Gardening without Plastic

I am getting really excited about my new garden.  We have to wait on the garden planning folks though.  Since we need a major redesign on our whole yard we called in the experts last fall.  But they can't get started until April. Sob.  Though, the guy assured me he was going to try to make it so I can get my tomatoes in not too late.

I wish I knew how to turn this photo!

I ordered a bunch of seeds from a North Carolina company called Sow True Seeds.

And I'm thinking I will turn my dining room into a seedling factory for a while.

We are in zone 7a, as far as I can figure.  And the last frost date is some time in late April or occasionally early May.  So my general target date is May 1st.  That means if I want to start tomatoes, I should probably do so about six weeks in advance (I think I read six to eight, but since I am not even sure if my raised beds will be ready quite that early, I'm going with six weeks.)  So I am aiming to start all this the week after St. Patrick's Day.

I have been reading up on how to avoid those plastic seedling trays.  I plan to use cardboard egg cartons.  I saw a video that uses coffee grounds too.  I need to contact my compost service to see if I can get some nice composted soil from them.

Besides egg cartons, you apparently can use the cardboard tube from toilet rolls too!

There is also a company that produces biodegradable seedling pots.

My beginning collection of egg cartons and toilet paper tubes!

Now I just need to find trays that will hold any water, so I don't damage my nice dining room table.  I also need to make this whole seedling production thing portable because I am going to probably need my dining room table for Passover and Easter.  Maybe it will be warm enough I can put them outside on the back porch temporarily.  Or I could use the study but we still haven't cleaned it out - absolutely chock full of junk right now!

Public Safety and Guns

The gun violence public safety problem . . . . here are my thoughts.

Gun control folks, stop talking like you want to take guns away from everybody and stop treating the other side like they are idiots or evil.  You only make the problem worse.  You make people distrust you and dig in their heels against you. When someone is on the defensive, which is better?  To make them more defensive or to talk them down from their defenses?   There is an outcry after every mass shooting and yet nothing happens.  Why do you think that is?  Perhaps it is your own fault.  There is a whole 2^nd amendment culture out there that is very deeply ingrained.  It is counterproductive to scream at them in your rage.

Instead let’s find common ground.  No one, even gun owners,  likes the fact that our children are shot down by thugs and the criminally disturbed.  Most people I know who want guns, want them for PROTECTION from thugs and the criminally disturbed.  Guns sales GO UP after a mass shooting.  That’s because a) people are more afraid and want to defend themselves b) they are afraid this will be the straw that broke the camel’s back and the government will clamp down on their freedom to bear arms.

We need genuine dialogue to solve this problem.  To dialogue with someone, you first need to see their humanity and try your best to understand their point of view.  You don’t have to agree, but you do have to try to understand.  So instead of raging at the NRA, how about we all come together to mourn this horrible violence endemic in our culture.  Then let’s say to them:  My brother, my sister, let us work together in solidarity for the beloved memory of our dead.  Let us protect our children and our country.

For instance, what if we held gun manufacturers liable in some way for these murders. If you produce an inherently dangerous thing, you should do everything possible to minimize the danger.  If these corporations are held responsible, they may very well be incentivized to develop things faster like smart guns or other ways to diminish chances of guns getting into the wrong hands.

We don’t want to take guns away from law-abiding, responsible citizens who have the right to own them.  We can’t anyway, they have an established constitutional right.  And if we did, I really think it would be like prohibition.  Stop comparing us to other countries that do not have a 2^nd amendment culture.  It’s like comparing apples and oranges.  Yes they are both fruit and round but it doesn’t go much further than that.  What we want is to figure out ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who would misuse them.  Guns are highly dangerous and to misuse them is to bring on great tragedy.  The nature of a gun requires that there be a high standard for responsible ownership.  If you want the freedom to own a gun, you must be prepared to bear the burden of responsibility in owning such a dangerous weapon. 

I keep reading how one common factor for many of these attacks (barring terrorism, I think) is domestic abuse.  Most of these guys who take to shooting crowds of innocent people have some sort of record of domestic violence.  Let’s make it so you can’t own a gun if you have a habit of beating up your wife or girlfriend.   People who have proven themselves violent should have a super hard time getting a gun.  That just makes sense to me.

