The Spiraling Homestead

Very Passive Solar Heating

2012-01-11T10:40:00.003-05:00

It has been TOO long since I've paid attention to this blog! Many reasons, most of which involve taking care of my parents - so please forgive me.

However, that's not the topic of this post. I found a very cool site during the last year and will highlight it in a future post. Right now, I'm going to focus on the topic of passive solar heating.

We all know that if you sit in the sun, you'll get hot. If you sit on black top in the sun, you'll get burned.

Somewhere in between those two things is what I'm trying to work with.

Looking at other solar heater designs, I thought of an idea. Since so many use windows, and windows that are fastened to the wall of your house, why not use the windows that are incorporated into the wall of the house - namely, those you peer out of on a daily basis.

I have the perfect room for the initial experiment - it's a very small, unheated room. 8x12 with 2 large windows that are about 20% of the floor space and face ESE and S (roughly). They have full screens that sit on the inside of the frame. I took those screens and set them at an angle - not the perfect angle for my lattitude, but close enough without making fancy frames to hold them in place - right now it's the curtain rods doing the work.

On sunny days, this simple arrangement heated this room 5 degrees when the temperature outside was between 25* and 32*. Cloudy days had absolutely no change in temperature and colder days saw less temperature change.

This year, I bought good old black netting - similar to fish-net stockings, but smaller grid. I used double faced tape, cut the netting to size and fastened it to the window frames. Very close to the window on the bottom, as far out on the top as possible without making a special frame. I discovered you need 2 layers of tape since there is so little surface area holding the netting to the tape - sandwich the netting between the layers of tape. Works like a charm.

While there isn't as much surface area to the netting as with the window screens, it is far darker than the screen, and will allow for more air flow, which should create more or = heat exchange as the screens.

I've set them up in the dining room windows, of which there are 4 and in 1 living room window - using the last of the netting I purchased.

I will be keeping some unofficial statistics and will post them in a month or so. It's a $2 trial. That works for me. And if I got 5* for that $2 investment, that should add up to a 5-10% savings on heat - paying for the netting in roughly a week. I know - not every day will be sunny, most of all where I live. However, even if it turns into a mere 1% savings over the heating season, it'll still be at least a 1000% return on my money. I'll be having it!

Storm Window Solar Panel

2012-01-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

9/28 - Well, there's no fixing it. A friend of mine and I tried to no avail. Crap. If you use a vinyl window, make sure to put screws in the vinyl to hold the window in place. Do NOT expect the locks and actual tracks to hold it in place. They won't. As you can see, the track failed after the locks - which if you look closely at the upper left corner - bent and allowed the window to release. Otherwise, the plans at the bottom of this post are rock solid. The vinyl fails between 200 and 300 degrees fahrenheit. So - it got that kind heat built up in it - it works!

8/31/08 - Yes, I know - talk about delayed projects. It's all assembled and was awaiting another strong body to help me place it by the shed.
You know what I found out? The vinyl the new windows are made with isn't capable of withstanding whatever the temp was inside the heater - even with air flowing through. I'm not pleased. I have to now figure out how to FIX it before I start working on installing it.

Well, I'm going to dabble in DIY solar.

My mom and I are building an outbuilding. Or, for those in the architectural know, a backyard cottage (cackle). Just heard about it this term last Sunday. Go figure. It's actually going to be a work shop for a very small money-making hobby. Another term I'd not heard of.
Anyway, heating it is a concern. We're going to have to keep it at a somewhat constant temp of at least 50 F. That means we need a heat source for winter - which is up to 5 months here in upstate NY.

I stumbled upon the following article from Mother Earth News

I know this won't be sufficient for a 24 hour period, particularly when there's no sun - we compete with Portland OR for fewest sunny days and most precipitation. However, every little bit helps and would surely help us save space by having a smaller heater - of whatever type. I'm really against oil since it leaves a film - regardless of how clean it burns or how sealed a unit. No woodstove - not tending 2 woodfires, thank you. Not piping gas and getting into that regulatory hassle. That leaves electric and pellet stove. We might do electric this year and see.

I have insulated it better than 90% of the homes in the US, along with GREAT windows, so heat loss will be minimal. I'm also in the process of insulating the actual house far better, so that will allow for extra electricity to be used out there without disrupting any aspect of the budget, in case the money making part of the hobby doesn't start making right away.

They used old sliding glass door glass. I have an extra window from the shed that I am going to use for the project. Here are my plans that I drew up

This church used soda cans - we have cat food cans! No cutting! (I'm virtually gleeful about this part).

I can't use steel - no gots. But, I have a ton of scrap lumber from numerous other projects. Plus a lot of radiant barrier insulation, fiberglass insulation, and styrofoam insulation. 10/24 - My cousin made the boxes for me - so he didn't go quite by instructions. Pissed me off no end, but I use what I have...

Flat black paint - I may go with a high heat type used for wood stoves just because I know it exists. 10/24 - went with an oil based for durability.

Piping - I'm seriously considering 2 sizes of PVC pipe. Smaller for actual air flow. Wrap with insulation and insert into larger pipe. Did this - worked great!

Wall Openings - Have 2 separate openings in the wall, rather than a single one as many window solar heaters have. One low for cold air return and one high for heat. It'll still syphon the way it's supposed to, but without the mixing of temperatures with a 2 chamber unit as so many have.

Can Arrangement - I was thinking a 'best fit' placement to begin with. Alternate the cans as if making a pyramid. But, with the radiant barriers I have, I'm wondering if purely adjacent to each other would work better, allowing some light behind, reflecting back up onto the sides of the cans for added heating. Comments? I did purely adjacent. We'll see!

Tomato/Potato Late Blight 2010 Season

2010-06-18T21:52:00.002-04:00

It's already been found in PA, while in NY (where I live), it hasn't been yet. It has also been found in MA, where some areas have been advised to begin regular fungicide spraying - with the most effective being a systemic fungicide. This means it enters the plant tissue, including the tubers/fruits.

Fools are spreading it through home or small green houses from wintering over plants and then placing infected plants outside for the wind to pick up the spores.

Besides the link above, there is another link to Vegetable MD - a side bar of Cornell.

This should help you identify all of the blights possible for your plants and how best to deal with them.

Good Song Bird Year

2010-06-04T18:04:00.002-04:00

I have to say I'm enjoying my song birds this year. I have so many more than normal, that it's making it a very pleasant and satisfying spring/summer.

A bird I've not seen on the property in many years is the Indigo Bunting Did you know their feathers aren't blue, but black - and it's the way the feathers are made that refracts the blue color? Very cool indeed!

Another I've heard at my brothers, but not heard near me (about a 20 mile difference and much less population in his area) is the Eastern Wood-PeWee . He's a few houses over, but that's fine - hearing him is the best part.

One that needs the woods to fully appreciate his voice, but I am forever grateful he came over to sing for me is the Wood Thrush . Without the woods, his voice just doesn't haunt as much. It's still just beautiful, but not the same.

My Pileated Woodpecker comes over very frequently. They nest across the creek - much better housing options - but frequents our property just to make sure no one thinks it's up for grabs.

Another woodpecker - the Northern Flicker has finally decided we have enough ants to set up shop somewhere around our property. I'm not sure if it's nesting on or just near, but I'm fine with that either way. He's here.

A sparrow that shouldn't be here, but has been for 2 years now is the White-Crowned Sparrow . He's very much south of his normal nesting grounds, so I'm not sure why he's here. But it's always interesting to see him.

Another sparrow who just showed up a few years ago is the Chipping Sparrow . The picture doesn't do him justice - he looks like he has bed head, with that red cap of his.

I've heard a Grasshopper Sparrow, but haven't seen it yet. Hopefully in a year or two.

I keep waiting for the Oriole to decide our hickories are tall enough, but he always decides on other trees in the area. Oh well. I'll live. I put grape jelly out for him this year, and have seen him nibbing, but the squirrels have discovered it, so am guessing there won't be enough left for him to say so.

My favorite is the Song Sparrow. They've been in the yard for a number of years now and have discovered my veggie garden is THE place to shop for the best bugs! A pretty song, a shapely line, and a knack for hunting ground bugs makes them the bird for me!

I'll be putting up a fence around our burning bushes to keep my one cat from bugging the Cardinals , who've set up shop there for the first time. I love how the female sings to the chicks in a very whispered tone.

Catbirds are very enjoyable, since they're the closest thing to a mocking bird I'll have around here. Still, they're color is the softest gun-metal grey. I know - ironic way of describing their color. They tend to enjoy my forsythia, which is why the forsythia are rarely pruned. I won't prune after nests are made.

And I made a discovery that should benefit my Gold Finches. They like dandelion seeds! I tend to let dandelions live since they make great ground cover in my numerous flower beds and veggie garden. My aunt also loves to dig dandelion greens in the spring, so with all of my mulching, they are straight, tender and extra sweet. Well, it was a great year for dandelions, which had all of the birds collecting the fluff for their nests and the Gold Finches gathering the seeds to eat! Just another reason to keep the dandelion.

After all of these, we have the wonderfully social Black-capped Chickadee, the incredibly voiced Tufted Titmouse, House Sparrow, Starling, House Finch, Bluejay, Cowbird and probably a few I've missed.

Not bad for an acre of land in town.

Jam Inventory

2010-05-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

Spring is here when I start talking jam! Woo hoo!

Some information before the current inventory...

Most commercial jams have half the fruit to sugar ratio (1:2)
Mine has either equal fruit to sugar (1:1) or 3 times the fruit to sugar (3:1).

So while the sugars and carbohydrates may look similar to commercial, the actual amount of fruit (versus high fructose corn syrup) is 2 - 6 times the commercial brands. The flavor can NOT be beat and it actually ends up being reasonably good for you too!

Advanced orders are welcome. Please let me know the Wednesday before the market (Saturdays at Otsenengo Park) so that I may box it up for you. Contact me at BoomsBaker@gmail.com to order. Quantities are limited right now, and first come first served!

Prices will vary some with variety - due to availability of fruit/flower, however I will try to keep them as similar as possible. Descriptions of each jam. Also - Jar prices have increased.
Red Prices are 2010.
Black are 2009
Orange - Sold Out.

Apricot 8 ounce - $3 Update - Sold Out
Blueberry 8 ounce - $3 Update - Sold Out
Blubarb - 4:1 - 8 ounce - $6 Update - Sold Out
Cider Rhubarb 4 ounce - $3
CranCider 8 ounce - $3 - Update - 1 Left
CranCider 4 ounce - $2 - Update - 2 left
CranOrange 8 0unce - $3 - Sold Out
CranOrange 4 ounce - $2 - Sold Out
Coffee 4 ounce - $3 - Update - 3 Left
Hot Pepper 8 ounce - $3
Hot Pepper 4 ounce - $2
Rhubarb 8 ounce - 3.25
Rhubarb 4 ounce - 2.25
Rhubarb Diabetic 8 ounce - 5.25
Rhubarb Diabetic 4 ounce - 3.25
Rose 4 ounce - $2.75 - Update - Sold Out
Violet 4 ounce $4

Jam Descriptions

2010-04-29T18:41:00.003-04:00

Almost all will come in reduced sugar/diabetic friendly - it always depends on volume of fruit.

Apricot Jam
Our Apricots are from Our Green Acres in Owego this year. Being high in Vitamin A makes apricots a valued fruit. This jam contains no sulfur dioxide – a common additive for apricots. Apricots are surprising - the cooking brings out the flavor, making it ideal for the heartiest breads, including sourdough rye, honey oat and whole wheat.

Blackberry
These are homegrown blackberries in a chemical free environment. They are high in C, K, Manganese, Copper and Omega 3/6 fatty acids. The epitome of summer flavors!
Great on homemade white, whole wheat, honey oat or sourdough breads, and a variety of ice creams!

BlueBarb Jam (Blueberry/Rhubarb)
Our jam is made with only locally grown fruits, many from our own land. We use the smallest amount of sugar possible.
Blueberries and Rhubarb are both high in C, K, and Manganese, with Rhubarb also being high in Calcium and Potassium.

Blueberry Jam/Jelly
Homegrown in a chemical free environment, blueberries are high in C, K and Manganese as well as anti-oxidants, and are being researched for age-related eye health.
Perfect on homemade white bread toasted for breakfast.

Cherry Jam
Made with fresh local sweet cherries and as little sugar as possible. Cherries are a good source of dietary fiber, potassium and antioxidants and have a far lower glycemic index than most other fruits.
This jam is very delicate in flavor, making it perfect for warm biscuits or a homemade white bread.

Cider Cinnamon Jelly
The Cider is from The Cider Mill. As little sugar as possible was used - to help maintain the cider flavor. Cider Jelly isn’t faint of heart like store-bought apple jelly is. With Cinnamon added for that perfect apple pie quality, it’s great to use with just about anything.

Cider Rhubarb
Local Cider makes any jam taste better. For those who don’t like Rhubarb, try this mellower version. It really tones the Rhubarb down, and adds zing to the cider.
A great jam for any type bread, biscuit or over ice cream!

Cinnamon Plum Jam
My favorite tea is cinnamon plum. So when I thought of Plum Jam, I thought of cinnamon plum. This jam is made with Owego plums, and has just a hint of cinnamon that you can smell when spread on warm toast. Wonderful!
Perfect for thumbprint cookies, hot biscuits, white or honey oat bread toasted for breakfast!

Cuban Coffee Jelly
Strong, Dark and Sweet – that’s Cuban Coffee! Contains CaffeineJapanese eat this as a dessert, with whipped cream. Add a little to a cup of coffee, eat with cream cheese and crackers, use in thumbprint cookies, filling for cakes or doughnuts or on ice cream.

Cranberry Apple Jam
By grinding cranberries and mixing them with fresh cider, you get the best of all worlds! Cranberries are extremely important to our health; so enjoy them in all forms. Enjoy this on any bread, over ice cream, or mix with horseradish for crackers or turkey sandwiches!

Cranberry Orange Jam
By grinding the cranberries and oranges together before making the jam allows the flavors to mix together so well. And since both are important to your health, enjoy this additional way of eating them!
Use with any bread, over ice cream, or mix with horseradish and serve with crackers or on turkey sandwiches!

Ginger Peach Jam
Our local PA peaches are high in Vitamins A & K; fiber, protein, copper and omega 6 fatty acids. The hint of ginger makes this jam perfect on ice cream or white bread.

Grape Jam
This year’s Concord Grapes are from Montrose, PA. Concord Grapes are rich in poly-phenols, as well as Vitamins C, K and the mineral Copper.By making jam, rather than jelly, the flavor is intense and perfect for anything you serve it with or on. Bread as hearty as sourdough rye to homemade white bread will work well with this jam.

Hot Pepper Jelly
No Artificial Colors!
The Jalapenos in the jelly are organic and dried to preserve flavor when in the jelly. The chili powder and paprika add a layer of flavor as well as the color that gives it a naturally hot look. It’s pretty tasty! Try it on cheese and crackers or as a side to cooked game.

Peach Jam
Our local PA peaches are high in Vitamins A & K; fiber, protein, copper and omega 6 fatty acids. The hint of ginger makes this jam perfect on ice cream or white bread.

Peach Nectar Jelly
This jelly is made with what’s left from canning peaches – no waste! Peaches are high in A & K; fiber, protein, copper and omega 6 fatty acids. Its delicate flavor is perfect on white bread, biscuits and thumbprint cookies.

Rhubarb Jam
Homes without a rhubarb patch are difficult to imagine! Rhubarb is high in fiber, vitamins C and K; and the minerals Calcium, Potassium, Manganese. Rhubarb is spring! This jam will hold its own with the heartiest of breads such as rye, sourdough or sourdough rye. It's also wonderful on many ice creams.

Rose Petal Jelly
Made from the heritage rose, 7 Sisters, which has been on our property for about a century. Grown free of chemicals, its heavy scent is what makes this jelly phenomenal! Use on thumbprint cookies, between layers of angel food cake, or on a PB&J. It’ll hold its own easily!

Strawberry Jam
Washing, hulling and sorting the strawberries is an annual event for many of us who enjoy good company and laughter while working. Strawberry jam is often the quintessential flavor of summer, captured in a jar! Enjoy.

Strawberry Jelly
Strawberry jelly has a more delicate flavor than jam, making it more suited for hot biscuits or French toast than PB&J.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Combining strawberries and rhubarb seems an instinctive move – pairing the tart, acidic rhubarb with the smooth, sweet strawberry. This jam is great in a PB&J, on pancakes or waffles, or warmed up and poured over ice cream!

Violet Jelly
Violets are rich in anthocyanins (antioxidant), and vitamins A and C.
The flavor of the jam is how a violet smells – fruity and delicate. It can hold its own with cream cheese and crackers, but is best on thumbprint cookies or between layers of angel food cake.

