In case you haven’t heard about Planet : Home A sustainable living festival Sustainable Northeast Seattle has been organizing, here’s the info. You are welcome to bring everyone you know! Please help spread the word!
Planet : Home
A sustainable living festival hosted by Sustainable Northeast Seattle
August 21st, 10am-5pm at the Hunter Tree Farm – 7744 35th Ave NE, Seattle
Free workshops, speakers, food, live music, demonstrations, hands-on science and art activities for kids! Come learn how you can reduce your environmental footprint and share your experiences in trying to live more sustainably! Learn about solar cooking, bicycle repair (bring your bike!), cheese-making, weatherizing you home, growing your own tea (bring a cup!), sod replacement, worm bins, bee-keeping, tool repair (bring your tools!), edible landscaping, knowledge-sharing with community elders, rain gardens, and much much more. Take home ideas for environmentally-friendly living and maybe win some eco products to help you on your way.
Morning schedule includes:
Annette Cottrell – SustainableEats.com
Tom Watson, King County’s eco-consumer – incorporating recycled materials into your garden
Rob Stevens of Puget Sound Beekeepers Association – beekeeping basics
Emily Bishton of Green Light Gardening – gardening for wildlife
Heidi Mair – herbal and medicinal gardens
Julianne Jaz – dye gardens
James Reichstadt – cheese making demonstration
Afternoon schedule includes:
Linda Chalker Scott, King County Extension agent and author of ‘The Informed Gardner” – QA on soil building and other garden topics
Barry Lia of the Washington Biodynamic Group – biodynamic gardening techniques
Wilson Atteberry – Washington State renewable energy incentives
Jenny Pell of Permaculture Now! – permaculture techniques
Janine Van Sanden – no waste living
For more info, see the
Sustainable Northeast Seattle event page: http://sustainableneseattle.ning.com/events/planet-home-a-sustainable
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116633528384607
Or call Susan Gregory at 206-526-1169, Carol Sackeyfio duckat56@hotmail.com or Joann Kerr at 206-523-8980
I hope to see you there!
Tags: Sustainable Kitchen
It’s time for our Thursday blog hop, wherein we celebrate living simply, sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Tags: Simple Lives Thursday
Since I haven’t been quite as busy as usual with the harvest due to this summer’s cool weather I’ve been thinking ahead. I’ve created a seasonal calendar so that I don’t miss things like blackberries this year! I hope you find this helpful, or at least entertaining. This is the rhythm that I follow as I try to eat seasonally from the fruits of mostly my own efforts and those of like-minded local farmers.
January
- Preserve lemons
- Make lemon, orange and lime marmalade and freeze cubes of juice for summer jams
- Start seed lists
- Order seeds!
February
- Start tomatoes and cole crops indoors
- Start new cover crops and chicken forage in garden
- Make onion jam
- Make applesauce and apple jelly with any apples starting to dry out
March
- Make enough soap and lotion to last through summer
- Take inventory of canned and frozen goods
- Host spring barter
- Make IPA
- Equinox!
- Get new chicks
- Start potatoes, peas, claytonia, sorrel, purslane, arugula, raab, spring lettuces outside
April
- Pickle or ferment asparagus
- Make rhubarb jam
- Freeze rhubarb juice for summer soda
- Move tomato starts outside under protection
- Start carrots, parsnips, radishes, dill, cilantro outside
- Fertilize flowering strawberries
- Hill potatoes
May
- May Day!
- Start squashes, beans and corn
- Dehydrate spring herbs and tea leaves
- Make herbal extracts
- Order lamb, pig and cow
- Pickup first chicken package
- Buy tuna from St. Jude
- Start mushrooms
June
- Make strawberry jam and dehydrate strawberries
- Pickle ginger shoots
- School out!
- Pickle or freeze peas
- Make raspberry jam and freeze berries
- Celebrate solstice!