I know there would be a big issue with black market guns.  I know this is a really complex issue.  But maybe if we put more energy into brainstorming together as people with a common goal, we’d come up with a plausible solution.  Let’s rally around the fact that no one wants to be nervous every time they go to church or into a MacDonald’s or to school that some crazy person is going to start shooting at them.  Some people respond to this problem by wanting to arm themselves.  Other people respond to this problem by clamoring for change in gun laws.  They both want the same thing but have different ways of achieving safety.  We are all people with loved ones we want no harm to come to.  Let’s focus on that.

The NRA was founded to teach gun safety.  Let us encourage it to go back to its roots.  How can we ensure  law-abiding, responsible citizens their right to bear arms and keep those arms away from unstable or violent people?

For the sake of our children, let’s stopped being so polarized and entrenched in our positions.  It renders us impotent. Let’s try something different.   Let’s reach out our hand and join with others, even those we disagree with, and try to find solutions that are acceptable to both sides.  It will take self-control and patience and the ability to really listen to each other.  Let’s get started!

Stumbling Along

This gluten, dairy, soy free diet is a killer!  Couple that with trying to be zero waste and you really can't eat most things!

My new way of making scrambled eggs which used to have a bit of milk mixed in and cooked up in butter (Yum!) is to mix in a tiny bit of water and then cook up in olive oil.  But now I season the eggs with salt, pepper, a pinch of garlic salt and some sweet smoked paprika.  It tastes pretty good!

I've taken to buying those Applegate sausages.  They are a quick thing to cook up, filling, and you can recycle the boxes - no plastic or anything. 

For a quick lunch or snack, I've been bring in my own cleaned out peanut butter jar to either Mom's Organics or Whole Foods, getting the tare weight and then grinding my own.  I eat this with banana or apple and compost the peel or the core. 

Monday night we had meatloaf, roasted potatoes and salad.  The ground beef was from Whole Foods so it was wrapped in butcher paper that is compostable. I have 1/2 lb left that I need to cook up for tonight's dinner.  So we might have pasta with a tomato-meat sauce.    Last night we had hot dogs from The Fresh Market.  You can buy them directly over the deli counter so I brought my own container.  I was barely functioning so we just had the hot dogs and then I sliced up two big ripe mangoes.  And that was all I could muster for dinner last night!

A few not so zero waste things I've been doing for B's sake, so she doesn't starve to death.

Daiya mac and cheese.  Mac and cheese was something B ate at least twice a week.  It was her comfort food.  She's ok with this substitute.  It does have an inner packet that goes to the landfill. 

The other thing is gluten free Rice Krispies.  This is a quick breakfast or snack which she eats with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.  She likes it.  We also bought marshmallows (in plastic bags) to make rice krispie treats for her AHG meeting.  Because there are always lots of cookies and cake there for the girls to eat and B can't eat any of it.  This coming meeting though I think I'll just make a big bag of popcorn right before we leave and she can munch on that.

We've been relying a lot on Cava Grill and Chipotle for lunches. 

I can bake 3 loaves of bread out of this one package.

We still love Pamela's for homemade easy bread that both gluten free folks and regular folks enjoy eating.

Alas, this does have a plastic inner lining.

And the King Arthur brownie mix keeps us from being too depressed when we realize ice cream is no longer a thing for us. . . .

Last week, S had the flu that has been going around.  He had a fever for a couple days and then was really congested.  One day he got this craving for spicy Indian food.  So we ordered take out from a restaurant that we'd never eaten from.  We ordered a ton of food and it cost a million dollars and it all came in plastic.  BUT I swear it fed us for three days.  And I didn't have to worry about cooking.  Those who do not do Indian food simply ate elsewhere I think.  I'm not sure what they did.  We had a lot of workmen coming in and out to deal with our huge basement flood so I wasn't focusing on much.  It's all kind of a fog to me.

I feel I am repeating a lot of this food information, but I'm too lazy to go back and see what I've posted about in terms of this diet and my paltry attempts at being zero waste. 

We had a speaker at our parish give a talk on zero waste and the Catholic faith.  She was a wonderful speaker.  Check out her blog!  She had a display of some of the everyday things she uses to avoid generating trash.  One of these was this!  I just ordered some to try out. 