Great Plains Running Out of Water

2010-04-22T08:35:00.003-04:00

I have been sounding the alarm about this since I lived in TX - over a decade ago. People there use water like there's no tomorrow to have the grass, flowers and trees they grew up with in the Northern states. I was disgusted by their lack of respect for an exhaustable supply of water, particularly given the state's history during the dust bowl years.

They need to change the way they irrigate, WHAT they irrigate and how often. This is a massive task that must be successfully accomplished if we, as a nation, are going to continue feeding ourselves.

Excerpts:

People have been warning about the aquifer's depletion for years, but coordinating conservation programs among farmers has proved difficult. Recently, Texas has imposed state controls on the amount of groundwater that farmers can pump, requiring 16 groundwater districts to each provide a target for an acceptable groundwater level in 50 years.

"The magnitude of this is incredible," he continued. "We're talking about, for the last 20 years, 20 percent of the irrigated acreage of this nation is over the Ogallala."

For an idea of what a severe drought could do to the communities of the Great Plains, consider the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when gigantic "black blizzards" ravaged farms and forced thousands of families to give up their land and try to make a living elsewhere.

Bloom Box - Solid Energy Technology

2010-02-22T21:17:00.001-05:00

First page only:

(CBS) In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines.

It has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive - until now.

Full Segment: The Bloom Box
Web Extra: The Magic Box
Web Extra: Plug-In Power Plant
Web Extra: Naming The Bloom Box
Web Extra: A Skeptic's View

K.R. Sridhar invited "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl for a first look at the innards of the Bloom box that he has been toiling on for nearly a decade.

Looking at one of the boxes, Sridhar told Stahl it could power an average U.S. home.

"The way we make it is in two blocks. This is a European home. The two put together is a U.S. home," he explained.

"'Cause we use twice as much energy, is that what you're saying?" Stahl asked.

"Yeah, and this'll power four Asian homes," he replied.

"So four homes in India, your native country?" Stahl asked.

"Four to six homes in our country," Sridhar replied.

"It sounds awfully dazzling," Stahl remarked.

"It is real. It works," he replied.

He says he knows it works because he originally invented a similar device for NASA. He really is a rocket scientist.

"This invention, working on Mars, would have allowed the NASA administrator to pick up a phone and say, 'Mr. President, we know how to produce oxygen on Mars,'" Sridhar told Stahl.

"So this was going to produce oxygen so people could actually live on Mars?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Sridhar replied.

When NASA scrapped that Mars mission, Sridhar had an idea: he reversed his Mars machine. Instead of it making oxygen, he pumped oxygen in.

He invented a new kind of fuel cell, which is like a very skinny battery that always runs. Sridhar feeds oxygen to it on one side, and fuel on the other. The two combine within the cell to create a chemical reaction that produces electricity. There's no need for burning or combustion, and no need for power lines from an outside source.

In October 2001 he managed to get a meeting with John Doerr from the big Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.

"How much do you think, 'I need to come up with the next big thing'?" Stahl asked Doerr.

"Oh, that's my job," he replied. "To find entrepreneurs who are going to change the world and then help them."

Doerr has certainly changed our world: he's the one who discovered and funded Netscape, Amazon and Google. When he listened to Sridhar, the idea seemed just as transformative: efficient, inexpensive, clean energy out of a box.

"But Google: $25 million. This man said, 'How much money?'" Stahl asked.

"At the time he said over a hundred million dollars," Doerr replied.

But according to Doerr that was okay.

"So nothing he said scared you?" Stahl asked.

"Oh, I wasn't at all sure it could be done," he replied.

Choosing Insulation

2010-02-15T08:35:00.003-05:00

Whether it's pink, white, yellow, or blue, all insulation is at least a little bit "green." After all, anything that saves so much energy gets high marks for environmental friendliness. But increasingly, the materials we put inside our walls and ceilings are turning a deeper shade of green, with old standbys like fiberglass and foam cleaning up their acts and natural and recycled alternatives now widely available.

To be sure, in an industry whose products have been both praised and litigated, the earth-friendliness of house insulation depends to some degree on whether you're assessing what it's made of or simply how it performs. Consider this very green bottom line from a segment of the industry, fiberglass, that has taken its share of criticism: "For every Btu of energy it takes to make this insulation, 12 Btu are saved every year," says Tom Newton, manager of advertising and promotion for manufacturer CertainTeed.

Given that other insulation products deliver similar benefits, greenness is to some extent in the eye of the beholder. For instance, some contain a high percentage of recycled material; others come in new formulations that remove or replace ingredients known to be environmentally harmful. Then there are natural products, like cotton, that get major green points because they pose no risk to people with allergies or chemical sensitivities. So while there's no set ranking system for what makes an insulation green, the good news is, wherever you want to touch down on the spectrum, there's likely to be a product that meets your needs and budget. And that should make you feel warm all over.

Insulation Overview

The chief measure of insulation performance is R-value, which is derived from standardized tests that determine how well the material resists heat flow. The higher the resistance, the higher the R-value. Current standards in most parts of the U.S. call for at least R-13 exterior walls and R-38 ceilings (the latter being higher because of heat's tendency to rise).

As a rule, the better a material performs, the more it costs, though some products are expensive simply because they occupy a tiny sliver of the market and can't offer the economies that come with high-volume production. Following is a quick snapshot of the ingredients, performance, and cost of products in insulation's two main camps, fiber and foam.

FIBER

Cellulose
Made from shredded, fluffed-up newsprint containing 85 percent recycled material and 15 percent borate-based fire retardant (borates are environmentally safe mineral compounds that also stop mold and pests). Blown in dry or sprayed on wet—damp, really—it has a higher R-value than fiberglass and costs about the same.

Cotton
Ever wonder what happens to old denim? Some of it gets turned into thick batts and is used to insulate walls and floors. Treated with the same borate fire retardant used in cellulose, shredded cotton is a popular low-chemical choice.

Fiberglass
Some might wonder how this material merits mention alongside obviously greener goods, but manufacturers have given spun glass a higher recycled content (up to 40 percent) and have taken steps to reduce the acknowledged problem of airborne fibers. Some makers have started slipping their product inside a bag—a very effective treatment until it has to be cut to fit an odd-size cavity. Comes in batts or is chopped and blown into floor and wall cavities.

Mineral wool
Made from recycled slag and mined basalt rock, mineral wool is naturally resistant to fire and pests and is highly sound absorbent. While it has been associated with the same potential airborne-fiber risk as fiberglass, one mineral wool product, a rigid-board foundation insulation, poses no such problem while providing a waterproof barrier.

Sheep's wool
Sheared from living creatures in the usual way, the cleaned fiber is formed into batts and lofty loose fill, then treated for moth- and mildew-proofing. Like cotton, wool tends to primarily be a health-related choice.

FOAM
Cementitious
Made from magnesium oxide cement mixed with water, frothed with air, and pumped into cavities, it's efficient, naturally fireproof, and resists mold and pests.

Polyicynene and polyurethane
Both of these foams are made with an oil-derived chemical, polyisocyanate, but does that necessarily erase any green tint? Maybe not, considering the energy these products save and the fact that their blowing agents—water for polyicynene, a non-ozone-depleting chemical for polyurethane—are environmentally benign. Different formulations produce two types, open-cell and closed-cell, the latter delivering a higher R-value and price.

Agricultural-based
In some formulations of polyurethane, petroleum-based ingredients are partially replaced with those from agricultural resources like soybean oil, sugar cane, and corn. Environmental benefits aside, oil's recent price trajectory makes these products even more appealing. Available as sprayed foam and, in the case of soy-based, a rigid board.

Where to Find It:

Cellulose:

Applegate Insulation
Webberville, MI
888-302-7753
applegateinsulation.com

Igloo Cellulose Inc.
Quebec
514-694-1485
cellulose.com

Cotton:

Environmental Construction Outfitters
Bronx, NY
800-238-5008
environproducts.com

Fiberglass:

CertainTeed
800-782-8777
certainteed.com

Mineral wool:

Roxul Inc.
Grand Forks, B.C.
905-878-8474
1-800-265-6878
roxul.com

Wool:

Good Shepherd Wool Insulation
Rocky Mountain House, Alb.
403-845-6705
goodshepherdwool.com

Cementitious:

Air-Krete
315-834-6609
airkrete.com

Polyicynene:

American Energy Savers
New Haven, CT
800-242-6157
aesinct.com

Polyurethane:

Foam-Tech
North Thetford, VT
802-333-4333
foam-tech.com

Soy-based:

BioBased Systems
Rogers, AR
800-803-5189
biobased.net

Transition Initiative

2010-02-12T14:00:00.002-05:00

A world-wide organization focused on bring communities back together, increasing sustainability, decreasing climate change and rebuilding ecomonies through local work, not global.

Think Global, Act Local is prefect for these folks.

Their January Newsletter

We greet a new decade with a clearer knowledge of limits, a richer sense of community, and a deeper understanding of what it means to chart a personal journey towards resiliency and a reduced carbon footprint. While we are cautioned by Sharon Astyk to practice losing, we can be truly heartened by all those stepping up to adventure with us and the impressive new tools they bring. Sustainable NE Seattle has developed a discussion guide for groups studying the Transition Handbook. Transition Santa Cruz has thoughtful tip sheet on going door-to-door and engaging your neighbors and Ben Zolno has a new video on Why Transition.

Around the world communities are rising to the challenge. Transition Network co-founders Peter Lipman and Ben Brangwyn in conversation with Vicki Robin will discuss what is happening in the Transition Movement in the UK and in other countries around the world. Add your questions when you register for this free event scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th at 10 am PST.

On the news front, Transition Initiatives have been seen in: Yes Magazine, Huffington Post, and other local papers like the Pasa Robles Press.

Continue to send us stories of your journey in unleashing the brilliance, compassion and resourcefulness within your communities. Let us know how we can help you.

In this Newsletter:
Transition Initiatives & Stories
Upcoming Trainings & Online Workshops
Resources for Organizing
Featured Videos on Transition
Transition Network News
Post Carbon Institute News
Get Involved

Soil Test Page

2010-02-01T09:23:00.002-05:00

I found this page while doing a quick bit of research for farming forum I signed into.

It's a great page!

And even if you don't actually test your soils, taking a sample, mixing it with water and determining the amount of the different materials in it is a great thing to do. It's very effective.
Please be sure to take the sample from where the roots of all your plants grow - at least 6" down.

Foxes!

2010-01-10T12:14:00.003-05:00

We have foxes!

I knew we did, but have never really seen them. I have now! Woohoo!

It is truly the happiest thing I've seen in months.

We've known about the vixen for a few years, since we've seen her different times of the year. The most recently was this past spring with her haunches looking ghastly from pulling her fur out to line the den.

I've also seen tracks in the snow, usually going down the driveway to cross over to the creek. It's amazing, the fox jumped across the road - 1 hop! I looked one night when there was no traffic and snow covering - there were no tracks anywhere in the road, but tracks on either side showing where it jumped and landed. I was, and still am, amazed!

But to actually SEE them, in the yard, during the day - it's one of those little miracles that modern society rarely is afforded.

1 of ours has no tail! I saw him earlier this AM, which made me wonder if it was truly a fox or a stray dog of unknown ancestry (yes, fancy wording for "mutt"). Well, about an hour later, I heard a strange call outside our front door. I looked and there was the tailess wonder, along with 2 other foxes with tails! How grand a sight!

To me, it's a bit early for this far north to be breeding, but it's worked for them this long, so it must be ok. And with the number of mice and chipmunks we have on our property, it should be good hunting for the vixen when she has her pups/kits.

The miracle of hope brought to me in a 30-second sighting of a couple of fox. It's worth more than anything else in the world right now.

Eco Friendly Decorating By This Old House

2009-12-16T11:35:00.002-05:00

You can judge for yourself, but I'm finding their ideas slightly STUPID. None are DIY. You have to buy them all, which means you're adding to the decorations you already have.

Are you supposed to throw the old ones away? If so, how green is that?

If you need to replace something, then yes, follow these ideas. But don't buy them just because the article says they're green.

REDUCE is part of the 3 R's in conservation.

No Impact Project

2009-12-15T12:42:00.002-05:00

Every year, growing numbers of us are unhappy with the shopping frenzy that surrounds the holidays but most of us don’t know how to get off the treadmill.

What if we worked together to find another way to celebrate? This holiday season join us in finding more of what matters. During the two-weeks of the historic UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (December 7th-18th), we’re bringing people together to talk about the impact of holiday spending on their lives and the environment.

Join the New Dream and No Impact Project for nationwide pre-DVD release community screenings of the documentary, No Impact Man, and a post-screening discussion about how to simplify our holidays this year. To host a screening in your community or to learn more, contact us.

To find a screening near you, click here.

To participate in their No Impact Week-Long Study (starts Jan 10) go here

Heating Your Home For Less

2009-12-11T13:33:00.002-05:00

When winter chills get your teeth chattering, one way to stay warm--and save money on heating bills---is to throw on a pair of wool socks, some sweaters, winter boots and a hat, but who wants to do that while lounging at home? We certainly don't.

Therefore, we did some digging and came up with effective ways to help you maximize warmth and reduce your monthly expenditures.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that a typical U.S. household will spend less money on heating bills between October of this year and March of 2010 due to milder weather and lower cost of natural gas. The EIA's projected average of $960-although about 8 percent less than last winter's average of $1,044-is still quite high, especially in today's economy. And let's face it: many homeowners have already surpassed the amount in just two months.

In order to start saving money now, it is essential that you purchase a programmable thermostat and lower your temperature during the night and during the time you are usually out of the house. If your winter heating bill adds up to $960, that means that from beginning of October to the end of March, you're paying about $192 a month. By turning down the heat about 10 degrees for eight hours each day, you will save around 10 percent on your heating bill, which translates to $19.20 a month or $96 a year. (For our experiment, we turned down the thermostat from 75 degrees Fahrenheit to 65 degrees, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) A programmable thermostat can cost you anywhere from $30-$150 at discounted prices. Let's say you spend $50 on the thermostat. Even after figuring in its cost, you'll still save about $46 on your heating bill your first year.

You can further decrease your heating bills with proper insulation. Although the best option is to insulate the walls of your home and start saving 50-60 percent on your monthly heating bill , the process generally requires a two to three-week renovation and costs approximately $2,000-$3,000, depending on the size of your home. Also, this is done to an owned property and since many of us live in rentals, it won't work for our experiment. However, you can still winterize your home with a bit of DIY work.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, you can reduce your home's heating costs by up to 30 percent through proper insulation and air sealing methods. First, hold a lit candle to windows and doors on a windy day to test for air leaks. If frosts, water condensation or drafts are present, then you can purchase a heavy-duty clear, plastic sheet and tape it to the inside of your windows. This will cost about $10, depending on the number and size of windows in your home. (I usually purchase a clear, polyethylene sheeting at Home Depot for $8.28 and 3M duct tape for $2, so my total comes out to $10.28.) In addition, make sure to keep your bedroom doors closed. You can put old towels or blankets at the bottom of your doors to keep out cold air.

After properly winterizing your home, you can lower the thermostat 5 more degrees to a comfortable temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit. In total, you will save $28.80 per month ($144 per year) by lowering the thermostat 15 degrees. Figuring in the cost of the thermostat ($50) and the cost of plastic sheeting and duct tape ($10.28), you will save $83.72 your first year.

You can also take a different approach, and lower the thermostat 10 more degrees instead of 5 and then use a space heater to warm up your bedroom to the aforementioned comfortable temperature.

There's no reason why you should have to warm up the entire house when you spend most of your night in only one or two rooms. Therefore, lowering the thermostat to 55 degrees Fahrenheit and purchasing an electric heater to warm up your bedroom(s) might be a better solution. At discount prices, space heaters can cost anywhere from $30 to $100. We recommend programmable space heaters so that they can shut off when the room reaches the desired temperature.

Let's say you spend $50 on a programmable, child-proof electric heater. If you run the programmable space heater in your bedroom for eight hours each night over a period of five months to heat up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit at a setting of 1500 watts, you will use approximately 11 kWh per night (depending how often the heater turns on and off during the night), or 326 kWh per month. At $0.10 per kWh, it would cost about $1 per night or $31 per month, to heat your home.

You will save $38.40 per month ($192 per year) by lowering the thermostat 20 degrees. Figuring in the cost of the thermostat ($50) and the cost of the space heater ($50), in addition to electricity costs for running a space heater each night over a period of five months, or 151 days ($151), you will actually pay $59 more for your heat the first year.

One major caveat is that if your room has air leaks, the space heater will be turned on longer and will run at a higher setting, thus eating up electricity; therefore, you'd still have to properly insulate your apartment before purchasing a space heater. Otherwise, it will work with only 60-70 percent efficiency, as a lot of heat will escape. That means, you'll be spending even more money than you intended.

Another caveat is that if you use more than one electric heater and they run on the same circuit breaker or if you have other heavy-duty electric appliances on the same circuit, you may trip the breakers when the space heaters are turned on at the same time.