- Start winter crops in trays
- Pickle and ferment beets
- Buy salmon
July
- Take out pea vines and feed to goats
- Dry mustard seeds
- Pickle and ferment remaining spring carrots, drench beds with beneficial nematodes and start winter carrots
- Make crab apple pectin
- Make applesauce from early apples (ginger gold, king or lodi)
- Dehydrate and can cherries
- Can peaches and peach salsa, dehydrate apricots and make preserves
- Beach trip!
- Direct sow remaining winter crops
- Braid garlic, dry onions, harvest early potatoes
- Dry mint, lemon verbena, lemon balm, chamomile, Echinacea, elderberry and jasmine flowers and raspberry leaves for winter teas
August
- Forage for elderberries and sumac, make syrup
- Make zucchini relish, bread and butter pickles and kosher dills
- Can, ferment or freeze eating beans, dry shelling beans
- Freeze or dehydrate blueberries
- Harvest late potatoes and peppercorns
- Can or dehydrate tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketsup and ferment salsa
- Go blackberry picking and make blackberry jam or syrup
- Make plum jam and dehydrate plums
- Plant turnips, rutabagas and cover crops or chicken forage
- Pickup last chicken package from farmer
- Pickup lamb
September
- School Starts!
- Dehydrate hardy ginger blossoms
- Ferment or can pickled or roasted peppers, red chile sauce, hot sauce and fermented green tomato enchilada sauce.
- Make beet and carrot kvass, sauerkraut, and kimchee
- Take out zucchini, beans and tomatoes plants
- Store winter squash, potatoes, onions and garlic in garage
- Amend strawberry bed and cut down fruited raspberry canes, compost and fertilize
- Make apple cider
- Can grape juice and dehydrate grapes
- Make kiwi jam and dehydrate kiwis
- Dry and store almonds and hazelnuts
- Press sunflower oil or dry flower heads to save seeds
- Order olives for fermenting
- Make elderberry syrup
- Equinox!
- Pickup pig and cow
- Make and can bone broth
- Stuff sausages
- Cure bacon, ham and prosciutto
- Smoke butt and other cuts
- Render lard
- Make cheese!
- Smoke feta and chipotles
- Attend fall barter fair
October
- Cure olives
- Make winter soap and lotion
- Make beeswax candles
- Forage for rose hips, make rose hip jam and honey
- Mulch strawberries
- Plant new fruit trees and vines
- Store apples and pears in garage
- Start Christmas Beer
- Make chow chow
- Make mustard
- Plant crocus for saffron, garlic, shallots and onions
- Make apple butter
- Move red wiggler worms inside
- Start indoor meal worms for winter chicken feed
November
- St. Martin’s Day – eat goose!
- Roast, puree and freeze winter squashes
- Make pumpkin butter
- Prepare Thanksgiving Feast
- Make gingerbread houses
- Make Christmas gifts
- Host Jul Gift Barter
- Forage for medlar, make paste or jam
December
- Go Caroling!
- Grandma arrives for two weeks – visit Santa, Candy Cane Lane, decorate tree, make cookies and candies
- Bake Lucia Bullar and celebrate Santa Lucia
- Solstice!
- Prepare Jul foods ahead of time: pickle salmon, make meatballs, prepare Johanson’s frestelse, make crackers and bread
- Midnight mass
- Glad Jul! 12 days of Christmas begin.
- Enjoy, knit, quilt, read the rest of winter away
Tags: Seasonal Calendar
Since late spring I’ve been a fairy goat mother. I’ve been so busy I haven’t even posted about it! A friend of mine – bluegrass playing homeschooling urban farming earth mother – took the plunge and got goats. I’m jealous. A year ago we had emailed back and forth about getting goats and if we really could provide a good home for them in the city. Could we keep up with our lives and still care for creatures that need more attention than chickens? What if we co-owned the goats and shared the care? We agreed we would love to try and left it at that.