I didn't give up You Tube!

While I am trying to curtail my time of facebook (I was quite weak on Saturday about this!) and I stopped twitter all together, I am still watching videos on youtube.  I just thought I'd share my favorites right now:

Fouch Family Off Grid - this one has been a constant favorite.  I met Esther at the Homesteaders Conference.  I read her book What Falls From the Sky.  Wonderful read!  The Fouch family is Esther, Nick and their three children.  They moved out into the woods of Idaho to live in a yurt for 3 years while Nick built their home out of wood he milled from their own property.  They are funny, smart, eloquent, gentle, loving, hardworking, principled, great-hearted people.

Art and Bri - this is the youtube channel from a small farm in the mountains of North Carolina.  Art works as a nurse at a nearby hospital to help support their homesteading endeavors.  They bought a ramshackle old farm and are trying to revive it.  They have a cow, pigs, chickens, etc.  They grow a big garden.  They have 4 children and Bri is about to have their 5th any day now.  They also are gentle, thoughtful, hardworking, and lots of fun to watch.

Homesteady - this homestead is up in Connecticut and the couple with their children (maybe only two or three?) are a hoot!  They make really funny videos about lots of things going on. I think both work outside the homestead but they are also focused on making money from the homestead as well.  They love their cow and pigs!  Austin also does a podcast on the homesteading lifestyle.  He just did a great series on making your own maple syrup.  He's also experimenting with aquaponics which I find really interesting (mostly because I can see Rick kind of getting into that).

Bobblehead Homestead - Jeff somehow got $5000 to buy an old piece of property in the boonies of Arkansas.  He lives in a gorgeous area but his property was not well treated which is why it was so cheap.  He is living in the abandoned trailer home and slowly trying to revive the place.  His dream to sell cut flowers to the local markets.  Because as he says, even out in the country, high schools have proms and there are weddings and funerals, church services, etc that all want flowers.  Most flowers in this country are foreign grown and shipped here, which if you think about it, is really silly.  Jeff has Parkinson's disease but the world's best attitude.  He takes care of some feral chickens and stray cats he befriended on his property.  Again a gentle, hard working, joyful guy.  He always gives a shout out for another you tube channel to check out, trying to help others get more viewers.

White House on the Hill - this couple in Missouri is the most generous couple.  Their videos are mostly about other people's youtube channels or they post stuff to help other businesses.  They recently did a video on comparing the prices and ordering process from three different popular seed companies.  Their last video was an interview with another homestead, St. Fiacre's Farm in Oregon where they make artisan teas.  WHOH also regularly does a top ten compilation on things like the best chicken breed or who has the funniest homesteading channel, that sort of thing.  They are kind of ambassadors of good will, in my mind, to all the homesteading you tube community.

The Awesome Homestead - this is a young couple who are a hoot.  They mostly just goof around on camera and make each other laugh.  They moved from Oregon to Missouri and they love the country.  I just like that they are doing this back to the land on a budget thing with gusto.  They just had the one year anniversary of their homestead.  They no longer have to drink creek water!

Off Grid with Doug and Stacy - This is the premier youtube homestead channel.  These are the rock stars of the movement.  And they do want it to be a movement.  Their channel has a little bit of everything. It's encyclopedic in its breadth of content.  I love Stacy's cooking videos but there is tons of information presented in this channel.  Doug and Stacy are two nice, savvy, generous, enthusiastic people who are trying to help others on the road to self-sufficiency and health.  These folks are also in Missouri.  I had never given Missouri a thought before but apparently it is a great place to homestead.  Idaho also seems to be a great state to homestead in as well.

And a couple homesteaders outside the U.S.A:

Little Mountain Ranch - I just started watching this channel.  Chelsea is amazing!  This is a little farm in British Columbia.  She and her husband had two children and then adopted nine more, mostly special needs.  They homeschool them too.  Chelsea is the most down to earth mom and homesteader out there.  She obviously loves her life full of children and animals and nature, even if it is tiring and busy!