Therefore, invest in a programmable thermostat and winterize your home prior to considering the purchase of a space heater, and watch the savings pile up.

Heating Your Home For Less

2009-12-11T13:33:00.000-05:00

More on Urban Farming

2009-11-20T08:51:00.002-05:00

Do you dream of an organic garden, but don’t have a yard? A flock of chicks, perhaps, but don’t have a yard? Home-grown food, and lower grocery bills (but, alas, no yard!)? Dream no more, because you can have it, and without quitting your job, trading your bus pass for a pickup, or moving to the rural north.

A new wave of farming is happening in a city near you. While true, Old MacDonald had a farm (ee-i-ee-i-o), his offspring have some urban fish to fry. They’re working off loans, and can’t necessarily afford a parcel of land. They’re young parents who want to save money on cherry tomatoes. They’re newlyweds paying off healthcare debt, and growing taters in their trashcan. They’re students avoiding crappy dining plans. They’re urban farmers. Plain and simple.

In Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, author R. J. Ruppenthal turns a seemingly anti-urban idea—that farming has to be done outside, with a red barn and rolling fields of wheat—on its head. Because urbanites, too, can grow their own food indoors, in cramped spaces, and without access to land! For real.

So without further ado, I give you Ruppenthal’s comprehensive “how-to” info for growing fresh food in the absence of open land; it’s here for the taking. Nom nom. Here’s my discussion with him:

Q. Without the luxury of land or space, is it really possible for someone to grow and produce their own food?

A. You do not need much space to grow some of your own food. If you live in an apartment, condo, or townhouse, you might not think that you have enough space to grow anything, but my goal is to change your mind on that. You can grow nutritious sprouts on a counter top, salad greens on a windowsill, dwarf fruit trees on a patio, tomatoes on a balcony, and much more. Most vegetables, and even fruit trees and berry bushes, can thrive when grown in containers. Indoors, try mushrooms, sprouts, and fermented cultures such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, and kimchi.

Q. What are the top five things a city resident needs to know about urban gardening?

A. First, you need to know that you CAN grow a lot of different food crops in limited spaces, even in apartments, condos, townhouses, and other small homes. I described some of the possibilities above, and there are more in my book. Hopefully, you will try some of these and also come up with new ideas on your own, as many of my readers have done. Second, start with something that is relatively trouble-free (such as salad greens, peas, or even tomatoes) and work up from there. You will learn a lot from your successes and your failures. If you try some simple crops and do everything you can (such as provide good soil and water) to ensure their success, then you WILL experience some success. Third, do not be afraid to fail. All of us have our hits and misses. Sometimes you forget to water or you planted the wrong variety for your climate, or for whatever reason, a particular plant simply was not happy. A lot of people would quit after an initial failure, but I hope you will stick with it. The only difference between a “black thumb” gardener and a “green thumb” gardener is that green thumbs learn from their mistakes, try again, and keep trying until they get it right. Then they replicate, and build upon, their successes. A black thumb gardener would quit after the first failure or two, not understanding that there is a learning curve associated with gardening, just as there is with anything else. Stick with it and you will succeed.

Fourth, people do not realize that they can build a garden bed directly on top of concrete, stone, or rocky soil. Almost anything can grow well in containers, but even a patio, driveway, or walkway can be converted to a productive garden bed by building the soil up (as opposed to digging down, which you would not be able to do without a jackhammer). I built two beds on top of my patio, and today, I cannot tell the difference between what is growing on them and what is growing in my soil-based beds. Twelve inches of soil is deep enough to grow almost anything. I’ve had two kale plants that each grew nearly six feet tall on those patio beds, plus peas, chard, beets, lettuce, and a few potatoes. I believe that this really increases the available growing space in cities; so much of our good space is paved over, but it is not longer off-limits to creative gardeners!

Fifth, try to reuse your resources in the garden. I wash my produce in a bowl or basin, and then dump that water back into the garden. It conserves water and saves a small amount of good soil from going down the drain. Then compost your food scraps along with any coffee grounds, newspapers, cardboard, and old plant material. Start a compost pile or buy a tumbler, bin, or worm composter. Check and see whether your city or county provides discounts or free bins for people to compost. Each year you will need to continually add organic matter to your garden soil, and compost is a wonderful source of both organic matter and soil nutrients. For plant fertilizer, though, do not rely on your own compost: you will need to add some organic fertilizer as well, which is available from your local nursery. Most kinds have a base of manure or seed meal for nitrogen, plus natural sources of phosphorus and potassium, which are all key plant nutrients. Kelp extract makes a great supplemental source for both trace minerals and natural growth boosters.

Q. If one family could grow one type of food in their small space—in order to save money—what would be the most viable option?

A. I would recommend trying something that is both simple and productive. For a survivalist crop, nothing beats potatoes (and homegrown potatoes taste great!). You would need fields of grain to feed the family, but you can grow a meaningful amount of potatoes in a pretty small space. Spuds pack more calories per square foot of soil than any other crop. They can grow in most climates and in most soils (even poor soils). You can store them for months at a time. You absolutely do not need ground soil to grow potatoes, and even though I have some ground space available, I now grow all my potatoes in containers. So far, all of my container-grown spuds have been completely pest-free and disease-free, so I am able to use the smaller potatoes as seed potatoes for the next crop. Some people grow spuds in garbage cans, stacked tires, wire fencing rolls, and in other unique structures. They are quite prolific and hard to kill, so be creative. Even if you do not treat the plants well (forgetting to water or fertilize as often as you should), you are likely to harvest at least a few pounds per square foot. You can improve your harvest greatly by mixing some compost into the soil, keeping the pH pretty low (by adding a few scoops of peat or pine needles), watering regularly to keep the soil barely moist, AND fertilizing regularly with an organic fertilizer that includes healthy amounts of both phosphorus (P) and potassium/potash (K). Do not use a high nitrogen fertilizer, as this will make the plant grow too vigorously at the expense of the roots and tubers (the edible part). Look for an organic fertilizer with an “N-P-K” number where the “N” is no higher than the “P” or “K”. Most fertilizers for acid plants (azaleas, rhododendrons, etc.) and bulb fertilizers (if the nitrogen is not too high) will work very well for potatoes. Fish emulsion + kelp extract is a nice combination too.

Most first-time gardeners want to grow tomatoes. This is another good choice for a first-time crop. Like their spud relatives, tomatoes are amazingly productive in the home garden and they taste far better than anything you can buy in the store. If you are buying store-bought tomatoes, you can save a lot of money by growing them at home instead. With just 2-3 plants, you may well have enough tomatoes for the whole family and even some left over for drying, canning, giving away, or selling. Tomatoes will grow well in certain containers, provided that these are large enough to accommodate their root system (at least 12-15 gallons of soil capacity). Where light is limited or in cool summer areas, try the smaller-fruited tomatoes such as cherry, plum, and even Roma tomatoes. You are much more likely to ripen a crop with these than with the giant-fruited varieties. If diseases are a problem, choose disease-resistant varieties, and do not feel bad if this includes hybrid varieties rather than heirlooms. Growing hybrids is not a crime against nature; it just means that you cannot save your own seeds for the next generation. Seed catalogs and nurseries feature hundreds of varieties from which to choose.

Q. What are some of the urban gardening techniques you’ve found most effective?

A. Urban gardeners can face some key limitations. The most obvious one is lack of space, but another limitation is lack of light. The only available space for your garden may be shaded by a building next door or a tree overhead. So you may not get the 6-8 hours of full-blast direct sunlight that most gardening books recommend. But the good news is that those other gardening books are wrong here; they were written by people who garden on acres rather than feet or inches. Small-space urban gardeners know that many food plants can grow well in partial sunlight, dappled sunlight, reflected sunlight, or with just a few hours per day of direct sunlight. Leafy greens, legumes, and most root crops can handle limited light and will produce just fine even if the harvest is a little smaller than in full sunlight.

Vertical gardening can help you address both space and light limitations. Even if you do not have much horizontal space, you may have vertical air space or wall space available to grow some crops. Tall plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, and some squash can be trained upwards or even downwards, growing large and productive even if they have a small horizontal footprint. In some urban spaces, there may well be more light higher up (or lower down) that vertical plants can grow into. If your light comes in at an angle, you can grow shorter plants in front of these taller ones. Dwarf fruit trees and some berry plants can be espaliered against walls or fences, growing from a small patch of soil next to a walkway or wall. The branches are trained two-dimensionally so that they spread in height and width against the wall, but do not spread outwards. Pears, apples, stone fruit, persimmons, and hardy kiwis or grapes (with wire or trellis support), and are all candidates for espalier or 2-D training.

Q. I’m planning on starting some seeds indoors this weekend. What type of planter would you suggest, and can I build it myself?

A. You can start seeds in any small container that has adequate root space and drainage. 2-4 inch peat/coir/cow pots, reused plastic pots from the nursery, egg cartons, and the bottoms of milk cartons all make suitable planters for seed starting. A sunny window makes a good spot or else you can use some indoor light to get the little plants going. Fluorescent or Compact Fluorescent light bulbs work well, but you will need to keep the plant seedlings within a foot or two of the bulbs to get enough light energy, and you will need to run the light for at least eight hours per day.

Depending on the variety of seed, you may need to “pot up” (transfer it to a larger pot) after the plant gets its first true leaves and starts to outgrow its old home. You should put your seedling pots on a tray that catches water runoff and it is important not to over-water seedlings (which is tempting to do). Over-watering will increase the likelihood of disease, so keep the soil just barely moist between waterings. As the plants grow, you need to harden them off by gradually exposing them to the outside sunlight, wind, and temperature changes. Pick a nice, mild day and put them outside for half an hour in bright shade, then an hour the next day, and then some more time in the sun, and you get the picture. Then they will be ready to succeed in the garden.

Q. Is fruit from trees grown in lead contaminated soil safe for human consumption? If not, what about birds and animals eating berries?

A. I have not dealt with this personally and do not know much about it. The soil may need some remediation before being used to grow food crops. I would not advise anyone to eat food grown on contaminated soil. There are ways to remediate the soil using certain deep-rooted plants like sunflowers and comfrey, but then the plant matter needs to be disposed of as toxic waste. It is a multi-year procedure which requires some crop rotations and regular soil testing. Anyone interested in this would have to research it more and follow proper procedures.

Q. This might sound weird, but, what about dog poop? Is it toxic?

A. Animal poop CAN contain pathogens and parasites, so it is important to keep this away from food crops. Generally, fresh manure of any sort should not be applied directly to plants, since it can burn them (though there some safe exceptions, like rabbit manure). However, aged and composted manure is an excellent source of plant fertilizer, and the composting process can kill both bad organisms and break down the manure into a compost that is safe and nutritious for plants. Compost of any sort also improves the soil structure by adding more organic matter.

It may sound gross, but both pet poop and human waste (humanure) can be composted for use in gardens as well. You would need to follow proper “hot composting” procedures to kill any potential pathogens or parasites. Because small-scale compost piles and composting bins rarely get hot enough to achieve this, I would discourage small-scale gardeners from composting pet waste. Manure from non-carnivorous animals (e.g., cows, chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats) is a lot safer and makes a great addition to a compost pile.

Q. What types of food work well grown in the “off-season”?

A. A diverse array of salad greens can be grown in cooler seasons in many climates. In the coldest climates, they may need some protection from a small greenhouse, row cover, cloche, or other type of covering. Spinach, arugula, mache, and kale are some examples, along with a bounty of Oriental greens such as Chinese cabbage and mizuna. You could try green onions (scallions) as well. Or plant some root crops earlier (such as beets or carrots) for winter or early spring harvest. Indoors, you can grow sprouts, microgreens, and mushrooms.

Also, if the indoor temperatures do not drop too low, and if you have a sunny spot under a window, you could try growing dwarf citrus trees in containers. They can live outside in warmer seasons and come indoors in winter. Lemons, and some limes and mandarins, do not need as much heat to ripen as oranges and grapefruit do. Most citrus bear during the “off-season” months and do not need pollinators to set fruit. For that matter, if you had a sunny room that did not get particularly cold in the wintertime, you could experiment with a parthenocarpic variety (no pollination needed) of just about anything, from greens beans to cucumbers to tomatoes. Some of these may not ripen with the shorter day length, but there are some amazingly prolific varieties of veggies being developed for “off-season” greenhouse cultivation; the only way to know is to experiment and see what works!

Q. Many more urbanites are raising chickens or keeping bees. How does one deal with zoning laws?

A. Of all the food-growing topics I covered in my book, I have been most surprised by the overwhelming interest in raising chickens for homegrown eggs. This has been a huge trend over the last year or two, and local governments are responding by changing their outdated laws. Most of these ordinances, for public health or zoning reasons, limited the number of chickens or livestock that someone could raise on a city lot. In my book, I go through some examples of these laws. The good news is that many cities have been waking up to the fact that it is not a health hazard, nor is it loud or obnoxious, to allow someone to keep a couple of hens for egg-laying.

A few months ago, I gave a presentation in San Francisco and a gentleman was there who told me a story about how his young granddaughter had wanted to get some chickens but found out they were illegal to have in her town. So this young lady, who I think was in middle school, went to her town’s council meeting and showed them that all of the neighboring cities and towns allowed chickens. And she got them to change their law to allow this as well. So the trend definitely is in that direction, but urban residents should be especially careful to follow any applicable laws. Check with your city, county, or other local authority, and make sure that what you want to do is legal. If it is not, let them know they are in the dark ages.

Q. Is it possible to make an in-apartment root cellar?

A. Any small home might have some good areas for food storage. Even if you are buying most of your food, some produce is cheaper in season and can be stored for periods ranging from weeks to months. An apartment dweller can think of any unused space that may be good for storage, such as a closet, carport, cabinet, or underneath a staircase. There are different temperature and humidity requirements for optimal storage of various fruits and vegetables, and air circulation can be important, so someone interested in serious root cellaring should research this more thoroughly. I do not have a root cellar, but we normally store some apples and winter squash in the garage for later use. In addition, we have enough refrigerator space to store a few beets, kohlrabi, and carrots.

More BPA Research

2009-11-09T18:32:00.001-05:00

Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, is vile stuff—not the kind of thing a smart species knowingly introduces into its ecosystem.

And if a species were to willfully foul its nest with BPA, it would at least be wise to keep it out of direct contact with food.

That’s because BPA is an established endocrine disruptor. In June, the Endocrine Society relased a statement warning of the health threat presented by BPA. According to the statement, low-level exposure to BPA adversely affects male and female reproduction, thyroid function, metabolism, and could increase obesity.

Unhappily, our species hasn’t seen fit to ban BPA production. Instead, we’ve ginned up a robust and profitable market for it. BPA is a building block of plastic—and modern society remains highly dependent on cheap and abundant plastic.

According to a an industry source, U.S. BPA demand is growing at about a 4 percent annual pace. In Asia, the growth rate is much higher. That’s not surprising, given that BPA is commonly used in electronic gadgets, and Asia generally manufactures our electronics.

Nor have we seen fit to protect our food supply from the nasty stuff. Indeed, we literally pack food in it—BPA is a key part of the lining in cans for foodstuffs.

This week, another study has emerged showing that alarming levels of BPA leach out of can liners right into your green beans—and your baby formula. This one, by conducted by Consumers Reports, looked at 19 common supermarket products. “Almost all” of them showed measurable levels of BPA, CR found. Here’s more:

The highest levels of BPA in our tests were found in the canned green beans and canned soup. In Progresso Vegetable Soup, the levels of BPA ranged from 67 to 134 ppb. In Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, the levels of BPA ranged from 54.5 to 102 ppb. Canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans Blue Lake had BPA levels ranging from 35.9 ppb to 191 ppb, the highest amount for a single sample in our test.
What does this mean? “A 165-pound adult eating one serving of canned green beans from our sample, which averaged 123.5 ppb, could ingest about 0.2 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day, about 80 times higher than our experts’ recommended daily upper limit.” (Emphasis added.)

Endocrine disruption, meet political corruption
Of course, the Food and Drug Administration has a much more expansive take on how much BPA exposure a human body can endure without harm than Consumer Reports. An FDA advisory panel found last year that the agency’s “basis for setting safety standards to protect consumers was inadequate and should be re-evaluated,” reports CR. But the FDA still hasn’t adjusted its policy toward BPA, and “Industry has been waging a fight against new regulations,” Consumer Reports says.

Unhappily, the chemical industry exerts major influence over our guardian of food safety. In a superb, must-read, award-worthy special series published this year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed that for years, the FDA has “relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A’s risks.” Sentinel journalists got hold of nine years worth of FDA emails on BPA. Get this:

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy director sought information from the BPA industry’s chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.
Most egregiously, the agency based its 2008 draft review declaring BPA safe on two studies funded by the chemical industry. And that’s not all: an industry trade group “wrote entire sections of that draft.”