In May I got an excited phone call from her. She had been thinking about goats, decided on a particular breed and breeder and there happened to be a freshener and baby available. The only thing is she had to get them that weekend. And she did. Since we had agreed to get them together I offered as much moral support as I could and came to help clear out the yard.
But milking was tricky so we agreed that until Mona got used to being milked I would just provide the moral support. And then summer hit and I was busy so I haven’t been as much help as I had hoped to be. My friend is on vacation right now though, so I’ve finally been milking Mona.
It’s a little tricky when I have to bring Pancake Man and Pickle boy since Mona needs to be milked at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and sometimes Pancake Boy is still sleeping at 8 a.m. But I’m loving milking Mona. She and the baby Bessie are the sweetest things around. Imagine a lab with a waggy tail, happy to see you and nuzzling affection.
Except instead of poop in your yard you get sweet milk. But first you need to milk her. It was unsettling at first, thinking that if I didn’t get her properly emptied she may get mastitis or her supply may drop but I’m enjoying the quiet and stillness that milking an animal requires.
Have you ever rocked a baby in the early morning, with no outside distractions? Alone with your thoughts and this sweet smelling bundle that is larger than you and the universe? And you are responsible for every breath this helpless being takes? Owning livestock is like that.
I am responsible for making sure the chickens have food and water and are locked up at night from the raccoons. But a milking goat is a whole different level of animal ownership. I had thought I was ready for goats (although my husband is not) but the amount of time and care that a milking goat requires is substantial. So far the gardening and chickens and preserving has fit into my life at a somewhat manageable level.
The goats, however, add at least another 2 hours per day on to your schedule, not to mention cleaning out the run and building structures, or driving outside the city to buy goat supplies because you can’t find them in the city. I do look forward to having goats of my own one day but that day is not here. I accept my limits.
I’m just grateful to have the opportunity to help care for these amazing creatures several times a week, and while my friend is on vacation.
How about you? Have you thought of getting dairy goats in the city?
Tags: Goats in the City
Our blog hop focus is on sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Tags: Simple Lives Thursday
Sorry the picture is a little blurry but I was cross-eyed-tired. I’ve been busy this week! I’m milking goats for a friend on vacation, trying to keep up with the bean harvest and apricots are finally ripe.
There is but one local fruit that I don’t have growing in my yard and it’s apricots. I planted a pear, an almond, two hazelnut, and two peach trees this year. Apricots, however, I just couldn’t find a spot for. So each year I buy boxes of them from Rama farms at the UW market.
I order them during the winter, always too many and then just before they are ripe they email me and ask if I want to replace the eaters with jammers. Since I’m making jam with them I always agree. Then I pick them up, bring them home and realize that 60 pounds of apricots is way too many. So I jam and we eat and I dry and we eat and I freeze and we eat. And then I phone up friends and ask if they can come take the rest away right now because I am done.
I realized this time, too, that I only have one case of half pint jars left and even fewer pint jars left since I always end up giving the jam away over the winter. I now have apricot marmalade in quart jars. I kidded myself that it would be perfect for making barbecue sauce, or ham glaze, or fruit leather and that I would want such large quantities at a time.
The flavor is intense – amazing – surreal – caramelized – condensed goodness, the color is rich and warm and the jars fill fill my heart as well as my pantry. Apricot marmalade was my grandmother’s favorite and has always been mine as well. I can find a million uses for apricot marmalade, from croissants to jam bars to fruit leather to surprise filling for hazelnut-studded chevre balls or to flavor ice cream in the dead of winter.
So now I have two boxes of apricot marmalade, 3 quarts of dried apricot halves and many fond memories of summer finally arrived.
