rather than upwards as on the regular water heaters, but otherwise, it is business-as-usual.  We live remotely enough that we use propane gas power, though there are other models.  I realize that solar would be best, and I have tried that... we have a solar water collector that used to partially power the shower, but with so many people and storms much of the winter, one fall it came down and then didn't get installed back in place for the sunny season.  We can aspire to that!

I was very fortunate to have an all-around great handyman living right here in my household (love you, DH!), and he studied up and realized that by doing some simple re-arranging in our bathroom, that only involved a few pipes and NO tearing up of walls, he was able to site a large enough tankless water heater over our toilet and plumb it to serve our shower, bathtub, bathroom sink, kitchen sink, and even connections for hot water on our back porch for me to run a washer when I want to felt knitted projects or get the dirtiest of clothes clean (most of the laundry here at Slate Range Camp has been washed entirely in cold water for the past 25 years).

I do have to admit that all of these connections are within a stone's throw of each other... the kitchen sink is just through the bathroom wall from the shower, and the washer hook-up is just through the opposite bathroom wall from the sink, on the same wall as the bathtub.  All of the plumbing had been installed externally, since this house was constructed in 1854, and ALL plumbing was a retro-fitted.  It might not be as easy at your house.  With multiple rooms that are not in close proximity to each other, or plumbing that is located in different parts of the house, you would likely need more than one tankless water heater... there are smaller models designed to serve a single handwashing sink or larger kitchen sink, separate from those large enough to serve the bathrooms.  This would be especially important for those multi-taskers who like to do all the chores at once, since even the largest systems may not be able to provide water to many sources at once.

Another downside is that the tankless water heaters can cost about double the price of the standard 30-gallon tank models initially.... however, here's what Mother Earth News says about the pay-off for switching:

Accounting for installation cost and energy use, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy determined that total cost for on-demand water heaters is less than for standard water heaters over a 13-year period. And tankless heaters generally have a life expectancy of 20 years, versus 13 years for a tank heater. You can expect to pay $360 to $1,800 (plus installation) for a new on-demand unit.

As you are reading this, I am off at my Permaculture Design Certification Course... I hope to have time over the coming week to post some pictures for next Sunday's article, and at least give you a bit of the flavor of what I am learning, to tantalize you into returning each week to share this journey with me.  Some of the news stories we heard in connection with Earth Day were very daunting, and others may have had you wondering if we can change in time.  Obviously, I have hope... otherwise I wouldn't be able to move forward and do the daily work I do.  I leave you with this song, from one of my favorite balladeers, Dougie MacLean (he's the one in the shades at center stage).

Old Shale Favorite

I have done a lot of difficult lace patterns, some elaborate colorwork, entrelac, intarsia, and lots of plain old garter and stockinette stitch over the years, but I have to confess that Old Shale is my all-time favorite pattern stitch.  I have made several washcloths, a rectangular lace-weight stole, a traditional Shetland Shawl, and even a ripple afghan based on this pattern over the years, and still love it.  Therefore, it is with some pride and pleasure that I introduce you to my latest... the Old Shale Shawl pattern by Evelyn Clark that originally appeared in Piecework some years back and was reprinted this spring in Knitting Traditions from Interweave....

This is such a lovely way to show off the pattern stitch.. a simple triangular shawl of garter stitch (which just flew off the needles), accentuated by a deep, deep Old Shale (or Feather and Fan, as it is also called) border. I used the wonderfully 'sproingy' Araucania Ranco yarn that Ruinwin gifted me with for the burnt red portion (yes, I know, that is not a Crayola color name, but it seems to fit better than those normally give), and her other gift of Art Yarns Silk & Sequins in a purple-burgundy for the border... I have never knitted with sequins before, seeing threading them on as way too much trouble.  I am soooo grateful to Art Yarns for doing that part for me, and plying the chained thread of sequins with the silk yarn, since knitting the last part of the border was like knitting with stars.  Magical!

This first picture is just after taking the shawl off the needles, and is a close up to allow you to see the stars!  The next one is while the fully-blocked shawl is drying....  

I wore my new old favorite with a shirt the color of the border today, but was busy all day and forgot to ask someone to snap a photo!

I am so delighted with my new shawl, though I did find the pattern a bit tedious without charts... if I were to do it again, I would pre-chart the design out for more relaxing knitting time!

There IS something new on the needles, and it is this sweater, for me!  Mine will be in Cascade Sierra, and I am at the waist of the all-in-one piece, bottom-up design, happily enjoying the plain part of the knitting.  What are you making?