While FDA bureaucrats play bump-and-tickle with industry chiefs to form policy on BPA regulations, NGOs have been testing consumer food products and finding significant levels of the damaging substance. The Consumer Union study was only the latest. Back in 2007, Environmental Working Group tested 97 canned products. Over half contained significant levels of BPA.

Infant formula showed particularly poorly: “1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals.” In the two years since the Environmental Working Group tests, how many people have unwittingly exposed themselves—and their children—to endocrine disruption while FDA administrators cravenly kept their mouths shut? And now that yet another set of independent tests have revealed routine BPA contamination of supermarket staples, will the FDA now act?

One hopes, with the Bush Administration out of office, that the FDA will crack down on BPA use by the food industry. But the U.S. market for the stuff is controlled by extremely powerful corporations, including Bayer, Dow, and Sabic, a Saudi-owned chemical giant. Globally, BPA is an industry with $6 billion in sales. With cash like that at stake, Bayer, et al., aren’t going to merely skulk away. ““The industry has launched an unprecedented public relations blitz that uses many of the same tactics—and people—the tobacco industry used in its decades-long fight against regulation,” reports the Journal Sentinel.

Indeed, Big Tobacco and the BPA merchants don’t just share PR flacks: the tobacco companies put BPA in filters. According to the Journal Sentinel, “Lobbyists for tobacco closely followed the government’s assessment of BPA because of concerns that a ban on the chemical would affect cigarette filters and plastic packaging. The two industries share the same lobby firm, the Weinberg Group.”

Seems like a smart species would demand that those entities stop producing BPA—PR blitz withstanding. But that would entail the FDA cutting ties to industry and devoting itself to public health.

Save Money, Save The World, Don't Drink Soda

2009-11-04T09:10:00.001-05:00

That Diet Soda Habit Might Be Killing Your Kidneys

By Deborah R. Huso

If you think you're doing yourself a favor by drinking diet soda instead of the real deal, think again. It's true you may be protecting your waistline from empty calories, but new research suggests you may be beating up your kidneys instead.

Over the weekend, researchers from the Nurses' Health Study in Boston released findings that indicate women who drink two or more diet sodas a day experienced a 30 percent drop in kidney function over the course of a two decades long study. More than 3,000 women participated in the study, the median age being 67. Lead researcher Julie Lin, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, says the outcomes were especially startling because the women surveyed all had health kidney function at the start of the research.

After critically analyzing the beverage intake of study participants, researchers found those who drank two or more diet sodas daily had a significant dip in the kidneys' glomerular filtration rate, which measures kidney function. Natural aging generally results in a decreased filtration rate of about 1 mL per minute per year after age 40. In contrast, the rate of those who consumed diet soda significantly decreased by 3mL per minute per year. The study showed no link between decreased kidney function and other beverages or any decreased function in women who had less than two diet sodas a day.

This doesn't mean your kidneys are safe, however, if you opt for regular sodas. A study published earlier this year in PLoS ONE, a journal of the Public Library of Science, showed that women drinking two or more cans of regular soda a day are nearly twice as likely to suffer from early signs of kidney disease as non-soda drinkers. Researchers don't understand the cause for certain but suspect it has to do with the intake of large amounts of high fructose corn syrup.

With some 26 million Americans suffering from chronic kidney disease, it's obviously become a national health problem. While studies to date on the relationship between kidney function and soda (diet or regular) have been small, they add more fuel to the fire for cutting soda intake, even if you're a diet drinker. When it comes to your health, water is always the best beverage.

The Pines Are Falling!

2009-09-18T19:42:00.003-04:00

Sorry to have yet another project delay my focus here, but there is a good reason. Honest.

The guys finally came to take the pines out. Wooo! We had a 40x60 space filled with pines that had been planted to be sold for Christmas trees. It didn't happen.

So, over the years, some have died, but most have lived, becoming far too tall, weak and dying to save any of them. So, they're down. They're not out, but they're down.

The first picture is taken about from our deck. The pines are in the background, far behind the garage.

The second picture is the view from behind where the pines stood, looking toward the house - which you can't see.

The third, is a compilation of many of the trees on the grown - but only about half.

This last picture is from about the same spot in the yard as the first picture, but with the pines gone.

So now, I get to chip all of the brush - of which there isn't much - and mark the trees to be cut into 10' sections for the hopeful sawmill in the spring. A friend of my brother's owns a portable saw mill and am more than willing to give him much of the wood just for cutting what little I want. We'll see.

Along with this, I have shell beans to pick, shell and can. Mowing, the walk to finish, a couple of quilts and basic every day crap. If my vertigo holds off some, I'll be able to come back soon, since this writing takes very little time. Keep your fingers crossed. It's been relatively bad lately.

Worm Musk

2009-09-15T16:34:00.003-04:00

I made a discovery today that amazed me and slightly disgusted me at the same time.

Much like a snake does when highly stressed, a worm can "musk" you. Why they don't call it what it is - scaring the piss out of them (or shit, as the case may be)? I don't know why they don't just say it like it is, but that's not the point. I've discovered that worms can and do indeed excrete on you as a defense mechanism.

I guess all worms have this ability. I've not found anything to the contrary. I've also seen a picture of the process taking place, and mine didn't look like that. It was clear, colorless and scentless (as far as I could tell). Yes, like a first grader, I had to smell it.

The worm that "did it" to me - a night crawler. And our night crawlers are becoming more numerous and have increasing agility. I swear they're evolving into some new kind of snake. I've never seen worms move with the speed these buggers do.

So, what is this substance the little crapper placed in my hand as I was actually being KIND to him by moving him out of harms way? Coleomic Fluid. Yeah. Say that 10 times fast. Apparently, they have this tube that runs the length of their body that can be filled with this Coelomic Fluid. It does a couple of things - it reserves food for a later date - that would be nice. It transports nitrogenous waste away from the body - waste and extra food together. Mmm. Not so nice. And it works similarly to a hydraulic system, but allowing the worm to create rigid areas with muscular pressure - which helps them move.

Oh yeah - and to crap on other creatures that might be eating them at that particular moment. I'm guessing this last one doesn't work in the animal kingdom since I've never seen a robin turn a worm away. But, if that's my weapon of last resort, I guess I'd be using it too.

Shockingly, I couldn't find a single picture of what actually happened to me. There is one at Composting Red Worms. It's not a very exciting picture, and you can barely see the fluid. It's sad, for those of us who need to be creeped out by strange phenomena.

The slightly interesting part of this - night crawlers are changing our landscape. Literally even. Since those of us who live above the glacier line - such as NYS (gravel pit of America), have absolutely no native worm species. All of our forests and land in general, developed after the glacier left and without a single worm. For this reason, the deep bio matter on the forest floors developed its own little ecosystem, which developed a very large, diverse food chain.

And now, with people paying attention to worms, and worse - FISHING with them - they've invaded our woods, changing them forever. I'm guessing there is no way to remove them all from these remote locations, and thus, the forests will just become a very different ecosystem than what we have become accustomed to. It may spell doom for species like the Wood Thrush and Veerie - who's calls are by far the most beautiful and enchanting you'll ever hear. Or, species higher up on the food chain, will adapt and change their diet to include the new creepy crawlies abounding in the forest litter.

All of this because a worm peed on me.

Washington State Sustainability In Corrections

2009-08-30T15:27:00.001-04:00

Rows and rows of small yellow cylinders fill the greenhouse where Daniel works steadily, beads of sweat forming on his round, bald head as he places tiny seeds in each container. He is planting showy fleabane, an endangered variety of prairie groundcover that will eventually produce purple-petaled blooms worthy of their moniker.

His work is part of a federally funded prairie restoration project, an effort to repair the native grasslands of the Pacific Northwest in areas like Fort Lewis, Wash. But Daniel, who asked that his last name not be used, is not your average horticulturalist. For one thing, his greenhouse is on the grounds of a maximum security prison.

Daniel, as well as many of the men tending seedlings around him, is part of the Sustainable Prisons Project at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in western Washington. The program is a partnership between Evergreen State University and several state correctional facilities that allows offenders to opt in to sustainability-related work projects.

Jason Chandler plants Walla Walla Sweet Onions in the organic garden at Stafford Creek Corrections Center.
Photo: Sarah van SchagenThe liberal-arts university/state penitentiary partnership may sound like an odd pairing—the Evergreen alumni magazine likened it to Maya Angelou dating Dick Cheney—but so far, both parties consider the relationship a success. The scientists get cheap (and eager) labor, while the offenders get the opportunity to participate in meaningful work.

One inmate participating in the pilot program at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center was the senior author of a peer-reviewed paper about the project in an international sustainability journal, and upon his release began pursuing a Ph.D. in biochemistry.

“What I care about is that [the offenders] are exposed to what we can offer in the way of science, the wonder of nature, of thinking critically,” says Nalini Nadkarni, the Evergreen ecologist who helped establish the Sustainable Prisons Project. “Those are all things that when they get back out into society, they will carry with them ... increas[ing] the scientific literacy of our country, and perhaps even more important ... the civic engagement that they have with society.”

The tasks vary across the four prisons that are now part of the sustainability project (administrators hope eventually to expand it statewide), and include tending to organic gardens that provide fresh produce for the kitchen, separating recyclables from the waste stream, beekeeping, and minding composting worms.

The offenders can also participate in a variety of conservation efforts like the prairie restoration, a project being led by The Nature Conservancy. They are also helping breed endangered spotted Oregon frogs and “farm” mosses for the horticultural trade (which aids in preventing unsustainable harvesting from old-growth forests).

Photo: Sarah van SchagenAll of the offenders involved in the program get specialized training and guidance from scientists and other educators working with the corrections centers.

That green-collar job training is key, says Doug Raines, the man behind Stafford Creek’s new beekeeping operation. He knows there are lots of valid reasons to keep bees—honey production, pollination, protection from colony collapse—but he does it to provide job opportunities.

“If I can get one guy a job and he doesn’t come back, then I have paid for everything that we have done, and that’s my reason for having the bees,” Raines says. “It’s one more avenue for employment when they get out of here.”

The offenders aren’t the only ones at the correctional facilities who are benefitting from the project, though. The sustainability efforts are also saving money—a valuable incentive in an economy that has seen significant cuts to the state’s Department of Corrections budget.

When the Cedar Creek facility began to tap out its water supplies, efficiency upgrades like low-flow toilets and showers and a rainwater catchment system helped save 250,000 gallons of water in the summer alone. And the gardening, composting, and recycling efforts are saving the facilities thousands of dollars every year.

“[Correctional facilities] are essentially small cities running 24/7,” says Sustainable Prisons Project Manager Jeff Muse. “If we can make them more sustainable, not only will it save money, save natural resources, and save lives, but it would be an example for all kinds of other institutions, such as military bases, summer camps, hospitals, and schools.”

New Darwin Moth

2009-08-30T15:17:00.003-04:00

Yeah, the 'discovery' occured a year ago, but I just heard about it - so it's news to me.

Very cool!

The Reason I'm Absent

2009-08-27T15:14:00.005-04:00

It's been one of those months. I just think I'm catching up or even getting ahead and a crisis hits.

My dad fell onto the deck from tripping on a badly laid stone in a gravel walk. So - I've been reworking the walk so that it's as level as possible, with steps built in, and all stone rather than gravel and large stones. I'll be filling in with mortar once the hand rails are in and the edging is in. Hopefully the hand rails will be in tomorrow and the edging started. We can only hope!

The first picture is the initial layout of the longest stretch of the walk.

This second pictures is looking from the deck toward the beginning of the walk

The third picture is looking from the second step of the walk, out toward the longest stretch of the walk.

This final picture is of the final step of the day, leading to the 2 concrete steps to access the neighboring parking lot.

The grinding wheels are the center line of the walk, and were my grandfather's when he was alive. He literally worked in his machine shop until the day he died.

The final aspect of this project will be installing hand rails at each step - 3 new and 2 old, edging so the stones stay in place - I had to raise the entire walk several inches to allow for the leveling process. So, in order for the stones to remain where they are and not migrate, I have to edge it somehow. After those 2 little tidbits are finished, the sand can be watered into to place to make it as firm as possible, and the mortar can be poured in, with another good soaking to work it into all of the nooks and crannies to truly hold the stones in place.

All of the stones were already on the property, and so was just a matter of finding them, pulling them out and setting them in place to the best of their abilities.

I'll need this completed in the next few days since I have another huge project looming that I need to do a fair amount of prep work for - tons of trees being felled by some professionals, and then my sister and I working on them to clean the area up. Joy.

Summer Harvest

2009-08-12T14:17:00.002-04:00

Ahh, the joys of summer. It's harvest time! Woo! LOL While I love it, it does make for an exhausting day, week, month.

Today, I harvested my dill. I have 2 pint bags full of dill leaves that are going in the freezer. I'll put the heads out in areas I want it to volunteer for next year, since I have enough bloom heads for my pickles awaiting me in the fridge.

I also harvested beans. The first planting of wax beans will now go to shell. I suppose my green ones will too, since the second planting of both are just starting to come on. I have enough in the freezer for the next full year, but we like them fresh, and I like to give them away, so I'll pick them for awhile before letting them go to shell too. Basically, "going to shell" is letting them grow as big as possible and the shell gets dry and leather. Then, you pick them and shell them and either freeze or can. They are far superior to kidney beans for chili or soups.

I harvested spinach. My spinach didn't do much this year. I hate spinach. LOL But, we've had several meals and tonight's will be as a salad. None to freeze, but I'll live.

And bell peppers. Those will turn into stuffed peppers and frozen to be cooked at a later date.

Onions - I've pulled them, but am letting them dry in the garden some before I bring them in. I planted them mainly for bread and butter pickles, but will keep some for use throughout the winter. I'm not an onion lover, so these would last me a year. However, they won't last for Mom. She uses a LOT of onions.

My tomatoes got ripped out on Monday - Late Blight nailed them. Very sad and frustrating, but it doesn't hit the entire garden, so I just can't argue. And in all honesty, I can't argue too much about the tomatoes. I was actually dreading dealing with them this year. I enjoy canning them, but it does take a lot of time and that's something I tend to have in short supply. And while I LOVE home grown tomatoes, I'll live without them for a year. It'll just make next year's that much better!

Within the next few days will be another 4 pints of beets. They come on about every 10 days, so it's pretty easy to plan around them.

I have coriander galore since I never harvested it as cilantro. I may do a very small bag of leaves, but may not too. I think I'll harvest the seed and see if anyone wants any. Just because I can!

So, with all of that done, I shouldn't need to deal with the garden again for another 3 days, which means I'll be able to focus on the flower beds, 2 of which are in serious need. 1, Mom wants replanted entirely, and another needs weeding.

Summer Time And The Living Is Easy

2009-08-08T14:09:00.002-04:00

I don't know that it's easy, but it's not cold. That's about all I'll give it for now. LOL

I am in the process of canning a bushel of peaches. I've gotten 14 pints finished thus far, and probably about that again in the next few days. Plus, a batch of peach nectar jelly and peach jam.

Am going to try a new way of canning. It's the same method, just a different syrup. Since I boil the skins, pits and bruised areas for jelly anyway, I thought I'd use part of a batch of that as the syrup base, rather than plain water. Add the sugar at the concentration I'd like - usually a light syrup - heat it to boiling and add it to the jars just like regular syrup.

The peaches should be a nicer color, and have a far better flavor than being watered down by plain syrup. I'll try it for the rest of this bushel, but no more than that since, if it doesn't work, that's an awful lot of mediocre peaches to eat.

And yes, the whole process is time consuming. And HOT. But it's enjoyable. And when you see an entire shelf of peaches glowing at you, it is SO worth it!

This year, the savings will be double that of last year. A bushel last year was $50. This year, only $20. They were smaller ones - well, I don't need huge peaches just to can and make jam! I don't care! I'm not canning for the state fair, and slice them up anyway. Why use the huge dinner peaches?

And the savings to the environment - HUGE. Less than 100 miles to get them here. Virtually no chemicals used in growing them. And my processing, which uses the microwave as much as possible to cut down on the heat in the kitchen. Process as much as you can at once to take advantage of the water already boiling and you're using even less. I would guess we're no worse than even - 1 calorie of energy to produce for 1 calorie of eating. Standard energy consumption for industrial food in the US is 10-20 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie for eating.

I'm liking life. It may not be Porgy and Bess easy, but it could be a whole lot worse.

Rain Water Never Felt So Good

2009-08-03T19:51:00.006-04:00

Here in the North East US, we hardly need any more rain. Entire crops are ruined due to how much rain we get and the frequency with which we are getting it. Or, are we just spoiled from many years off average?

To look at my great great grandmother's diaries (yes, we have them! 1894-1924), the frequency of rain was twice what we have been averaging for at least the last decade. And the creek across the road from my house proves it.