Apricot Marmalade
2.5 pounds organic apricots, halved and stones removed
3.75 cups organic sugar
Juice of 1 lemon, or 1/4 cup Rockridge Orchard apple cider vinegar
Combine the apricots, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a boil, watching closely and boil, stirring frequently until your marmalade is as thick as you like. If you stop early you will have apricot sauce which is lovely on pancakes with vanilla ice cream. If you cook it longer you will eventually get a thick jam perfect for spreading on tiny toasts with chevre. You can even take that one step further and spread in layers then dry in the dehydrator so you have a pliable layer of apricot paste, perfect for cutting into cubes like Aplets and Cotlets ™ and to take that one step further you can even dip those in ganache. To can your summer goodness fill sterlized canning jars to within 1/4″ of the top of the jar. Seal and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.
Tags: Apricot
The other night we had an informal barbecue in the neighbor’s back yard. One of the kids had an electricity generating kit and a dad suggested they try to light up a pickle. Excuse me? After making sure there was nothing illegal going on we set about hunting for the largest dill pickle possible.
Pickle man excitedly ran back home to grab our pickle jar because I had made kosher-style dills with the largest of the garden cucumbers at the end of the season last year. Some of those jars had just a few pickles in each because they were so big!
He came back, primed with pickle and they eagerly set about putting the right wires in the right places, there was a dramatic moment when the electricity was turned on and then…nothing. They tried it again…nothing. And just as they were dejectedly putting away the tools of their scientific flop I suggested they get a commercial pickle.
A few minutes later someone appeared with a jar of unnamed dill pickles and they went about hooking up the new substitute pickle. Expecting nothing they milled around unexcitedly. The electricity was again turned on and the pickle did indeed come to life. It glowed and sparked like the fourth of July.
Commercial picklers use alum in order to achieve that classic “crunch”. That’s right, readers. Those were the sparks of metal rescued from the mouths of babes. Now who’s planning to make pickles from now on instead of buying them? Hopefully YOU.
note: On doing more research I read that this may work because of the salt levels and not just the metal factor. Either way I’m happy to be making a less toxic version of my oldest child’s favorite snack.
Tags: Pickles
Sustainable NE Seattle has a sustainable home workshop coming up on August 21 and I’m helping pull together some information for the kitchen. I have many goals for our house and dog this year but I can’t really think of any more changes to make in the food preparation area. I thought I would share with you my list of things that will help make others become more sustainable in terms of food preparation and storage. As you read through these I encourage you to think if these are things you can do as well.
- Stop Wasting Food. Did you know that 40% of all food goes to waste? Just think how much more sustainable you could be if you stopped wasting food!
- Eat more nutrient dense food. It follows that you’ll consume less of it that way.
- Garden year round and eat seasonally. I do still preserve some of summer’s bounty but it’s far more efficient and simpler to just eat what is in season, when it is in season. In the winter in Seattle we have vit, winter hardy spinach, cabbages and kale, carrots and parsnips can stay in the ground and be harvested as needed, and onions, garlic, potatoes and winter squashes can wait all winter in your garage. Many long storing apples can also last in your garage most the winter. When they start to soften it’s time to make applesauce and fruit leather. This means no strawberries in January, even if they are a good deal at Costco.Plant perennial edibles in your landscape. Many fruits, nuts and berries make attractive landscaping but also provide valuable and enjoyable nutrients that reduce your food purchases.
- If you can’t garden, consider getting a local, organic or heirloom variety CSA. This helps reduce monocrop farming and genetic seed modification. If everyone did this it would be a HUGE setback for companies like Montsanto.
- Learn to ferment. Many foods can be fermented, such as sauerkraut, kimchee, carrots and beets. In this way they can be preserved using no electricity and stored in a cold cellar, garage or basement until spring.
- Turn an area of your yard into a perpetual garden. Many herbs and leafy greens can self-sow, coming back several times per year at no effort on your part. Parsley, cilantro, arugula, kale and lettuces form seed heads and create new volunteers with abandon. Set aside a dedicated patch and let them. Think of all the plastic containers you’ll save by not buying these things any longer!