A Rare, Fine Spring Day

OK, the computer has been salvaged, didn't lose any files, photos or patterns, but did have to do a complete Windows system recovery, and then clean files, restore programs... not done yet.  There are funny captions on all of these photos, as I can't locate the proper registration key for Photo Resizer Pro (which I really love, btw) and am waiting for an email from the developer.  The printer/scanner won't scan yet either.... sigh.

I did finally figure out that after having no check register except a piece of paper for two and a half weeks, I was only $33.25 off (let me know if it was you I wrote that check to...), and that I could finally share some photos with my peeps while my Old Shale shawl is soaking and waiting to be blocked.

In betwixt all the repairs and hair-pulling, DH and I took advantage of a fine spring day on Sunday to visit the Spenceville Wildlife Refuge, adjacent to where youngest son and family live... we convinced them to hike to Fairy Falls with us and try out their new baby backpack.  Odessa was a real trooper!

She had a great time hiking, and we are pretty sure that if she weren't in her baby pack this trip, she would have learned the family lesson meeting this lil' guy... DH, son and even daughter who wasn't with us (upon seeing the photo) all said, "Don't pick up an alligator lizard... it will bite and latch on and not let go!"  This one is looking rather green, as it was basking in the road right next to some very bright grass.... later, we came upon a reddish one,  soaking up the sun on clay soil.

The Fairy Falls trail (and the wildlife refuge in general) has become a popular spot, having received lots of press this spring.... it was very busy, but I was still able to get this unobstructed photo of the falls just for all of you.... It is really a considerable drop off!

We had a wonderful afternoon, and headed out for a very late lunch at the Northridge Inn afterwards, where I relished having a fine tri-tip salad.  A good thing, too, as the weather has turned nasty again, with bouts of wind, rain and hail... sorry to pass that word along to those east of me.

I promised a few chicken photos to make up for those missing in my last Sustainable Sunday post, so the remainder of this one will be photos... the big, lovely light brown hen is a Buff Orpington, and the speckled black one is a Cuckoo Maran.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Let me know in the comments!

Sustainable Sunday - Chickens

I am not the person to tell you all about chickens, even though I have kept them for a several-years' total at three different stints in my life.  I am just a hobbyist; Wooly Daisy is passionate about chicken-keeping.  So, I asked her permission to reprint one of her best chicken columns, all about what to do if you order baby chicks from a hatchery:

  On May 8, at approximately 9:37am, Liam and I raced down to the Camptonville Post Office after receiving a phone call from Postmaster Bo Salisbury. I had just become mother hen to a boxful of baby chicks. Bo presented us with a box full of cute little peeping fluff balls.  When we got home we opened the box and counted 22 chicks. Huh? We only ordered 18. I read the invoice and discovered they throw in some baby roosters as packing peanuts. Actually they are used for warmth. As you know, I don’t want any roosters!!!!! What was I to do with four White Leghorn roosters? Ugh! The thought of finding them homes seemed ominous.
One of our bathrooms has once again been converted into a chick brooder. Actually it’s just a huge cardboard box in the bathtub with a heat lamp clamped to it. We put pine (never use cedar as it is toxic to chickens) shavings in the box covered with paper towel to keep the chicks from eating the litter. They need to learn what they are suppose to eat. As we took the chicks out of the box we dipped their beaks in the water dish to teach them to drink. We added a tiny bit of sugar to the water to help deal with the stress of the trip. In addition to
baby chick starter feed we offered some hard-boiled egg yolks for nutrition. They were tiny, delicate and loud.   It had been awhile since we have had the wee things around. I had forgotten how fragile they were. The chicks need to be kept warm-around 95 degrees for the first week-lowering the temperature weekly. The hardest problem for me is dealing with “pasting up.” This is actually a common occurrence in baby chicks but can lead to death if not dealt with. Pasting up occurs when poop sticks to their little bottoms and dries like cement! Ugh!  Talk about a bad case of constipation....big bummer! Eventually the chick can’t relieve itself and dies. So, I’ve been spending my days wiping little chicken butts with warm paper towels to loosen the dried poop. Pleasant, huh?
 When ordering chicks via a hatchery it is not unusual to lose about 20% of them. Sadly we lost the 2 Golden Penciled Hamburgs. They were even smaller than the bantams (miniature chickens) we ordered. The hatchery told me they were not as hearty as the other breeds. We added electrolytes to the drinking water but that didn’t help. Liam had specifically wanted this breed, as they looked prehistoric. I wanted them, as they were known as “Dutch Everyday Layers.” At least the other chicks seem to be thriving, so I better get that dang coop finished
soon!!!!