Growing up, that creek never ran dry. Ever. It always ran fast and quite often, mid-shin depth. There used to be a ferry across the Susquehanna just down the road - Harper's Ferry. Now, the creek is barely above the top of a person's foot, even with 4" of rain in July and 3/4" of rain the first 2 days of August. The ferry? Long gone. Even if we didn't have bridges every few miles, the water is so low no ferry could think about crossing. Most places, the water is no more than knee deep.

That tells me 2 things - we aren't getting enough rain, and we've overdeveloped our land. For another article that goes more in depth about this, click here. I have theories on droughts and drought monitoring that you might wish to explore - and even discuss!
I'm all ears and would love to hear view points after you read this...

So yes, we've had a rainy slightly below average temperature summer thus far. It's sad that our crops are drowning, rotting, molding in the fields. There are many factors that created the issue. But it doesn't successfully create an argument about not collecting rain water and not trying to keep it on the land, rather than usher it away as quickly as possible. Look at the ways I've discussed in collecting rain water or using the water from your roof and driveway without actually collecting it. It makes life far easier, greener and healthier for all.

Rain's Plenty

2009-07-29T14:20:00.003-04:00

It is an absolutely gorgeous day. It started out muggy and sweaty and sticky, but then it started sprinkling. Within a half hour, it was a wonderful downpour. So far, we've gotten just over a half inch.

During that time, I was out playing, er, I mean *working* on the irrigation ditches I've got set up to take water away from the garage, and then also into the lower part of the side yard. Now that I'm back inside, out of my drippy clothes and enjoying watching it rain, I decided to make some calculations as only a nerd who likes to play in th rain can do...

There are 231 cubic inches in every US gallon. So, estimating the run-off from the one part of the roof and the portion of the driveway that I have draining into the side yard, I channel almost 200 gallons per 1/2" of rain. I'm also allowing another 200 gallons to be absorbed by a maple tree's drip line, rather than sitting on the garage foundation by having a trench dug to spread the water out.

Both of these ditches, with 1 having 2 branches to spread the wealth even more, means I'll have healthier perennials and far less run-off into town storm drains. It's free water! Why not use it?

Complete The Streets

2009-07-27T20:07:00.002-04:00

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.

Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.

Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

Here's July 22, 2009 Blog Post from Complete The Streets website:

By Stefanie Seskin, on July 22nd, 2009
Complete streets news comes in daily now, so we’re going to start a new feature in our blog to keep everyone - including us! - up to speed.

Hennepin County, MN: The Hennepin County Board unanimously approved a full complete streets policy on July 14. The policy integrates complete streets principles and practices into transportation and development projects across the county, recognizing need for flexibility in application. The policy is on page 188 of July 14’s County Board Packet.

Los Angeles, CA: The Green LA Transportation Working Group made a presentation on how to gain traction for complete streets in the city. (Green LA)

Lee’s Summit, MO: City Council is one step closer to adopting Lee’s Summit 360 Strategic Plan, the new long-term guide for growth and sustainability that includes a vision of complete streets citywide. The final plan will be presented on August 6, when Council will vote on adopting it. (Lee’s Summit Journal)

Buffalo, NY: Main Street in Downtown Buffalo, with a median, bike lanes, and new street trees, is the first complete street project under the City’s year-old complete streets policy. (Buffalo Rising)

Oswego, NY: Kathleen Harris, 92, spent three years walking hundreds of miles of sidewalks, documenting their poor condition. An unstoppable force for quality pedestrian accomodations! (CBS News)

North Carolina: Conservation Council of North Carolina’s recent newsletter discusses the DOT’s new Complete Streets Policy - “a big move for environmentally-friendly alternative transportation” (Jackson County Citizens Action Group)

Save Money, Save The World - Mow Less

2009-07-26T12:45:00.005-04:00

I wrote this for the Treenex site a few weeks ago.

Mowing season has been longer in the North East US because of a cool, wet month of June. Mowing is at least a twice weekly chore – still! Who has that kind of time? Well, there are many ways you can reduce the amount and the frequency you mow.

Why is this important? There are at least 2 reasons and they both revolve around the air we breathe.

Emissions

If you use a gas powered mower of any kind, you’re emissions for the time you mow equal those of at least 4 cars idling in your driveway. Riding mowers emit more than push mowers, by volume mowed. This means even if you finish sooner, you’ve still emitted more COx’s, NOx’s, and SOx’s. Ew! And since the small engines are just starting to be regulated for emission control, it will be more than a decade until reduced emission models are common place.

Carbon Sequestration and Air Filtration

Because mowing grass less often means fewer emissions, it means the grass is allowed to do more to filter and use carbon that is already in the air. I’ll cover more on this very soon.

How To Mow Less (Before)

Set your mower up higher
By setting your mower to 3″ (7.5 cm) or more, you more rapidly achieve the above mentioned goals.

Healthier grass is longer grass.
Longer grass is able to retain moisture better by shading its roots and having a more complex root system. Generally speaking, the longer the grass blade, the longer the root. So not only is there less evaporation (not what the blades give off, but what is directly evaporated by the sun and breeze), the grass has a chance to reach for more water that is deeper in the soil. You’ll have less irrigating to do and your grass will still be green during periods of drought. Longer grass also hinders weeds from getting a foot hold since the shade is so dense. This doesn’t allow for adequate sunlight to reach seeds or seedlings. All of these things make it so fewer chemicals are necessary for a green thick carpet of grass.

Less Frequent Mowings
Grasses that are typically chosen for lawns have a short mature length. This means they won’t grow to be a 3 foot tall stem of grass if left to its own devices. As they approach their mature length, they naturally slow their growth rate. By allowing the grass to stay longer like this, the more slowly it will strive to achieve its mature length/height. This results in needing to mow less frequently.

Longer grass also means an increase in photosynthesis and air filtration. The more green volume you have, the more filtration of dust and small particles occurs and the more photosynthesis occurs. Carbon dioxide is converted to plant nutrients with oxygen released as a by-product. Having an increase in green volume means you have an increase in carbon utilization and oxygen production.

Say your grass length is generally 2 1/2″ inches (6 1/4 cm) and your lawn is 25′x30′ (7.6 m x 9.1m). Changing from that 2 1/2″ to 3″ doesn’t seem like a huge change, does it? Well, when you calculate the green volume (length x width x height), you’ll find that you’re adding a huge sum! It would be as if you’re adding another 250 square feet of 2 1/2″ grass to your lawn! All for free and no added effort!

Increase Your Speed
By increasing the speed with which you mow, you decrease the amount of time the engine is running, reducing emissions. Most mowers have various speeds to move, so find one that is just slightly uncomfortably fast.

Change Your Pattern
By changing how you mow, you will spend less time mowing as well. If you have large areas to mow, mow in a spiral. This virtually eliminates the need to stop and turn, which makes mowing more efficient and faster for you! If you have smaller areas, choose the angle that allows you the longest distance between turns. It isn’t quite as efficient as spiral mowing, but it works very well.

Reduce engine speed.
Most engines also have a variable speed factor to them. Play with this a bit, but mow at the lowest possible engine speed. This will also reduce emissions (in theory – older engines often run cleanest at their highest setting).

Reduce The Amount Of Space Mowed (after)
By creating unmown spaces – not decks or walks or impervious ground covers – you decrease the need to mow, decreasing emissions. By making areas into garden spaces, you are also significantly increasing filtration rates. Microbes in the soil do massive amounts of filtration on air born chemicals. They also do quite a bit for carbon sequestration. So, between the open soil space and the perennial plants you place in there, you are increasing photosynthesis and air filtration.
And as I alway say, the less I mow, the less I mow! LOL I’d far rather spend time looking at my flower beds than sweating behind a mower.

Results
In the last 5 years, I have focused on reducing the amount of mowing our property requires. I have reduced it by at least 1/3, and more likely 1/2 by increasing the number and space of flower beds, raising the height on the mower and reducing the number of times I mow different areas. Drought prone areas are mown 1/2 as often as the more rapidly growing areas. Rather than mow for an hour each time, I’m mowing for 20-30 minutes. People rave about the flower beds and I get to sit on my deck and watch the bees and hummingbirds do their job!

As you can see, it takes time and a small amount of effort, but doing so actually reduces your efforts substantially AND helps the environment. How much better can it get?

Preventing Obesity In The US

2009-07-24T13:36:00.003-04:00

Reported by:

Laura Kettel Khan, PhD; Kathleen Sobush, MS, MPH; Dana Keener, PhD; Kenneth Goodman, MA; Amy Lowry, MPA; Jakub Kakietek, MPH; Susan Zaro, MPH3

Summary
Approximately two thirds of U.S. adults and one fifth of U.S. children are obese or overweight.

During 1980--2004, obesity prevalence among U.S. adults doubled, and recent data indicate an estimated 33% of U.S. adults are overweight (body mass index [BMI] 25.0--29.9), 34% are obese (BMI ≥30.0), including nearly 6% who are extremely obese (BMI ≥40.0).

The prevalence of being overweight among children and adolescents increased substantially during 1999--2004, and approximately 17% of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight (defined as at or above the 95% percentile of the sex-specific BMI for age growth charts).

Being either obese or overweight increases the risk for many chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and stroke). Reversing the U.S. obesity epidemic requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach that uses policy and environmental change to transform communities into places that support and promote healthy lifestyle choices for all U.S. residents.

Environmental factors (including lack of access to full-service grocery stores, increasing costs of healthy foods and the lower cost of unhealthy foods, and lack of access to safe places to play and exercise) all contribute to the increase in obesity rates by inhibiting or preventing healthy eating and active living behaviors.

Recommended strategies and appropriate measurements are needed to assess the effectiveness of community initiatives to create environments that promote good nutrition and physical activity. To help communities in this effort, CDC initiated the Common Community Measures for Obesity Prevention Project (the Measures Project). The objective of the Measures Project was to identify and recommend a set of strategies and associated measurements that communities and local governments can use to plan and monitor environmental and policy-level changes for obesity prevention.

This report describes the expert panel process that was used to identify 24 recommended strategies for obesity prevention and a suggested measurement for each strategy that communities can use to assess performance and track progress over time.

The 24 strategies are divided into six categories:
1) strategies to promote the availability of affordable healthy food and beverages),
2) strategies to support healthy food and beverage choices,
3) a strategy to encourage breastfeeding,
4) strategies to encourage physical activity or limit sedentary activity among children and youth, 5) strategies to create safe communities that support physical activity, and
6) a strategy to encourage communities to organize for change.

(Edited for length - honest!)

1. Communities Should Increase Availability of Healthier Food and Beverage Choices in Public Service Venues

Overview

Limited availability of healthier food and beverage options can be a barrier to healthy eating and drinking. Healthier food and beverage choices include, but are not limited to, low energy dense foods and beverages with low sugar, fat, and sodium content (11). Schools are a key venue for increasing the availability of healthier foods and beverages for children. Other public service venues positioned to influence the availability of healthier foods include after-school programs, child care centers, community recreational facilities (e.g., parks, playgrounds, and swimming pools), city and county buildings, prisons, and juvenile detention centers. Improving the availability of healthier food and beverage choices (e.g., fruits, vegetables, and water) might increase the consumption of healthier foods.

Evidence

CDC's Community Guide reports insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of multicomponent school-based nutrition initiatives designed to increase fruit and vegetable intake and decrease fat and saturated fat intake among school-aged children (22,23). However, systematic research reviews have reported an association between the availability of fruits and vegetables and increased consumption (24,25). Farm-to-school salad bar programs, which deliver produce from local farms to schools, have been shown to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among students (12). A 2-year randomized control trial of a school-based environmental intervention that increased the availability of lower-fat foods in cafeteria à la carte areas indicated that sales of lower-fat foods increased among adolescents attending schools exposed to the intervention (26).

2. Communities Should Improve Availability of Affordable Healthier Food and Beverage Choices in Public Service Venues

Overview

Healthier foods generally are more expensive than less-healthy foods (28), which can pose a significant barrier to purchasing and consuming healthier foods, particularly for low-income consumers. Healthier foods and beverages include, but are not limited to, foods and beverages with low energy density and low calorie, sugar, fat, and sodium content (11). Healthier food and beverage choices need to be both available and affordable for persons to consume them.

Strategies to improve the affordability of healthier foods and beverages include lowering prices of healthier foods and beverages and providing discount coupons, vouchers redeemable for healthier foods, and bonuses tied to the purchase of healthier foods. Pricing strategies create incentives for purchasing and consuming healthier foods and beverages by lowering the prices of such items relative to less healthy foods. Pricing strategies that can be applied in public service venues (e.g., schools and recreation centers) include, but are not limited to, decreasing the prices of healthier foods sold in vending machines and in cafeterias and increasing the price of less healthy foods and beverages at concession stands.

Evidence

Research has demonstrated that reducing the cost of healthier foods increases the purchase of healthier foods (29,30). For example, one study indicated that sales of fruits and carrots in high-school cafeterias increased after prices were reduced (31). In addition, interventions that reduced the price of healthier, low-fat snacks in vending machines in school and work settings have been demonstrated to increase purchasing of healthier snacks (32,33). A recent study estimated that a subsidized 10% price reduction on fruits and vegetables would encourage low-income persons to increase their daily consumption of fruits from 0.96 cup to 0.98--1.01 cups and increase their daily consumption of vegetables from 1.43 cups to 1.46--1.50 cups, compared with the recommended 1.80 cups of fruits and 2.60 cups of vegetables (34).

Furthermore, interventions that provide coupons redeemable for healthier foods and bonuses tied to the purchase of healthier foods increase purchase and consumption of healthier foods in diverse populations, including university students, recipients of services from the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and low-income seniors (35--37). For example, one community-based intervention indicated that WIC recipients who received weekly $10 vouchers for fresh produce increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables compared with a control group and sustained the increase 6 months after the intervention (38).

3. Communities Should Improve Geographic Availability of Supermarkets in Underserved Areas
Overview

Supermarkets and full-service grocery stores have a larger selection of healthy food (e.g., fruits and vegetables) at lower prices compared with smaller grocery stores and convenience stores. However, research suggests that low-income, minority, and rural communities have fewer supermarkets as compared with more affluent areas (39,40). Increasing the number of supermarkets in areas where they are unavailable or where availability is limited is might increase access to healthy foods, particularly for economically disadvantaged populations.

Evidence

Greater access to nearby supermarkets is associated with healthier eating behaviors (39). For example, a cross-sectional study of approximately 10,000 participants indicated that blacks living in neighborhoods with at least one supermarket were more likely to consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables than blacks living in neighborhoods without supermarkets. Further, blacks consumed 32% more fruits and vegetables for each additional supermarket located in their census tract (41). Another study indicated that increasing the number of supermarkets in underserved neighbors increased real estate values, increased economic activity and employment, and resulted in lower food prices (42).

One cross-sectional study linked height and weight data from approximately 70,000 adolescents to data on food store availability (43). The results indicated that, after controlling for socioeconomic status, greater availability of supermarkets was associated with lower adolescent BMI scores and that a higher prevalence of convenience stores was related to higher BMI among students. The association between supermarket availability and weight was stronger for black students and for students whose mothers worked full-time (43).

4. Communities Should Provide Incentives to Food Retailers to Locate in and/or Offer Healthier Food and Beverage Choices in Underserved Areas

Overview

Healthier foods and beverages include but are not limited to foods and beverages with low energy density and low calorie, sugar, fat, and sodium content as defined by IOM (11). Disparities in the availability of healthier foods and beverages between communities with different income levels, ethnic composition, and other characteristics are well documented, and limited availability of healthier food and beverage choices in underserved communities constitutes a substantial barrier to improving nutrition and preventing obesity (41).

To address this issue, communities can provide incentives to food retailers (e.g., supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience and corner stores, and street vendors) to offer a greater variety of healthier food and beverage choices in underserved areas. Such incentives, both financial and nonfinancial, can be offered to encourage opening new retail outlets in areas with limited shopping options, and existing corner and convenience stores (which typically depend on sales of alcohol, tobacco, and sugar-sweetened beverages) into neighborhood groceries selling healthier foods (44). Financial incentives include but are not limited to tax benefits and discounts, loans, loan guarantees, and grants to cover start-up and investment costs (e.g., improving refrigeration and warehouse capacity). Nonfinancial incentives include supportive zoning, and increasing the capacity of small businesses through technical assistance in starting up and maintaining sales of healthier foods and beverages.

Evidence

The presence of retail venues that provide healthier foods and beverages is associated with better nutrition. Cross-sectional studies indicate that the presence of retail venues offering healthier food and beverage choices is associated with increased consumption of fruits and vegetables and lower BMI (45). One study indicated that every additional supermarket within a given census tract was associated with a 32% increase in the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed by persons living in that census tract (40). Another study indicated that greater availability of supermarkets was associated with lower adolescent BMI scores and a higher prevalence of convenience stores was related to higher BMI among students (43). The association between supermarket availability and weight was stronger for black students compared with white and Hispanic students, and stronger for students whose mothers work full-time compared with those whose mothers work part-time or do not work (43).