The Swedish Homestead - this is another steady favorite, though Simeon has not been blogging as consistently lately.  He and his family live on a compound with his parents and at least one other brother and his family.  His parents are from Germany and bought the land when he was young.  Simeon's wife is American.  So he speaks German, Swedish and English all fluently.  He is very into permaculture and Joel Salatin.   He's a hardworking, enterprising farmer.  He and his wife were mostly selling eggs and vegetables at the farmers market, but he has decided to go into the hatchery business and he's taking us along as he figures out the best hatching machines and business practices.  It is a very interesting channel to watch.

The one thing I love about homesteaders is just how hardworking they are.  Instead of watching them so much, I should try to emulate them and work harder myself!

A Civil Contract - Book 6

Another Georgette Heyer re-read.  I loved this book.  I agree with every word I wrote in this review I posted back in 2016.

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

World Literature

I'm planning Becky's 12th grade already.

Math - Saxon Algebra II/Advanced Math (1st 3rd of textbook)
Science - Physics at the co-op
Elective - Psychology - looking into doing this online through Oak Meadow
History - Didache Church History supplemented with documentaries etc about other cultures
Literature - World Literature course designed by moi!

This year she's studying Ancient history and Ancient Lit. I'm focusing mostly on short novels, plays and poetry with a couple of classics thrown in. 

Week 1 - Selection of writings of Church Fathers
Week 2 - ditto
Week 3 - ditto
Week 4 - A couple of tales out of 1001 Arabian Nights (Persia)
Week 5 - El Cid (Spain)
Week 6 - El Cid
Week 7 - Medieval play like Piers Plowman or Everyman or the like
Week 8 - Murder in the Cathedral
Week 9 - A couple of Canterbury Tales
Week 10 - Shakespeare's sonnets (She's done several Shakespeare plays already and we usually see one play a year).
Week 11 - Fairy tales from Perrault, Grim and Anderson (France, Germany, Denmark)
Week 12 - Her pick of classic English novel - Austen, Dickens, Bronte, etc
Week 13 - ditto
Week 14 - ditto
Week 15 - The Romantic poets
Week 16 - Tolstoy short story (Russia)
Week 17 - Song of the Scaffold (France)
Week 18 - Maybe something by Kipling - British colonialism plus Tagore poetry
Week 19 - ditto
Week 20 - Short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Poland, Eastern Europe)
Week 21 - My Heart Lies South (Mexico)
Week 22 - The Good Earth (China)
Week 23 - ditto
Week 24 - Anne Frank (Netherlands)
Week 25 - ditto
Week 26 - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Russia)
Week 27 - ditto
Week 28 - Short story by Borges (Argentina)
Weeks 29 - 32 Senior paper

Lenten Plans

Lent is upon us early this year!  And Ash Wednesday coincides with Valentine's Day.

As someone who gets migraines from chocolate, yet can't help indulging in it, often to excess, I am kind of happy to have a reason not to eat chocolate on Valentine's Day.  Plus, being the curmudgeonly type, I resent how a saint's feast day turned into something Victoria's Secret uses to boost sales  So I'm happy!

We plan to do up Mardi Gras here by making some gluten free, dairy free cookies.  I plan to do the regular peanut butter cookie.  I also learned of a cut out sugar cookie recipe that uses almond flour instead.  So we are going to attempt those.  And also I think I will make rice krispie treats tomorrow to bring to our AHG meeting.  So we'll get some cookie eating in between now and Wednesday.

My plans for Lent are getting rather complicated so I thought I'd spell them out:

1)  This is the first year of many years that we haven't gone to one daily mass during the week. With community college schedules that has gone by the wayside in the 2017-18 school year.  So I am going to get myself up on Wednesday and Friday mornings to go to the 8 a.m. at a nearby parish.  I doubt anyone will come with me which is just fine.

2)  At my own parish I hope to attend each of these at least once in Lent:  Confession, Adoration, Stations of the Cross and Sunday evening Benediction.

3)  One time praying in front of an abortion clinic with 40 Days for Life.  My parish always does this on Thursdays, which is a day I can't really.  So I'll have to figure this out.

4)  I finally joined a small community of faith group at my parish.  That starts February 21 on Wednesday evenings at 7.  Usually, I procrastinate planning for my co-op classes, but in Lent I am going to have be more responsible and plan ahead of time, if I am going out on Wednesday nights.