- Learn to culture dairy. Buttermilk, kefir, yogurt, and non-pressed cheeses are simple to make, require only a few ingredients and no special equipment. You’ll save a lot of packaging and be able to extend the shelf life of fresh dairy so that you don’t end up wasting it.
- Grow your own teas. Camellia sinensis grows very well in most climates and is easy to dry as green, black, or oolong tea. You can also easily grow and dry mint, chamomile, Echinacea, lemon balm, raspberries or huckleberries, rose hips and other plants that make many different flavors of herbal teas. Leaves are simple to dry in the warm summer air and you won’t be buying individually wrapped tea bags in a plastic wrapped box that was imported, shipped and trucked in order to get to you.
- When you buy things like chocolate, coffee and sugar be sure they are organic, fair trade, and shade or sustainably grown.
- Trade surplus produce with friends and neighbors. Don’t let large bounties go to waste!
- Organize a barter event twice a year. It’s much more efficient to make large batches of the same canned good, soap or lotion then swap with another person who has made something different. Trading for things you don’t know how to make also keeps you from buying a less local, more packaged version of the same thing.
- Compost kitchen and garden scraps. You can make small plastic tubs into worm bins that fit under your kitchen sink, making composting just as convenient as using your garbage disposal. In fact – you should take out your garbage disposal so you have room for a bigger worm bin! Simple metal lidded garbage cans can be drilled with holes then sunk into the ground outside to make rodent and pet proof compost bins and a simple pile suffices for everything else.
- Make long lived snacks rather than buying packaged foods. Jerky, dried fruit, fruit leathers and trail mix are great ways to preserve fresh meats and fruits so that you have some convenience foods in a pinch yet they will be shelf stable.
- Buy a grain grinder and learn to make your own baked goods. This will be the single-most biggest change you will make. Imagine no longer buying bread, pancake mix, crackers, muffins, tortillas or breakfast cereal. Not supporting the additive companies, or the packaging, or the companies supporting genetically modified grain seeds, or the pesticide companies, or the large mono-crop farms is what will change the food movement faster than anything else. Drive that change. Support local, small scale grain farmers who are growing organic heirloom variety grains. There is a whole world of grain beyond wheat just waiting for you to discover it.
- Buy local, pastured meats and use the whole animal. Request the bones for making broth and bone meal for the garden, learn to prepare the organs and reserve the fat for soapmaking and cooking. Nothing need go to waste.
- Take a good look at your pantry. Do you really need to be buying so many different vinegars and other products? Consider making due with fewer variations of things. Do you have molasses and granulated sugar? Then make your own.
- Use pantry items and essential oils to make lotions and cleaners rather than buying a closetful of products. Old houses didn’t need cabinets in the bathroom because they didn’t have things to put in them! You don’t need them either.
- Shop monthly from a list. This will help force you to be organized and cut out impulse buys that get you off track. It will also help you stay on budget.
- Consider replacing existing appliances with high efficiency models, or using them less frequently.
- Hit thrift stores and stock up on cast iron, glass, wood and Corningware™. Repurpose rather than shopping for new.
How about you? Do you have any suggestions for things I’ve missed? If so I’d love to hear them!
Tags: Sustainable Kitchen
Our blog hop focus is on sustainability, eco-conscious living, do-it-yourselfing, animal husbandry, gardening, preserving and preparing real food.
What is a blog hop? It’s where a group of us host this event. When you share your simple lives post complete with thumbnail on any one of our sites it will be displayed on all four of them. What a great way to get more exposure so that we can all be inspired by so many great ideas!
Who is hosting the blog hop?
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Wardeh of GNOWFGLINS
Alicia of Culinary Bliss
Me!
So what are you waiting for?
If you have a blog, make a “Simple Lives Thursday” post on your own blog, then come back here to add your post to the linky box below. Your post will appear on all four blogs! Include a link in your blog post to this Simple Lives Thursday post.