5. Communities Should Improve Availability of Mechanisms for Purchasing Foods from Farms

Overview

Mechanisms for purchasing food directly from farms include farmers' markets, farm stands, community-supported agriculture, "pick your own," and farm-to-school initiatives. Experts suggest that these mechanisms have the potential to increase opportunities to consume healthier foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, by possibly reducing costs of fresh foods through direct sales; making fresh foods available in areas without supermarkets; and harvesting fruits and vegetables at ripeness rather than at a time conducive to shipping, which might improve their nutritional value and taste (M. Hamm, PhD, Michigan State University, personal communication, 2008).

Evidence

Evidence supporting a direct link between purchasing foods from farms and improved diet is limited. Two studies of initiatives to encourage participation in the Seniors Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (46) and the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (47) report either increased intention to eat more fruits and vegetables or increased utilization of the program; however, neither study reported direct evidence that the programs resulted in increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. The Farmers' Market Salad Bar Program in the Santa Monica--Malibu Unified School District aims to increase students' consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and to support local farmers by purchasing produce directly from local farmers' markets and serving them in the district's school lunch program. An evaluation of the program over a 2-year period demonstrated that 30%--50% of students chose the salad bar on any given day (48). Access to farm foods varies between agricultural and metropolitan areas.

6. Communities Should Provide Incentives for the Production, Distribution, and Procurement of Foods from Local Farms

Overview

Currently the United States is not producing enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and dairy products for all U.S. citizens to eat the quantities of these foods recommended by the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans (27,49). Providing incentives to encourage the production, distribution, and procurement of food from local farms aims might increase the availability and consumption of locally produced foods by community residents, enhance the ability of the food system to provide sufficient quantities of healthier foods, and increase the viability of local farms and food security for communities (M. Hamm, PhD, Michigan State University, personal communication, 2008). Definitions of "local" vary by place and context but may include the area of the foodshed (i.e. a geographic area that supplies a population center with food), food grown within a day's driving distance of the place of sale, or a smaller area such as a city and its surroundings. Incentives to encourage local food production can include forming grower cooperatives, instituting revolving loan funds, and building markets for local farm products through economic development and through collaborations with the Cooperative Extension Service (50). Additional incentives include but are not limited to farmland preservation, marketing of local crops, zoning variances, subsidies, streamlined license and permit processes, and the provision of technical assistance.

Evidence

Evidence suggests that dispersing agricultural production in local areas around the country (e.g., through local farms and urban agriculture) would increase the amount of produce that could be grown and made available to local consumers, improve economic development at the local level (51,52), and contribute to environmental sustainability (53). Although no evidence has been published to link local food production and health outcomes, a study has been funded to explore the potential nutritional and health benefits of eating locally grown foods (A. Ammerman, DrPH, University of North Carolina Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, personal communication, 2009).

7. Communities Should Restrict Availability of Less Healthy Foods and Beverages in Public Service Venues

Overview

Less healthy foods and beverages include foods and beverages with a high calorie, fat, sugar, and sodium content, and a low nutrient content. Less healthy foods are more available than healthier foods in U.S. schools (54). The availability of less healthy foods in schools is inversely associated with fruit and vegetable consumption and is positively associated with fat intake among students (55). Therefore, restricting access to unhealthy food options is one component of a comprehensive plan for better nutrition.

Schools can restrict the availability of less healthy foods by setting standards for the types of foods sold, restricting access to vending machines, banning snack foods and food as rewards in classrooms, prohibiting food sales at certain times of the school day, or changing the locations where unhealthy competitive foods are sold. Other public service venues that could also restrict the availability of less healthy foods include after-school programs, regulated child care centers, community recreational facilities (e.g., parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, and swimming pools), city and county buildings, and prisons and juvenile detention centers.

Evidence

No peer-reviewed studies were identified that examined the impact of interventions designed to restrict the availability of less healthy foods in public service venues. Federal nutritional guidelines prohibit the sale of foods of "minimal nutritional value" in school cafeterias while meals are being served. However, the guidelines currently do not prevent or restrict the sale of these foods in vending machines near the cafeteria or in other school locations (11). Certain states and school districts have developed more restrictive policies regarding competitive foods; 21 states have policies that restrict the sale of competitive foods beyond USDA regulations (56). However, no studies were identified that examined the impact of the policies in those states on student eating behavior.

8. Communities Should Institute Smaller Portion Size Options in Public Service Venues

Overview

Portion size can be defined as the amount (e.g. weight, calorie content, or volume) of a single food item served in a single eating occasion (e.g. a meal or a snack), such as the amount offered to a person in a restaurant, in the packaging of prepared foods, or the amount a person chooses to put on his or her plate (23). Controlling portion size is important because research has demonstrated that persons often either 1) do not notice differences in portion sizes and unknowingly eat larger amounts when presented with a larger portion or 2) when eating larger portions, do not consume fewer calories at subsequent meals or during the rest of the day (57).

Evidence

Evidence is lacking to demonstrate the effectiveness of population-based interventions aimed at reducing portion sizes in public service venues. However, evidence from clinical studies conducted in laboratory settings demonstrates that decreasing portion size decreases energy intake (58--60). This finding holds across a wide variety of foods and different types of portions (e.g., portions served on a plate, sandwiches, or prepackaged foods such as potato chips). Clinical studies conducted in nonlaboratory settings demonstrate that increased portion size leads to increased energy intake (61,62). The majority of studies that evaluated the impact of portion size on nutritional outcomes were short term, producing little evidence regarding the long-term impact of portion size on eating patterns, nutrition, and obesity (23). Intervention studies are underway that evaluate the impact of limiting portion size, combined with other strategies to prevent obesity in workplaces (63).

9. Communities Should Limit Advertisements of Less Healthy Foods and Beverages

Overview

Research has demonstrated that more than half of television advertisements viewed by children and adolescents are food-related; the majority of them promote fast foods, snack foods, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverage products, and other less healthy foods that are easily purchased by youths (11). In 2006, major food and beverage marketers spent $1.6 billion to promote food and beverage products among children and adolescents in the United States (64). Television advertising has been determined to influence children to prefer and request high-calorie and low-nutrient foods and beverages and influences short-term consumption among children aged 2--11 years (65). Therefore, limiting advertisements of less healthy foods might decrease the purchase and consumption of such products. Legislation to limit advertising of less healthy foods and beverages usually is introduced at the federal or state level. However, local governing bodies, such as district level school boards, might have the authority to limit advertisements of less healthy foods and beverages in areas within their jurisdiction (9).

Evidence

Little evidence is available regarding the impact of restricting advertising on purchasing and consumption of less healthy foods (11,22,66,67). However, cross-sectional time-series studies of tobacco-control efforts suggest that an association exists between advertising bans and decreased tobacco consumption (22,68). One study estimated that a ban on fast-food advertising on children's television programs could reduce the number of overweight children aged 3--11 years by 18% and the number of overweight adolescents aged 12--18 years by 14% (69). Limited bans of advertising, which include some media but not others (e.g., television but not newspapers), might have little or no effect as the food and beverage industry might redirect its advertising efforts to media not included in the ban, thus limiting researchers' ability to detect causal effects (68).

10. Communities Should Discourage Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Overview

Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (e.g., carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, flavored sweetened milk, and fruit drinks) among children and adolescents has increased dramatically since the 1970s and is associated with higher daily caloric intake and greater risk of obesity (70). Although consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages occurs most often in the home, schools and child care centers also contribute to the problem either by serving sugar-sweetened beverages or by allowing children to purchase sugar-sweetened beverages from vending machines (70). Policies that restrict the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages and 100% fruit juice in schools and child care centers might discourage the consumption of high-caloric beverages among children and adolescents.

Evidence

One longitudinal study of a school-based environmental intervention conducted among Native American high school students that combined education to decrease the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and increase knowledge of diabetes risk factors with the development of a youth-oriented fitness center demonstrated a substantial reduction in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages for a 3-year period (71). A randomized control study of a home-based environmental intervention that eliminated sugar-sweetened beverages from the homes of a diverse group of adolescents demonstrated that, among heavier adolescents, the intervention resulted in significantly (p = 0.03) greater reduction in BMI scores compared with the control group (72).

11. Communities Should Increase Support for Breastfeeding

Overview

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 4--6 months of life, and breastfeeding together with the age-appropriate introduction of complementary foods is encouraged for the first year of life. Epidemiologic data suggest that breastfeeding provides a limited degree of protection against childhood obesity, although the reasons for this association are not clear (11). Breastfeeding is thought to promote an infant's ability to self regulate energy intake, thereby allowing him or her to eat in response to internal hunger and satiety cues (73). Some research suggests that the metabolic/hormonal cues provided by breastmilk contribute to the protective association between breastfeeding and childhood obesity (74). Despite the many advantages of breastfeeding, many women choose to bottle-feed their babies for a variety of reasons, including social and structural barriers to breastfeeding, such as attitudes and policies regarding breastfeeding in health-care settings and public and work places (75).

Breastfeeding support programs aim to increase the initiation and exclusivity rate of breastfeeding and to extend the duration of breastfeeding. Such programs include a variety of interventions in hospitals and workplaces (e.g., setting up breastfeeding facilities, creating a flexible work environment that allows breastfed infants to be brought to work, providing onsite child care services, and providing paid maternity leaves), and maternity care (e.g., polices and staff training programs that promote early breastfeeding initiation, restricting the availability of supplements or pacifiers, and providing facilities that accommodate mothers and babies). The CDC Guide to Breastfeeding Interventions identifies the following general areas of interventions and programs as effective in supporting breastfeeding: 1) maternity care practices, 2) support for breastfeeding in the workplace, 3) peer support, 4) educating mothers, 5) professional support, and 6) media and community-wide campaigns (76).

Evidence

Evidence directly linking environmental interventions that support breastfeeding with obesity-related outcomes is lacking. However, systematic reviews of epidemiologic studies indicate that breastfeeding helps prevent pediatric obesity: breastfed infants were 13%--22% less likely to be obese than formula-fed infants (77,78), and each additional month of breastfeeding was associated with a 4% decrease in the risk of obesity (79). Furthermore, one study demonstrated that infants fed with low (<20%>80% of feedings from breastmilk) (80).

Systematic reviews indicate that support programs in health-care settings are effective in increasing rates of breastfeeding initiation and in preventing early cessation of breastfeeding. Training medical personnel and lay volunteers to promote breastfeeding decreases the risk for early cessation of breastfeeding by 10% (81) and that education programs increase the likelihood of the initiation of breastfeeding among low-income women in the United States by approximately twofold (75).

One systematic review did not identify any randomized control trials that have tested the effectiveness of workplace-wide interventions promoting breastfeeding among women returning to paid employment (82). However, one study demonstrated that women who directly breastfed their infant at work and/or pumped breast milk at work breastfed at a higher intensity than women who did not breastfeed or pump breast milk at work (83). Furthermore, evaluations of individual interventions aimed at supporting breastfeeding in the workplace demonstrate increased initiation rates and duration of breastfeeding compared with national averages (76).

12. Communities Should Require Physical Education in Schools

Overview

This strategy supports the Healthy People 2010 objective (objective no. 22.8) to increase the proportion of the nation's public and private schools that require daily PE for all students (15). The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend that all elementary school students should participate in >150 minutes per week of PE and that all middle and high school students should participate in >225 minutes of PE per week for the entire school year (84). School-based PE increases students' level of physical activity and improves physical fitness (23).

Many states mandate some level of PE in schools: 36 states mandate PE for elementary-school students, 33 states mandate PE for middle-school students, and 42 states mandate PE for high-school students (84). However, to what extent these requirements are enforced is unclear, and only two states (Louisiana and New Jersey) mandate the recommended >150 minutes per week of PE classes. Potential barriers to implementing PE classes in schools include concerns among school administrators that PE classes compete with traditional academic curricula or might detract from students' academic performance. However, a Community Guide review identified no evidence that time spent in PE classes harms academic performance (23).

Evidence

In a systematic review of 14 studies, the Community Guide demonstrated that school-based PE was effective in increasing levels of physical activity and improving physical fitness (23). The review included studies of interventions that increased the amount of time spent in PE classes, the amount of time students are active during PE classes, or the amount of moderate or vigorous physical activity (MVPA) students engage in during PE classes.

Most studies that correlated school-based PE classes and the physical activity and fitness of students focused on the quality and duration of PE classes (e.g., the amount of physical activity during class, the amount of MVPA) rather than simply whether PE was required. However, requiring that PE classes be taught in schools is a necessary minimum condition for measuring the effectiveness of efforts to improve school-based PE class curricula.

13. Communities Should Increase the Amount of Physical Activity in PE Programs in Schools

Overview

Time spent in PE classes does not necessarily mean that students are physically active during that time. Increasing the amount of physical activity in school-based PE classes has been demonstrated to be effective in increasing fitness among children. Specifically, increasing the amount of time children are physically active in class, increasing the number of children moving as part of a game or activity (e.g., by modifying game rules so that more students are moving at any given time, or by changing activities to those where all participants stay active), and increasing the amount of moderate to vigorous activity during class time are effective strategies for increasing physical activity.

Evidence

In a review of 14 studies, the Community Guide demonstrated strong evidence of effectiveness for enhancing PE classes taught in school by increasing the amount of time students spend in PE class, the amount of time they are active during PE classes, or the amount of MVPA they engage in during PE classes (23). The median effect of modifying school PE curricula as recommended was an 8% increase in aerobic fitness among school-aged children. Modifying school PE curricula was effective in increasing physical activity across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic populations, among males and females, in elementary and high schools, and in urban and rural settings.

A quasi-experimental study of the Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK) school PE program, which is designed to maximize participation in physical activity during PE classes, demonstrated that the program increased physical activity during PE classes but the effect did not carry over outside of school (85). The study identified no significant effects on fitness levels among boys (p = 29--55), but girls in the classes led by a PE specialist were superior in abdominal and cardio respiratory endurance to girls in the control condition (p = 0.03). The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) is another intervention which aims to increase MVPA in children during PE classes. A randomized, controlled field trail of CATCH that was conducted with more than 5,000 third-grade students from 96 public schools over a 3-year period indicated that the intensity of physical activity in PE classes (class time devoted to MVPA) during the intervention increased significantly in the intervention schools compared with the control schools (p<0.02) (86).

The background and training of teachers who deliver PE curricula might mediate the effect of interventions on physical activity. For example, one study indicated that SPARK classes led by PE specialists spent more time per week in physical activity (40 minutes) than classes led by regular teachers who had received training in the curriculum (33 minutes) (85).

14. Communities Should Increase Opportunities for Extracurricular Physical Activity

Overview

Opportunities for extracurricular physical activity outside of school hours to complement formal PE increasingly are an important strategy to prevent obesity in children and youth (11). This strategy focuses on noncompetitive physical activity opportunities such as games and dance classes available through community and after-school programs, and excludes participation in varsity team sports or sport clubs, which require tryouts and are not open to all students. Research has demonstrated that after-school programs that provide opportunities for extracurricular physical activity increase children's level of physical activity and improve other obesity-related outcomes.

Evidence

Intervention studies have demonstrated that participation in after-school programs that provided opportunities for extracurricular physical activity held both at schools and other community settings increased participants' level of physical activity (87,88) and improved obesity-related outcomes, such as improved cardiovascular fitness and reduced body fat content (89). Two pilot studies demonstrated that providing opportunities for extracurricular physical activity increased levels of physical activity (90) and decreased sedentary behavior (91) among participants.

The Promoting Life Activity in Youth (PLAY) program is designed to teach active lifestyle habits to children and help them to accumulate 30--60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. One study indicated that participation in PLAY and PE had a significant impact on physical activity among girls (p<0.001) but not for boys (90). Lack of access is a barrier that might limit the impact of increased availability of opportunities for extracurricular physical activity. In East Palo Alto, California, where the city provided buses from schools to the community center, 70% of the eligible girls attended dance classes at least 2 days a week. In Oakland, where the city did not provide buses, only 33% of eligible girls attended the class two or more times a week (91).

15. Communities Should Reduce Screen Time in Public Service Venues

Overview

Mechanisms linking extended screen viewing time and obesity include displacement of physical activity; a reduction in metabolic rate and excess energy intake; and increased consumption of food advertised on television as a result of exposure to marketing of high energy dense foods and beverages (92,93). The American Academy of Pediatrics (94) recommends that parents limit children's television time to no more than to 2 hours per day. Although only a relatively small portion of television viewing and computer and video game use occurs in public service venues such as schools, day care centers, and after-school programs, local policymakers can intervene to limit screen viewing time among children and youth in these venues.