5)  We've already given up so much food because of this dratted anti-inflammatory diet that we aren't going to give up any particular food this Lent.  We'll fast on Ash Wed and Good Friday and refrain from meat on Fridays, but that's it.

6)  Instead I am going to give up junk mail!  It is a fairly arduous task to get yourself off of mailing lists, I discovered, so I am going to try to do a little of that each day.

7)  Finally, I am going to refrain from facebook, except for 15 minutes in the a.m and 15 minutes in the p.m. (using a timer to keep me honest!).  I still want to go on facebook for the Catholics for Zero Waste group as well as a few others, but not too much!

I am trying to think about more in the almsgiving category of fasting, prayer and alms practices for Lent.  Coincidentally I do cook for the homeless the first Wed of the month so there's still that.  And also coincidentally I am dinner captain for our next Hypothermia Shelter week.  We have St. Patrick's Day as well as the Wednesday before.  So I will be doing that, but probably we should come up with another thing to do as well.  Something that includes the whole family.

Easy, No Waste, Gluten, Dairy, Soy Free Side Dishes

Here are some things I've been doing lately for our dinner sides.  I used to rely on Kerry Gold butter a lot.  And then recently I had switched to a local Amish made butter that was wrapped in wax paper.  the label was still plastic, but the rest of it fit in with my attempts at zero waste.  But, alas, I don't really cook with butter anymore since B got put on this diet.  I do think  maybe ghee is considered ok?  I am not sure about that and plan to ask the dietitian when we see her on Monday.  So here are some of the ways I'm trying to get around cooking without butter.  I try to buy all my produce without packaging.  A principle I've discovered in zero waste cooking is you go to the store to see what you can find that is package free and then you come up with your dishes from that.  It's the opposite of planing from recipes first and then going to the store to get needed ingredients (which often makes you compromise packaging-wise when you discover that the item can only be found packaged).

Potatoes:

Roast potatoes are delicious - cut them up into small uniform-sized chunks, toss them in olive oil so they are well coated, season, and roast in the oven.

Fried potatoes - I like to use leftovers or I par-cook the potatoes in the microwave (or you could parboil them) then I cut them up and cook them in my cast iron skillet with lots of olive oil , garlic and onions.  If you save bacon grease, you can substitute this for the olive oil or combine the two.

Oven fries - I have cut up both white and sweet potatoes, tossed them in melted coconut oil and seasoned with salt and tumeric.

You can do mashed potatoes but you've got to have something else going on with some kind of sauce or gravy.  You can mash the potatoes substituting some of the water they were boiled in for the milk and butter to make them creamy.  Adding the correct amount of salt is crucial!  Then you can pour your au jus or gravy over it.  It's pretty good.

Baked potatoes are just depressing without butter, sour cream or cheese!  Likewise with boiled.

Veggies:

Roasted veggies - I have been cooking veggies like this for a while, so this wasn't new.  Same principle as the roast potatoes above:  chop up carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, broccoli or cauliflower.  Throwing in a bell pepper of some sort is always good.  Toss in olive oil, season and roast.  Very delicious!  And if you have leftovers, they make a great addition to your salad the next day.

Butternut or acorn squash - I used to add a lot of butter to these winter squashes but you actually do not need to, to make them delicious!  Instead I cut them in half and bake them cut half down (scrape out seeds first) on a baking sheet.  Then I scoop out the tender cooked squash and mix with a drizzle of maple syrup and a robust pinch of salt.  It is really delicious!  The roasting and the combo of the maple syrup and salt really brings out the sweetness of the squash.  Mashed sweet potatoes or yams are delicious like this as well.

Carrot slaw - grate up some carrots (depending on the size, about 1 per person).  Marinate in the juice of an orange or two.  Add in some salt and some raisins and let it chill in the fridge for an hour or so before serving.  If it isn't sweet enough, sprinkle a little sugar on (but don't tell anyone.)

Steamed, marinated veggies - steam up some broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.  When they are just tender, put them in the fridge to cool.  After they have cooled just a couple minutes, pour some homemade vinaigrette over them (hopefully you have some left over from last night's salad.)  Let marinate for as long as you like.  You can serve this cold or warmed.