If you don’t have a blog, feel free to grab the image above and add a comment here with any ideas or thoughts about simple living.
Everyone, visit and comment at the linked blogs.
Tags: Simple Lives Thursday
Shallots and garlic curing on the fence for winter meals
It seems odd to be thinking of winter so soon after midsummer and just after summer has finally decided to arrive in Seattle. Most folks don’t even have ripe tomatoes, zuchinis are just poking up and my fourth and finally not slug-eaten round of cucumbers are thinking about stretching out to 9 inches or so on the trellises.
The truth is, if you were planning on growing things for winter you should have had them in a month ago. As always I’m a little late but closing the gap each year as I get more seasoned at winter gardening.
I started many things in trays just after midsummer and they were promptly munched on by slugs so I’ve since moved them indoors. I hate wasting the electricity for grow lights in the summer but this is an unusual year and I want some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages to eat come late fall, winter and spring. The hard part for me is planting things that should go into the ground just when we are leaving for vacation and any new seedlings would certainly not get the loving attention they need in the strong summer sun. Those things will likely always be late for me: beets, carrots, spinach, lettuces, parsnips, salsify, kale, parsley, arugula, mustard and rapini. Hopefully they will be timely enough that they’ll be done growing before the days are too short for them to come into their own.
After a spring and summer of growing I would love to grow a green crop to replenish the soil but there never seems to be enough time in my small garden to replenish before the winter crops need to get in. I hate to leave brix up to fertilizer, however, so I’m amending my garden beds with compost in between. When these crops come out in early spring I’ll plant two rounds of green manure. This will be forage for the chickens, who will poop it out and turn it under while helping control soil born pests. Check out my chicken tractor that I use to keep them confined to only the part of the garden I want them to eat from.
This summer my garden has been home to so many diseases and pests I’ve lost track: cherry canker, mildew and apple scab, aphids, leaf miners, carrot weevils, symphylans, caterpillars, slugs and snails. I’m diligently rotating crops and keeping an eye on populations. Only time will tell if this is a house of cards or not.
In the meantime I’ve had to shift the winter carrots over from the carrot bed still housing late summer/fall carrots into the recently vacated beet bed. The beet bed is riddled with leaf miners but I’m hoping to escape the carrot weevils that are in the carrot bed.
I’m using some compost but not too much so as to encourage the symphylan population. How much is too much? Ask me in a few years. I’m making this up as I go.
I was recently asked how I had managed to get such nice long carrots as the ones I was photographed harvesting in early June in the recent Seattle Times article.
Carrots put down a central tap root very quickly and they continue as long as the soil is nice and airy. Once they strike clay, dried dirt, rocks or other obstacles they stop and begin to add girth. Anytime I plant carrots I spend about an hour first forking the dirt, adding some compost, then ultimately breaking up each clod with gloved hands to a depth of about 12 inches. This is not at all necessary to grow carrots, but it is in Seattle if you want nice long ones.
Once I have my carrots sewn I cover the beds with remay and keep the soil evenly moist. Once it gets dried out it hardens and forms clumps again. It can take up to two weeks for carrots to germinate and then another couple of months for them to mature. I plant them twice per year so I don’t mind this extra work. Carrots are the vegetable that most kids love to pick and eat themselves and I have a veggie averse child so I’m trying to ensure we have carrots on hand at that magical moment he decides he’s going to try them.
The other thing you need to do to ensure nice, large carrots is to thin them. If there isn’t sufficient space around each carrot they won’t continue to fill in. You can thin them by picking and eating the tiny carrots though, so I don’t mind that task.
Back on April 10th I posted a link to my seed starting schedule where you can find my list of winter crops. It’s very similar to what you’ll find on The Modern Victory Garden except she has a greenhouse and some of the varieties are different.
So how about you? Have you started your winter crops yet? And what all have you harvested for winter eating?
Tags: Winter Gardening