Stephanie writes a regular column on chicken-keeping for our local monthly newspaper, The Camptonville Courier, which can be read here.  I also subscribe to a great monthly (virtual) newsletter, Keeping Chickens Newsletter, by Gina Read.

Now that I have gotten you excited about adding chickens to your family, let's dive in and discuss getting there.  First, why would you want to order them from a hatchery?  Besides the fact that they are cute and fluffy, the hatchery takes the guesswork out of buying for you, allowing you to order all hens if you want, instead of waiting until you hear a bunch of juvenile crowing (which sounds more like croaking at that stage) to realize that you have more roosters than hens and will either need to learn to kill and cook your roosters or find someone else who wants one.  You see, roosters are very territorial and you really can only have one at a time.  And then only if you and your neighbors will be happy with crowing at all hours.  Plus, since it is the hens that lay the eggs, you really want either all hens or hens and their one rooster that you are providing with feed.

Additionally, you can have the pleasure of scanning the hatchery catalogs and picking just the breeds you want, rather than the ones you can locate in your region.  DH and I favor Austrolorps and Buff Orpingtons, because they are heavy-breed chickens that don't mind being confined in winter, which happens with our heavy snows.  Your needs may be different, or you may fall in love with the way Silkies look, or want Rhode Island Reds because that is what your grandma had when you were growing up... you will find that most of the widely-available chickens are hearty, healthy and good layers, at least for the first few years.

As you start exploring getting some chickens, you will also want to take a good look around your place and figure out where they can safely live.  There are many other animals that will see the idea of your keeping a flock of chickens as something similar to opening a fast-food restaurant for them: raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, bear, even the neighborhood dogs (or your own!).  DH built us a coop that is attached to one of our outbuildings (originally served as a carriage house back in 1854), using the existing structure, lots of reinforcing, and even burying the chicken wire deeply around the edges in debris-lined trenches (recycled from the never-ending supply of old bits of pottery, nails, etc. that come with living on a long-settled property) so that those crafty raccoons can't dig their way in.  You can also get plans here for a creative and beautiful hen hotel, or purchase a wonderful chicken-tractor/coop, made by Creative Coops here in my region.  I was delighted when I saw their models on display at my local farmers market last spring, even though DH had built such a good solution for us... maybe I really AM almost as passionate about chickens as Wooly Daisy!

In my search for photos of various chicken breeds, these are the most unusual, for you purple-lovers... the Lavender Pekins from Brockscombe Valley Farms.  I also found this hatchery, which caters to the pet chicken owner, shipping just a handful rather than a large quantity.

Now, for the 'good story'... back before DH and I were married, we were neighbors, raising single-parent families, and had some other neighbors around as well.  A group of us went in on ordering a 50-chick lot, from Murray McMurray, one of the largest (and one of the few) mail-order hatcheries at that time, about 18 years ago.  I was the person whose name was on the order, and I got a phone call one morning, before the crack of dawn, from the Grass Valley post office, saying "We have a box of chickens coming to you... and they are REALLY loud".  I said thanks and that I would make sure they were picked up at my local post office in the afternoon.  I headed out to work and got a call around lunch time from my postmistress, in distress, saying, in effect, "OMG, there's a box... it's for you... they're making a lot of noise... it says "LIVE CHICKS".... when can you be here?".... she was pretty panicked and could hardly get the sentences out!  Of course, another neighbor was already on the way to get them, and when I returned home, we divided the lot in half.  Chickens shipped by mail need light and water right away, so my oldest son and I set up the cardboard-box/hatchery that was to be their home for the next few weeks, and started dipping their beaks in the water, as per instructions.  We were busy setting up lights, etc., and turned around to notice several falling into the water... next thing, we were busy with the hair dryer, blow drying every one of them so they wouldn't lose body heat!

Happy Earth Day, everyone.... be sure to share your sustainability stories with me!

Mish Mash

My home computer seems to have some particularly nasty malware that won't allow Windows to boot up... 'self-replicating malware' at that.  I can make the rounds and visit some of you, using the Ubuntu operating system, which we managed to get functioning with a few extras, such as Adobe Reader and Real Player, but I haven't checked yet on my photo software to see if there's a Linux version... I did get my Feather and Fan shawlette completed late last week, though there won't be a photo posted until it is blocked and I can manage to upload at work.  The pattern is in Interweave's new Knitting Traditions - yes, it mostly IS a rehash of patterns originally printed in Piecework, but they were ones I didn't have, and I am very happy with how this turned out!