Evidence

Long-term cohort studies have demonstrated a positive significant (p = 0.02) association between television viewing in childhood and body mass index levels in adulthood (92,93). In addition, a cross-sectional study indicated that the amount of time spent watching TV/video was significantly related to overweight among low-income preschool children (p<0.004) (95). A randomized controlled school-based trial indicated that children who reduced their television, videotape, and video game use had significant decreases in BMI (p = 0.002), tricep skin fold thickness (p = 0.002), and waist circumference (p<0.001) compared with children in control groups (96). The evidence surrounding children's television viewing and its relationship to physical activity has been somewhat inconsistent. A review evaluating correlates of childhood physical activity determined that some studies find time spent engaged in sedentary activities, specifically TV viewing and video use, has a negative association to physical activity, while other studies find no relationship (97). Multicomponent school-based intervention studies have demonstrated that spending less time watching television is associated with increased physical activity (98) and decreased risk of childhood obesity among girls but not boys (99).

16. Communities Should Improve Access to Outdoor Recreational Facilities
Overview

Recreation facilities provide space for community members to engage in physical activity and include places such as parks and green space, outdoor sports fields and facilities, walking and biking trails, public pools, and community playgrounds. Accessibility of recreation facilities depends on a number of factors such as proximity to homes or schools, cost, hours of operation, and ease of access. Improving access to recreation facilities and places might increase physical activity among children and adolescents.

Evidence

In a review based on 10 studies, the Community Guide concluded that efforts to increase access to places for physical activity, when combined with informational outreach, can be effective in increasing physical activity (100). The studies reviewed by the Community Guide included interventions such as creating walking trails, building exercise facilities, and providing access to existing facilities. However, it was not possible to separate the benefits of improved access to places for physical activity from health education and services that were provided concurrently (100).

A comprehensive review of 108 studies indicated that access to facilities and programs for recreation near their homes, and time spent outdoors, correlated positively with increased physical activity among children and adolescents (97). A study that analyzed data from a longitudinal survey of 17,766 adolescents indicated that those who used community recreation centers were significantly more likely to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity (p≤0.00001) (101).

A multivariate analysis indicated that self-reported access to a park, and the perception that footpaths are safe for walking were significantly associated with adult respondents being classified as physically active at a level sufficient for health benefits (102). Another study that used self-report and GIS data concluded that longer distances and the presence of barriers (e.g., busy streets and steep hills) between individuals and bike paths were associated with non-use of bike paths (103).

17. Communities Should Enhance Infrastructure Supporting Bicycling
Overview

Enhancing infrastructure supporting bicycling includes creating bike lanes, shared-use paths, and routes on existing and new roads; and providing bike racks in the vicinity of commercial and other public spaces. Improving bicycling infrastructure can be effective in increasing frequency of cycling for utilitarian purposes (e.g., commuting to work and school, bicycling for errands). Research demonstrates a strong association between bicycling infrastructure and frequency of bicycling.

Evidence

Longitudinal intervention studies have demonstrated that improving bicycling infrastructure is associated with increased frequency of bicycling (104,105). Cross-sectional studies indicated a significant association between bicycling infrastructure and frequency of biking (p<0.001) (103,106,107).

18. Communities Should Enhance Infrastructure Supporting Walking
Overview

Infrastructure that supports walking includes but is not limited to sidewalks, footpaths, walking trails, and pedestrian crossings. Walking is a regular, moderate-intensity physical activity in which relatively large numbers of persons can engage. Well-developed infrastructure supporting walking is an important element of the built environment and has been demonstrated to be associated with physical activity in adults and children. Interventions aimed at supporting infrastructure for walking are included in street-scale urban design and land use interventions that support physical activity in small geographic areas. These interventions can include improved street lighting, infrastructure projects to increase the safety of street crossings, use of traffic calming approaches (e.g., speed humps and traffic circles), and enhancing street landscaping (108).

Evidence

The Community Guide reports sufficient evidence that street-scale urban design and land use policies that support walking are effective in increasing levels of physical activity (108). Reviews of cross-sectional studies of environmental correlates of physical activity and walking generally find a positive association between infrastructure supportive of walking and physical activity (109,110). However, some systematic reviews indicated no evidence of an association between the presence of sidewalks and physical activity (111). Other reviews indicated associations, but only for certain subgroups of subjects (e.g., men and users of longer walking trails) (108,109). Intervention studies demonstrate effectiveness of enhanced walking infrastructure when combined with other strategies. For example, evaluation of the Marin County Safe Routes to School program indicated that identifying and creating safe routes to school, together with educational components, increased the number of students walking to school (105). When considering the evidence for this strategy, planners should note that physically active individuals might be more likely to locate in communities that have an existing infrastructure for walking, which might produce spurious correlations in cross-sectional studies (109).

19. Communities Should Support Locating Schools within Easy Walking Distance of Residential Areas
Overview

Walking to and from school has been demonstrated to increase physical activity among children during the commute, leading to increased energy expenditure and potentially to reduced obesity. However, the percentage of students walking to school has dropped dramatically over the past 40 years, partially due to the increased distance between children's homes and schools. Current land use trends and policies pose barriers to building smaller schools located near residential areas. Therefore, requisite activities that support locating schools within easy walking distance of residential areas include efforts to change land use and school system policies.

Evidence

The Community Guide indicated that community-scale urban design and land use policies and practices, including locating schools, stores, workplaces, and recreation areas close to residential areas, are effective in facilitating an increase in levels of physical activity (23,108). A simulation modeling study conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Florida indicated that school location as well as the quality of the built environment between home and school has an effect on walking and biking to school. Specifically, this combination of school location and built environment quality would produce a 13% increase in nonmotorized travel to school (112). A cross-sectional study in the Philippines indicated that adolescents who walked to school expended significantly more energy than those who used motorized modes of transport. This association was not explainable by in-school or after-school sports or exercise. Assuming no change takes place in energy intake, the difference in energy expenditure between transport modes would lead to an expected 2--3-pound annual weight gain by youth who commute to school by motorized transport (113).

As a result of current land use trends and policies regarding school siting, very little work has been done to locate schools within neighborhoods. A study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency suggests that the trend of building larger schools with larger catchment areas should be reversed to locate schools within neighborhoods (112). The distance between homes and schools is not the only factor that affects whether children walk to and from school. Among students living within 1 mile of school, the percentage of walkers fell from 90% to 31% between 1969 and 2001 (112). The decrease in walking to and from school has been attributed to a poor walking environment, defined as a built environment that has low population densities, little mixing of land uses, long blocks, and incomplete sidewalks (112). The majority of efforts to encourage walking to and from school involve improving the routes (e.g., Marin County's Safe Routes to School program) rather than improving the location of schools. Previous studies have recommended that local governments and school districts should ensure that children and youth have safe walking and bicycling routes between their homes and schools and encouraged their use (11).

20. Communities Should Improve Access to Public Transportation
Overview

Public transportation includes mass transit systems such as buses, light rail, street cars, commuter trains, and subways, and the infrastructure supporting these systems (e.g., transit stops and dedicated bus lanes). Improving access to public transportation encourages the use of public transit, which might, in turn, increase the level of physical activity when transit users walk or ride bicycles to and from transit access points.

Evidence

The Community Guide identified insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of transportation and travel policies and practices in increasing the level of physical activity or improving fitness because only one study of adequate quality was available (108). In a study that analyzed data from the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, researchers indicated that 29% of individuals who walk to and from public transit achieve at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity (114). Another study indicated that access to public transit was associated with decreases in the odds of using automobiles as a preferred mode of transportation and increases in the odds of walking and/or bicycling (115). In a cross-sectional study carried out in four San Francisco neighborhoods, researchers indicated that individuals with easy access to the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) made, on average, 0.66 more nonmotorized trips than those who did not have access to BART (116).

Physically active individuals might be more likely to locate into communities with an infrastructure that supports physical activity, including neighborhoods with infrastructure supporting public transportation (110). Most neighborhood-level cross-sectional studies do not control for individual-level characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status). Environmental factors, including infrastructure for public transit, also might affect different subpopulations differently (110,116).

21. Communities Should Zone for Mixed-Use Development
Overview

Zoning for mixed-use development is one type of community-scale land use policy and practice that allows residential, commercial, institutional, and other public land uses to be located in close proximity to one another. Mixed-use development decreases the distance between destinations (e.g., home and shopping), which has been demonstrated to decrease the number of trips persons make by automobile and increase the number of trips persons make on foot or by bicycle. Zoning regulations that accommodate mixed land use could increase physical activity by encouraging walking and bicycling trips for nonrecreational purposes. Zoning laws restricting the mixing of residential and nonresidential uses and encouraging single-use development can be a barrier to physical activity.

Evidence

The Community Guide lists mixed-use development and diversity of residential and commercial developments as examples of community-scale urban design and land use policies and practices (23). The Community Guide rated the evidence for community-scale urban design and land use policies and practices as sufficient to justify a recommendation that these characteristics increase physical activity (23,108). The recommendation was based on a review of 12 studies in which the median improvement in some aspect of physical activity was 161% (23,108).

Studies using correlation analyses and regression models indicated that mixed land use was associated with increased walking and cycling (110,117--119). A review of quasi-experimental studies indicated residents from high walkability neighborhoods (defined by higher density, greater connectivity, and more land use mix) reported twice as many walking trips per week than residents from low walkability neighborhoods (defined by low density, poor connectivity, and single land uses) (110). A cross-sectional study conducted in Atlanta, GA indicated that odds of obesity declined as mixed land use increased (118).

Some increased level of physical activity among residents of mixed-use neighborhoods might be attributable to selection of these types of neighborhoods by persons more likely to engage in physical activity (119). Mixed-use development is often combined with multiple design elements from urban planning and policy, including density, connectivity, roadway design, and walkability.

22. Communities Should Enhance Personal Safety in Areas Where Persons Are or Could Be Physically Active
Overview

Personal safety is affected by crime rates and other nontraffic-related hazards that exist in communities. Limited but supportive evidence indicates that improving community safety might be effective at increasing levels of physical activity in adults and children. In addition, safety considerations affect parents' decisions to allow their children to play and walk outside (11). Interventions to improve safety, such as increasing police presence, decreasing the number of abandoned buildings and homes, and improving street lighting, can be undertaken by individual communities.

Evidence

Cross-sectional studies have demonstrated a negative relationship between crime rates and/or perceived safety and physical activity in neighborhoods, particularly among adolescents (101,120,121). A systematic review indicated that observational measurements of safety (e.g., crime incidence) were negatively associated with physical activity, but subjective measurements (self-reported safety) were not correlated with physical activity (120).

Few intervention studies have evaluated the impact of policies and practices to improve personal safety on physical activity. However, one study indicated that improved street lighting in London led to reduced crime rates, less fear of crime, and more pedestrian street use (122). Some studies suggest that the relationship between safety and physical activity might vary by gender and/or other individual-level characteristics. For example, one study indicated that incidence rates of violent crimes were associated with lower physical activity in adolescent girls, but not in boys (121).

Persons of lower socioeconomic status depend more on walking as a means of transportation as compared with those of higher socioeconomic status, and they also are more likely to live in neighborhoods that are unsafe (11). This could explain why some studies do not find a positive association between perceived safety and physical activity. Reducing crime levels might require complex, multisectoral, and long-term efforts, which might go beyond the authority and capacity of local communities.

23. Communities Should Enhance Traffic Safety in Areas Where Persons Are or Could Be Physically Active
Overview

Traffic safety is the security of pedestrians and bicyclists from motorized traffic. Traffic safety can be enhanced by engineering streets for lower speeds or by retrofitting existing streets with traffic calming measurements (e.g., speed tables and traffic circles). Traffic safety can also be enhanced by developing infrastructure to improve the safety of street crossings (e.g., raised crosswalks and textured pavement) for nonmotorized traffic and for pedestrians.

The lack of safe places to walk, run, and bicycle as a result of real or perceived traffic hazards can deter children and adults from being physically active. Enhancing traffic safety has been demonstrated to be effective in increasing levels of physical activity in adults and children. Research suggests that persons living in neighborhoods with higher traffic safety are more physically active.

Evidence

The Community Guide reviewed both community-scale and street-scale urban design and land use policies and practices, including interventions aimed at improving traffic safety. The review indicated that both community-scale and street-scale policies and practices were effective in increasing physical activity (108). On the basis of sufficient evidence of effectiveness, the Community Guide recommends implementing community-scale and street-scale urban design and land use policies to promote physical activity, including design components to improve street lighting, infrastructure projects to increase safety of pedestrian street crossings, and use of traffic calming approaches such as speed humps and traffic circles (23).

A review of 19 studies examined the effects of environmental factors on physical activity, five of which considered traffic safety (123). One study demonstrated significant effects of traffic safety on increased physical activity (102).

24. Communities Should Participate in Community Coalitions or Partnerships to Address Obesity
Overview

Community coalitions consist of public- and private-sector organizations that, together with individual citizens, work to achieve a shared goal through the coordinated use of resources, leadership, and action (11). Potential stakeholders in community coalitions aimed at obesity prevention include but are not limited to community organizations and leaders, health-care professionals, local and state public health agencies, industries (e.g., building and construction, restaurant, food and beverage, and entertainment), the media, educational institutions, government (including transportation and parks and recreation departments), youth-related and faith-based organizations, nonprofit organizations and foundations, and employers.

The effectiveness of community coalitions stems from the multiple perspectives, talents, and expertise that are brought together to work toward a common goal. In addition, coalitions build a sense of community, enhance residents' engagement in community life, and provide a vehicle for community empowerment. Research in tobacco control demonstrates that the presence of antismoking community coalitions is associated with lower rates of cigarette use. Based on this research, it is plausible that community coalitions might be effective in preventing obesity and in improving physical activity and nutrition.

Evidence

Little evidence is available to determine the impact of community coalitions on obesity prevention (11). However, tobacco-control literature demonstrates that the presence of antismoking community coalitions is associated with lower rates of tobacco consumption. One study indicated that states with a greater number of anti-tobacco coalitions had lower per capita cigarette consumption than states with a lower number of coalitions (124).

Next Steps
The next step for this project is to disseminate the recommended community strategies and suggested measurements for use by local governments and communities throughout the United States. To help accomplish this, an implementation and measurement guide will be published and made available through the CDC website (available at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/publications/index.html). In addition, the measurements will be integrated into a new survey module that will be available to all members of ICMA's Center for Performance Measurement. Dissemination of these recommended obesity prevention strategies and proposed measurements is intended to inspire communities to consider implementing new policy and environmental change initiatives aimed at reversing the obesity epidemic. The recommended strategies and suggested measurements outlined in this report are being pilot tested in the Minnesota and Massachusetts state surveillance systems (Laura Hutton, MA, Minnesota Department of Health, personal communication, 2009; Maya Mohan, MPH, Massachusetts Department of Health, personal communication, 2009).

Make Your Own Jam

2009-07-19T18:07:00.000-04:00

All my life, we have made our own jam. We rarely make jelly, since it wastes good fruit, but utilizes overripe and bruised fruit. I truly can't remember a time in my life that we bought jam or jelly, unless for a very specific flavor that we didn't usually make. And in our house, if it isn't easy, it doesn't get done. So you know it must be relatively easy to make!

Because I've had home made jam all my life, I've begun making it to sell at a local farmer's market. Doing this made me do some research and reading of my cookbooks to make sure I have a consistent gel, but otherwise, it's business as usual. Everyone who has bought, just raves that it tastes so much better than store bought. Of course it does! It has fruit in it!

This post is going to discuss why you should make your own more than how to make your own. To do that, just pick up a box of pectin at the store and read the directions. Read the jam and jelly making process in any one of your dozen or so cookbooks lining a shelf in your house. Between the two, you will learn all you need to make your own.

Taste

This is probably the best reason for making your own jam. Store-bought jam/s and jellies are mostly water, corn syrup or apple juice, or a combination of all 3 with some fruit thrown in for color and a hint of flavor. Using the standard pectin recipes, your jam will have the same amount of sugar as store bought, but will have twice the fruit! Hence, the better flavor.

Nutrition

Most fruits are high in fiber and manganese, with vitamin K tagging along because it can. They're also high in other vitamins, but these tend to be damaged or destroyed during the heating process. And once you get good at making jam, you can reduce the sugar further, making it less stressful on your insulin levels, plus be more flavorful in the process.

Cost

Believe it or not, you save money making your own. A quart of chopped fruit, 4-5 cups of sugar and a pack of pectin should make 6-7 cups of jam. Your sugar will cost 80 cents, your fruit will be around $5 and the pectin will be just over $2. If you reuse jars from other foods - like store bought jam - you have no cost. Otherwise, you'll spend about $8 for a dozen 1-cup jars, lids and rings. This comes out to about $13 for 6-7 jars of jam. Not bad! Again, if you don't have to buy jars, that price drops to about $8 for the batch.

Sustainability

The food industry would like you to believe you do nothing good for the environment by preserving your own foods. They're lying. They expend at least 5 times the energy in the transport of the ingredients, production of the final product, and transport and storage of the final product until it hits your hot little hands than what you would expend in making your own

You can either grow your own fruits, or buy locally grown fruit. Transport is significantly reduced or negated completely.