Green beans - steam some green beans (but don't overcook!).  While they are still piping hot, melt a bit of bacon grease over them and toss so thoroughly coated.  Serve hot.

Salads - of course most nights of the week, we have some kind of tossed salad.  Sometimes that is our only veggie, but I try to have salad plus another veggie as well.  Don't always make that goal each night though.

Crudite platter - carrot, bell pepper, cucumber and celery sticks, sugar snap peas - this is nice if you have guacamole to serve with these.  If my family were normal I would include cherry tomatoes, but sadly they despise them.

Sauteed mushrooms - this is nice to top some beef or chicken with.  Chop up your favorite mushrooms, saute in olive oil and garlic.  I like ours really cooked down and starting to brown up.

Future sides I want to try!

I noticed that B ordered red cabbage as a topping at Cava Grille the other day.  Cava is one of the few easy carry out places for people on an anti-inflammatory diet.  So now I'm thinking, hey if she likes cabbage. . . . So I think I'm going to try to add some chopped red cabbage to salads and maybe find a recipe for a red cabbage slaw she might like.

I also plan to cook some green cabbage for St. Patrick's Day next month.  But also I think I want to explore some Asian recipes that might use cabbage, where I could substitute .Coconut amino acids.

Also, my mom used to make Waldorf salad with apple, celery and walnuts.  I might attempt that soon.

When the weather gets warmer, we can switch up to potato salads which don't require any dairy to make the potatoes delicious.

Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle - Book 5

This is a reread.   It was thoroughly enjoyable again!  Here's my review I wrote back in 2014.

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Easy No Waste Guacamole

I made some really delicious quick guacamole last night.  I didn't even have any cilantro.

2 avocados (loose produce), nice and ripe and all mashed up in a bowl

1 tomato (loose produce), chopped finely

1/4 of a big yellow onion (loose produce), chopped finely

Juice from 1/2 a lemon (loose produce)

Liberal sprinkle of ground cumin (glass jar)

Some table salt (Morton's in a cardboard round box)

Mashed up altogther and it was delicious!

Chips - the bag of Bearitos brand of corn chips can be recycled at Mom's Organic.  Bearitos has the Terracycle symbol on the bag, so it might be recyclable at other locations as well.

Sylvia's Lovers - Book 4

Sylvia's Lovers is by Elizabeth Gaskell, author of Wives and Daughters, Cranford and North and South among other novels.  This I think is the one novel I hadn't read yet.  I didn't have a clue what it was about.  It was good read but I don't think it is my favorite Gaskell.  It did not charm my heart like Cranford and Wives and Daughters and it didn't have the social analysis of North and South or Mary Barton, both of which were about the poor during the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in Manchester, England, the epicenter of it all.

Sylvia is a young beautiful girl who has recently moved with her parents to a small farm off the Yorkshire coast near the village of Monkshaven.  Her cousin is a shopkeeper in the village and has fallen in love with her.  She doesn't return the feeling though.  She meets a brave and handsome sailor and does fall for him, creating jealously on the part of Stephen, the reserved, intelligent, Quaker influenced shopkeeper cousin.  All the plot unrolls from this tension.

Gaskell set the novel during the Napoleonic Wars when government impressment gangs roamed seaside villages, kidnapping young men to fight against France.  While the village folk are patriotic they do not want their sons or husbands kidnapped.   They rely on their income from fishing and whaling and of course don't especially embrace the dangers of going off to war (though fishing and whaling were pretty dangerous too, they at least got to see their men for a number of months out of the year.)

While Gaskell is wonderful writer and draws characters with nuance and agility, I just didn't care for these characters as much as in her other books.  They aren't unlikable, but to me they just didn't seem as interesting as some other characters.  The novel is didactic in that Victorian way.  There is tension between one's faith and what one does, how to resolve the giving in to temptation and the injury that flows from that, how to forgive, and many other moral questions.  And the big question is, what is the difference between passionate love and making an idol out of one's lover?

I give Sylvia's Lovers two thumbs up just because is it better than most books, but it isn't my favorite Gaskell.

For more book reviews go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.