Unfortunately, finishing it when I did, on Friday evening, left me with a knitter's dilemma that all kinds of hours poured into computer fixing had contributed to - no new project, together with the rushed decision to visit BIL and SIL over the weekend for computer repair assistance!  I was lost, wandering, wondering if I have an addiction problem.... how could I face even an overnight trip with NO KNITTING.  I had one piece on the needles, the last 20 rows of border for my Ulmus shawl, but that wasn't travel-quality... I could swatch for the next sweater, but couldn't even print off the pattern!  Casting about, I also had a hat for Odessa I could start, but had recently ripped out as being too large, a wonderful 240-yard skein of silk from Three Irish Girls that I wound up to calm myself, and could make into a cowl, but once again... no way to print off a pattern.  I went to bed in a funk, got up and headed off to the Bay area, still somewhat in a funk, but managed to enjoy myself even while going through yarn withdrawals

Computer repairs were only partially successful, fixing two hardware problems and unearthing the 'real' issue of the malware.  Weather was also mixed, benign enough for a late afternoon walk on Saturday, but semi-hurricane rains on Sunday.  We ran out of time and had to load up and return home without either fixing Windows or visiting A Verb for Keeping Warm... I decided further pouting and sulking wasn't going to help and did my best to enjoy the time away from knitting.  Sometimes life really IS unfair and ya just gotta suck it up... besides, really, life is very good to me!

I woke up every morning this week without my hands hurting, but will be printing off the patterns I need today.  The best part of the whole weekend was going out for a drink at this really cool place.  I need to focus on getting my knitting queue in order, as I will soon be taking the Cooperative Permaculture Design Certification Course, and no knitter can face 12 days of training without LOTS of knitting lined up, even hands-on training that won't allow that much down time.  Just the thought of another stint of NO KNITTING is enough to get me busy winding yarn and pre-stocking a few bags with patterns and supplies! 

I am excited to report to all of my dear sponsors that since the PDC course has been able to lower the fee, I will be able to make a donation to their scholarship fund!  Right now the fees have been lowered to $800, and so when I paid my final payment, I was able to offer the amount over that ($265) to help someone else, in my readers' names, who was also struggling.  I just love how the giving ball keeps on rolling!  I took this photo of the land in the area of our course meeting spot, the day before Easter, to share with everyone and help you feel my excitement.  I know Mary is going to recognize it just by the topography, and she has much the same love of this place that I do.

The rolling hills and jagged rocks of the Sierra Nevadas are my home place... I would love to hear about yours.  In the spirit of further mish-mashing this post up, I am adding one of my favorite songs, sung by its author, Dougie MacLean, for your enjoyment.... though I have Scottish heritage, it is his love of place that touches my heart so deeply.  Love and blessings to all.

  

Sustainable Sunday: One Container At A Time

Last month, I started getting severely bitten by the annual gardening bug.  Of course, it happens every year this way... the nurseries, garden centers and big-box stores down in the Sacramento Valley begin displaying hordes of veggies and bedding plants long three months before my frost-free date here in the Sierra Nevada foothills (for novice gardeners: the frost-free date is the latest 'likely' chance of a killing frost each spring; here it is traditionally Mother's Day).  My garden beds are usually wet and sodden, too heavy to even begin turning over or working in soil amendments, and won't be ready for tender plants for months, even though every plant I see screams out 'buy me and take me home' to my winter-weary soul.

This time, I came up with a plan to step around my problem... I would still have to wait until the weather improved and allowed me to put the main garden in, but I would set up a nice little spring container, just to get me started.

I already had this handy half-barrel, but if you don't, I hope you can find one at your local garden center.  Otherwise, look for one of the faux-ceramic pots now available and made from recycled plastics... they are lighter and easier to move around than terracotta, and also won't suffer the winter damage that eventually happens to all my terracotta pots from freezing and cracking.

You can usually get a plant dolly, a stand with wheels, that will also help if you want to move your planter.  I am counting on the wisteria that will soon be leafing out on the same porch pillar to partially shade my peas and greens and extend the life of this planting arrangement, but if you put a plant dolly underneath, you can move yours to a shadier spot as the warmth of May starts to affect it.

I mixed in lots of container mix potting soil (though most of those are a soilless mix, that holds and distributes the water better than your garden soil would, and kept those few muscari that are flowering in the front.  I recruited a wood trellis from past gardening years for the back, and planted a row of peas, which are some of the earliest garden produce.  You can't see them in the photo, though they have sprouted, just not as quickly as when the weather warms up... peas are also finished early, since they quit producing in hot weather.  In front of the peas, I planted a six-pack of mixed greens, and one chive plant transplanted from another spot in my garden.  The front of this container is edged with mixed pansies, an edible flower.  I got the inspiration for this grouping of spring edibles from The Bountiful Container, a great resource for those who only have room for container gardening.

There is really nothing all that special about this one container, though everything except the muscari is edible.  It has served as garden therapy and a reminder to me that it really IS spring, even though last week's cold stint of rain, hail and snow might have me thinking otherwise.  I will be able to get a few meals' worth of greens and peas, and snip and dry some chives to use later, grace a few salads with pansy flowers.  It will add to the beauty of my daily life, and if I decide to replant with tomatoes or lemon cucumers, I might get many meals more, all from one container.  Last summer, I even was able to pickle several pints of cherry tomatoes from my one Topsy Turvy plant.

However, one little container really is important in the overall scheme of things.... just think what would happen if each household planted a spring container garden, then converted that container over to summer veggies, and then put in a late planting of kale and cabbage, etc.  There would be many, many households that could say some part of what they ate each year was grown right in front of them, involving NO trips to the store, or even the farmers market.  Looking more deeply, each of those families would have needed to tend to those plants, whether on a balcony, in a windowsill, or on a large porch like mine.  That plant-tender would have become familiar with the growth habits and water and feeding needs of at least one plant, or maybe of several, all from one small container.  That connection with a green and living non-human would have expanded its tender's outlook a tiny bit, beyond human concerns and into the plant realm.  During World War II, as various food commodities were rationed, people were encouraged to plant Victory Gardens to help feed their families and neighbors.  I found this amazing qoute about that effort: 

"The result of victory gardening? The US Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 20 million victory gardens were planted. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be 9-10 million tons, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables."

Never underestimate the power of one small container, or one small garden plot!

Easter in the Man Cave

When we saw how dismally wet, snowy and cold the weather was predicted to be on Easter Sunday, after already inviting all of our children, SOs, in-laws and grandchildren, we realized something had to be done... our house was built in 1854 and each room is very small.  We had counted on using the wonderful outdoor kitchen/picnic area we have in our 'grove'.

DH got to work and cleaned out his shop, located in the logging truck-sized carport built here before we bought Slate Range Camp.  He had already turned it into a Man Cave last fall, installing a small wood stove and fridg, easy chair and stools, along with the tools and stored lawnmower, motorcycle, pinball machine and icebox collection.  He had even strung up big cotton canvas tarps to narrow down the 'hanging-out' space..... but last week we were down at Tractor Supply buying another tarp in order to make the enlarged room windproof in the face of the predicted lows.

I borrowed three banquet tables and we set up a wonderful dining area, and were able to have the BBQ at the very edge of the garage, under cover as snow began to fall late Sunday afternoon.

Here's part of the crowd, posed for an at-dinner picture.

I thought about submitting photos to the official Man Cave website, but it appears that a man cave, or mantuary, is suppsed to be an all-male bastion:

man cave n. A dedicated area of a house, such as a basement, workshop, or garage, where a man can be alone or socialize with his friends.

 

Lucky for the rest of us, my DH was willing to share with everyone!

Here's The Man himself, with his band saw forming a backdrop... just to prove there really IS a man-shop out there.  I just love him!

Computer Woes

There will be a Sustainable Sunday post, and there will also be pictures of our Easter Sunday Dinner in the Man Cave tomorrow, but not from my home computer.  It took a few days to figure out a work-around, but the real problem, that our Windows XP system won't load, isn't fixed yet.  We discovered a cool, free operating system, Ubuntu, that allowed us to restart the computer, and get on the Net, and I can even view my pattern files and other downloads on the hard drive, but we still need to repair Windows,  Ugh and double ugh!!

Here's one of my older photos.... just to soothe my savage soul...

See you all soon.

Eating Sustainably

Welcome to the first (real) Sustainable Sunday post, and Happy Easter and spring!  What better time to begin a blog journey together with me as I fill you in on how we are trying to become more sustainable here at Slate Range Camp.  Thanks to so many of you that committed to support me in getting my Permaculture Design Certification, this should be the first of many posts to come.  Let me know what you want me to discuss, and I will do my best to accommodate.

Where to start… where to start?  Sustainable living is such a big, huge subject and so few of us are really able to even begin doing it.  If you disagree, go take a quick look at the labels on the food in your cupboard and then come back…. If you had taken that step a few hundred years ago, you probably would have found some containers in your pantry, but most would be hand-labeled and, unless you were wealthy, most of the food would have been grown within a few dozen miles of where you lived, even if you were a ‘townie’.  There would be far less variety.  You might not ever eat an avocado, or an orange in your lifetime, and if you lived inland, you might have never tasted fresh crab.  These are tastes I love, and I am very lucky to have been born in California, but thanks to overfishing, fresh crab now comes from other countries, rather than the San Francisco Bay (oh, and the ones in the Bay are now considered too toxic from mercury washed down into the Sacramento River Delta from the gold-mining era!).

Now, food is routinely shipped around the globe!  What would it take to get back to a localized diet?  Those who follow the Eat Local Challenge blog, or have participated in such challenges over the past few years already are groaning, because no matter who you are, it would likely mean giving up something you really, really love… like chocolate, or coffee, or seafood if you live in the Midwest, avocados if you live anywhere north of Los Angeles or Phoenix.  You get my drift.  We have become so accustomed to eating whatever we like, whenever we want it, that it takes a lot of thinking and planning to even begin to get your head around making a change to food without a lot of food miles on it.

What do I mean by ‘food miles’?  The real cost of something has to include all the methods used to grow it, package it, ship it, and market it, and then you can add on what it took to get it home to your pantry or refrigerator.  Most of the foods we commonly find in the grocery store travel between 1,500 and 2,000 miles to get to us.

I did some research for you, trying to find a calculator online where you could plug in a food and your zip and get a calculation for how many food miles it had traveled before you started eating it.  Kind of like a calorie counter, right?  Well, I wasn’t particularly successful, but I did find that some of the most promising research on this topic is being done by the Leopold Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, at Iowa State University.  There’s a lot to wade through on their site, if you are interested, and I am sure glad they are doing all that work for us.

 

Now, for what you can do yourself.  Start slowly.  Or dive right in, depending on how you approach things!  Either way, start by looking at every food label, and paying attention to what is grown and produced in your region.  Are there orchards?  Farmer’s markets?  FFA auctions? CSAs? (community-supported agriculture, though I bet you knew that one already!)  Where else can you link up with your food?   Think of this as getting back to your hunter-gatherer roots, and start switching out things.  Maybe you will find that you need to take cooking lessons…. Another new adventure!  

In the photo at left, a little friend is sampling local blueberries, grown on Heaven and Earth Farm about 10 miles from my home.  Take special note of her home-made, recycled berry-picking container... now that is the kind of resourcefulness I'm talking about!

What if you don’t like cooking?  Here in my region, there’s a community-supported kitchen where you can buy locally grown and made food, as well as our local food co-op, where foods are labeled as local, including a wide array of deli choices.  This movement has really been catching on across the country since I first started writing about it back in 2006, and I am looking forward to hearing your stories about how you are connecting more with local food.  

Here’s a list of good resources:

Eat Local Challenge

One Hundred Mile Diet

Here's a tool to help you map out what exactly 100 miles means from your home, and a link to the group that really got me started.  

After I read about the Locavores, I bought Jessica Prentice’s book, Full Moon Feast, which discussed what was in season throughout the wheel of the year.  I greatly enjoyed reading it, and it really set me in motion changing how we eat.   

Starting in 2006, we have grown and put up more food each season... we had given that up several years ago, when our children left home, thinking we didn't need to store as much food.  Now, it's nice to be 'stocked up' and also helps us make sure we are eating food that didn't travel very far.  I will be filling you in on food preservation throughout the summer.

Of course one of the most wonderful books to read, for support, thinking, laughing and the recipes, is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver and her family.

 And, another really cool tool to help you start thinking about eating seasonally:  the local foods wheel. Unfortunately, they are only available for the San Francisco Bay area and the New York City area.  However, just reading through the list about when all these foods we take for granted come into season can be very eye-opening and will make you appreciate very bite far more.  While you are reading down the list, think too about how much healthier we would be if we made a point to eat a wider variety of foods each week; that’s really the topic for another post, but since my purpose is to get you both thinking and doing, I thought I would throw it in the mix.

I think that's probably more than enough for today, and look forward to seeing you next Sunday!