Most local growers use few, if any, chemicals on their produce since it costs more to use them than to manually take care of the fruit plants. Since most chemicals are used as a preventative measure (in industrial farming), rather than as a true cure for a specific issue, you are eliminating this portion of the environmental cost completely.

The energy required to make their specific jar shapes and sizes costs them significant energy in production and transportation. If you reuse your jars, you completely negate this energy expenditure.

Summary
There are a few tricks to making jams and jellies, but a little reading in one of your cookbooks, along with the directions that are included in the pectin - or on one of their websites - will provide you with all the information you need to make incredible jam! People may think you're a magician, but it's all a matter of being able to read and follow directions! Seriously!

Give the jam as gifts, keep and savor for yourself, or do both. Just do it! Save yourself some money, make your tastebuds happy and help the earth out. How is this a bad thing?

If you'd like to read about the ones I make and enjoy eating, please click here.

Jam I Make

2009-07-19T17:20:00.007-04:00

To go with the post about making your own jam, I thought I'd add to it. These jams are for sale, so if you'd like any, please contact me at BloomsBaker @ gmail.com for prices and availability. The most sugar I use is 1:1 fruit to sugar ratio. I also do a 3:1 ratio for the diabetics among us. It costs more to make, and therefore to sell, but is worth it. I try to keep my prices lower so folks can buy it and enjoy it for themselves. It's difficult when prices of fruit are very high and I have to add my labor in, but I do my best.

Rhubarb Jam I have few that I could eat exclusively, but rhubarb is one of them. The flavor holds its own against any amount of sugar. I love the stuff.

The picture is of young rhubarb, just emerging in the spring. The leaves are incredible looking.

Rose Jelly

I know, it sounds odd, but truly, it is delicious! I tell guys it's a girl thing. It tastes just like a rose smells and the flavor lasts so much longer than any breath could possibly try.
It's wonderful on biscuits, thumbprint cookies, or as a filling between layors of angel food cake.

Strawberry Jam

I'm not the fondest of strawberry jam, but it does epitomize the flavor of spring. It's best on a homemade white bread toasted for breakfast!

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Yes, with rhubarb, I'm liking it. It's good for a change of pace for me, but many people consider this the ultimate jam. It's not quite as robust as just rhubarb, so I wouldn't try this on sourdough rye bread, but will do well on oat or whole wheat.

Raspberry Jam or Jelly

I tell people that if they pick the berries, I'll make the jam. I hate picking, I hate growing or buying them. This year, the price was $4.50 a PINT. I'd need a full 3 pints for a batch of jam, so this is a very cost prohibitive jam to make.
However, it is delicious and will hold it's own on any bread other than a sourdough. I'm not a fan of the two flavors mixing. And the dutch had it right - raspberry and chocolate are a match made in heaven!

Blueberry Jam or Jelly
Blueberry jelly ends up being a very delicate flavor, and should be reserved for biscuits, but will hold up to a white bread toasted.
Blueberry jam, made with the reduced amounts of sugar I use, is far more robust, allowing you to really know you're eating blueberry! I'd not pair it with anything stronger than an oat bread or a half and half whole/white wheat bread, but that's for you to decide.

Blueberry Rhubarb or Bluebarb
This is another I could eat exclusively. For some reason, the pairing of these 2 flavors is nearly potentiating - where adding gives you a multiple for a total. It will add to any bread, and is also incredible heated a bit and put on ice cream. Divine!

Peach Jam and Jelly
Peach is unique, I must say. I prefer it as a fruit butter, because it can be just too sweet as a jam. However, if you get them at just the right time and are willing to play just a little with your sugar - which is an experience thing - it is absolutely delicious on anything from biscuits to sourdough rye bread.
Peach jelly is very delicate, and makes you think of what a peach blossom must smell like. This is made when you are canning your peaches for the winter, using all of the over ripe, or bruised peaches and the skins/pits that are discarded. The color is a beautiful blush of peach, and the flavor is wonderful on a white bread toasted or on biscuits. I've not tried it in thumb print cookies, but would imagine it's very good.

Apple Jem
It's not quite jelly and not quite jam. Therefore, it's jem.
I began thinking that, with all industrial jams/jellies being watered down to half-strength, I'm guessing apply jam or jelly is pretty good. It, like all of the others in the store, is pretty flavorless, so I decided to try making some.
It's great! My first batch was made of green apples and I'd liken it to an apple pie. It's wonderful! From there, life was easy and GREAT. It does have a more delicate flavor, so it may not hold up to sourdough, but will be very good on anything else.

Quince Jam

Most people don't even know what quince is. That's sad since it's quite a cool plant and and even more cool fruit to cook. It starts out as this yellow/green, and as it cooks, it becomes a wonderful deep red. I would eat this exclusively, given the chance.
Unlike apple, it will hold up to any bread, and is also incredible in thumbprint cookies.

Of Rain And Apples

2009-07-17T18:08:00.003-04:00

It's been a longer week, and I have to say I'm faintly relieved it's over. I sit here, staring out the door at the light rain falling, listening to it hit the leaves of the bushes nearby, and have to say I still am not minding it being a wet spring/summer so far. I know others are ready to riot over it, but I am enjoying it very much.

It seems as if, until the week, I've been going at full speed and never catching up. I'm still not nearly caught up, but am taking a breath anyway. It's allowing me to see what I really need to do and to gear up for the next round of chaos. This past week has really shown how much I've run myself down. My allergies have really taken over, making a trip to the doctor with prednisone and eye drops being necessary for at least a week.

However, blueberries don't stop ripening, the grass doesn't stop growing and the list of big projects isn't getting any shorter. So I keep doing. Today, however, was a different story. I decided to work on 2 very neglected apple trees. They're on our neighbor's property, but as long as I give her some of the apples in the fall, I can do whatever I want to the trees. Considering I usually don't get a chance to work on them until September, it's obviously a little earlier than usual.

It's been at least 20 years since these trees had any significant pruning, so a few years ago I began. Today was another one of those pruning days. I always start out working on the ground and hope that I've got the trees so I can back Dad's truck up under it to work higher in the branches. By taking many of the smaller branches out, it allows the tree to get much needed air circulation througout its canopy. Plus, those branches take valuable energy away from the tree, making it far more susceptible to diseases and low grade fruit.

While pruning, a bunch of the green apples fell. It always makes me mad - it seems so wasteful. I know I have to thin many of the apples to get larger apples, but I still get mad to see them fall. I decided to try making green apple jelly. It had started to rain, and I had a couple of quarts of the little green rocks, so figured it would be a good time to play.

I washed them up, got my handy dandy chop wizard out and ca-chunked them into little pieces. Fast! I then set them to cook for about 30 minutes. Sieved them through a fine screen to make a thin apple sauce and then cooked them according to general apply jelly directions.

It's nothing special to look at, but it tastes just like apple pie! Wonderful stuff! I'm thrilled! A way to take waste and make it delicious and useful. There is nothing better. Apple pie on toast. I'm looking forward to it!

Vote For Your Favorite Farmer's Market

2009-07-14T08:25:00.002-04:00

Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org have teamed up to give farmer's markets another way to spread the word they exist and to gain a bit of extra cash to help sustain their efforts. They have a chance to win $5,000 in the "Love Your Farmers Market" online contest, sponsored by Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org. Every vote helps promote local food, family farms and sustainable agriculture.

This link is to the Otsiningo Market where Venita (sister in law) and Dave (brother) have their stand. Yes, I'd like it if you voted for that particular market.

However, to me, which is just as important is, voting for any market you support. Period. Show the cynics that farm markets DO work and they ARE important.

Thank You!

Go To Your Famers Markets And Buy Something

2009-07-11T22:56:00.005-04:00

(Photo from CountryBlooms.org of a vender at Otsiningo's Market in Broome County, NY)

Many countries actually don't understand the US farmer's markets. They have local markets where they buy their food nearly every day, so of course the food is local, of course it's organic!

A college room mate of mine talked of life back in South Korea where an apple weighed a pound and the family would share it as dessert after dinner. The size of the apple is as foreign as the concept of sharing. But that is how the American culture has evolved. Even apples are mass produced and thinned to achieve the ideal single servince size. The big, small or "ugly" ones are tossed aside to be processed into something similar to apples.

Did you know "Ugly" tomatoes can not be shipped out of the state of FL? It's law! They taste the best, but don't conform to modern standards, so can only be used within the state. Go figure!

And yet, we wonder why our nutrition is poor and we dislike vegetables. How many children have had truly fresh vegetables? Or nearly grown in their own back yard? They think vegetables are found in cans, jars, pouches thrown into the microwave or as dried bits in instant soups. We have more than 1 generation of people in this ocuntry that has no gardening experience. How sad is that?

Well, rather than starting a garden, go to a local market. Go to Local Harvest - to find a Farmer's Market near you. Start buying some of your vegetables there. You will discover what spinach or beets or string beans or tomatoes are really supposed to taste like! The vegetables will be far more nutritious than anything you find in the stores - even Whole Foods! Remember - the deeper the color, the more nutritious it is.

When you discover the flavor and the nutrition - you *will* feel better - you'll not want the compost they sell as vegetables in the frozen food aisle at the grocery. You'll want this quality all year. That means you just might have to preserve them for yourself! It's easy, we've been doing it for generations. All you need to do is talk to the growers and negotiate for a bulk price. It will end up costing you less than grocery store prices, will use less energy to preserve than the industrial vegetables, and will be better for you.

You will discover what a bean looks like, what a beet looks like, what a *real* tomato looks like.

You will discover different ways of using those vegetables and fruits. If you ask the growers, they'll share their favorite recipes with you.

I had no clue summer squash was so versatile until I had a bumper crop beyond compare. A little research online and I froze 3 gallons to use throughout the winter - it was delicious!

Here's one my family loves! It's good old fashioned farm food - using ingredients common to most farms from pre WWII. It's the perfect spring and summer dinner.

Peas, Potatoes and Milk

Dice your potatoes to the size of peas. Cook with equal amount peas until almost soft. Drain.
Add milk. Heat to boiling. Add butter, salt, pepper.

Spoon over fresh white bread, enough so the milk soaks the bread - usually in a shallow soup bowl. Eat with fork or spoon.

You can do this with chopped string beans as well, for an equally delicious and nutritious meal.
If you want, add some chopped summer squash to the mix, after the beans and potatoes have cooked about half way.

You won't find this simple, yet delicious recipe in any cookbook. Which is why you must get to know the sellers at the farmers market. Go! Shop! Eat well! Support local farmers! It's a no-lose situation.

Monsanto VP To Head Food Safety?

2009-07-08T13:13:00.000-04:00

Fox to Guard Henhouse?
Former Monsanto VP May Be Named To Head FDA Safety

Working Group
By Susie Madrak
Tuesday Jul 07, 2009 7:00pm

Sometimes I'm just rendered speechless, and this is one of those times. Natasha
Chart via Sustainable Food at Change.org:

Obama's considering appointing a former Monsanto vice president, Mike Taylor, to
head the Food Safety Working Group at the FDA.

As Jill Richardson writes at LaVidaLocavore at the link above, Taylor thinks the
FDA wastes too much time on food safety inspections at meat packing plants.
Further, he believes that one of their main problems is that they have to slow
down their line speed too much.

Everyone who's read anything about the horrendous working conditions at US
meatpacking plants knows that incomplete kills before slaughter and worker
injuries increase dramatically when line speeds increase.

As also noted at the Ethicurean, Taylor is the reason milk from rBGH/rBST cows
doesn't have to be labeled. Bovine growth hormone is perfectly safe, after all.
Except for cows, or humans who drink its breakdown products in milk.

So yes, Mike Taylor is the person we have to thank for putting pus from
mastitis-infected cows into the milk supply, and exposing milk-drinking
Americans by the millions to greater cancer risks.

This guy is heading up a food safety working group.

I'm just swimming in the changeiness.

Kids, if you care about your food, you know what to do:

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

(There's a link instead of making a call if you go to the article website.)

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/fox-guard-henhouse-former-monsanto-vp

Garden Pictures

2009-07-05T19:17:00.002-04:00

What a difference 4 weeks makes! This first picture was taken just about 4 weeks ago. You can see the peas, freshly cropped by the now deceased woodchuck #1. The onions and the tomatoes are in the background. The cord is strung for the tomatoes to climb towards, and their lines are in place to start winding around them as they grow.

This second picture, not quite in the same spot, and in need of some clouds to cut down on the contrast, shows the onions - completely overshadowed by the tomatoes that have grown well over halfway up their lines, and the pole beans right to the top and looking for more.

When it does cloud up, I'll take another picture, but I really wanted it to be as accurate to the day as possible. And hopefully, I'll remember in another 4 weeks, so show how tall everything has gotten.

I have tomatoes, the beans are blooming, and I could start harvesting onions and beets if I wanted. But, I'll let them continue growing and hopefully be able to can some beets and use the onions in bread and butter pickles. I used shallots last year and the pickles were just flat.

I use a highly modified gardening style. It's no-till and sort of layered. All of it is less than 3 years old, and most of it is only a year or less. I've tripled the size by putting layers of grass clippings from a local lawn service and composted leaf mulch from the town. Some of it has a layer of chicken bedding from my brother's, but that has only just started sprouting it's harvest of herbs, spinach and beans.

I use some "square foot gardening" techniques, but so many garden plants just can't be planted that way, so it isn't purely that style. The beets and the bush beans are planted that way. However, the Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, pole beans and peas aren't. Nor are the onions, but only because they do well planted with the tomatoes to help ward off fungal disease.

But this does allow me to have a fairly compact setting in which to gain the largest harvest.

Since the beans aren't ready to harvest yet, I can breathe for awhile. Hopefully I'll be able to finish mulching, as I've put another layer of grass clippings down in the walkways, and as close to the plants as possible, with some of it finished off with a layer of leaf mulch. I've run out at the moment, so will have to wait a few days to get another couple loads.

I do enjoy my life.

July 5

2009-07-05T18:29:00.003-04:00

Wow, talk about it being a while. Sorry about that! Not that anyone reads this and not that I care. LOL

Right now I'm between harvests, which is *such* a wonderful feeling. I can get some of the less important, but far more dramatic looking, projects finished. Or at least a good amount of progress on them.

I just went through strawberries, of which there aren't many, but were perfect for jam. Rhubarb is finished. Peas are pretty much a bust with all of the efforts of 2 very persistent (but dead) woodchucks. I had hoped to freeze at least a few pints of peas, but that just isn't going to happen. They can only be pruned back so many times before it hurts the harvest.

Blueberries will be 1-2 weeks before they're really in peak season, so I have 1-2 weeks before the next round of chaos begins.

So! - I've started splitting wood, weeding and dead heading the flowers, transplanting flowers and hauling dirt. This property isn't so much about getting it "just right". It's more about keeping it a little closer to "good enough". LOL

But again, this chaos is ok by me. I always have something to do. I always have jobs to choose from. Anything can be improved upon. And I can't be fired! Ha! It suits my ADD brain perfectly, and my environmental beliefs very well. I can practice what I wish to preach, and can give advice on how best to practice it. I'm making mistakes left and right, but hopefully so others don't have to.

I hope to have pictures up of a few projects soon. As soon as they can be recognized as something other than - ooo a pile of dirt. LOL

Rose Petal Jelly

2009-06-20T17:22:00.004-04:00

Rose petal jelly. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, does it? Maybe it isn't, depending on the rose you make it with.

But WOW, when you make it with a 7-sisters rose, you know you've got something!

First - the 7-sisters rose...

Named in 1817, supposedly when it was brought over from an unknown country - some say China, some say England, it was an instant hit.

There is also great controversy regarding what type of rose it is. It has no fewer than 12 latin names that it can be called. That's confusion. LOL

Regardless, it's the hardiest rose I've ever seen. It rarely gets black spot - it may this year with all of the rain we're getting so early, but maybe not. It almost never gets aphids. They try, but they never succeed in infesting it. It tolerates significant drought, shade and poor soil. It's not quite a climber, so most will call it a rambling rose.

The name comes from its ability to have at least 7 different colors on a single stem or spray. This year we even have some white blooms - rare for her. As you can see, the shades might be subtle, but the blooms also might be striped as you can see from the bloom in the lower right side of the photo. They are anywhere from 1-3 inches across, double petals and wonderfully scented!

For this project, I decided to use old blooms where the petals were ready to fall from the bloom. I just can't sacrifice such beauty and incredible scent just to try something. And from the results, I don't need to! WOW!
As you can see from the color of the rose water, something chemical occurs to change the color of the petal to the rose water. Most likely acid in the pectin and lemon juice. The smell when making the rose water is just divine. Actually, the smell throughout the process is just divine. Just incredible.

The recipe I made was a 1:1 sugar to rose water ratio. Make it as you would any jelly, and you get about 4 half-pint jars. The pictures are from my first batch. Is this just the most gorgeous jelly you've ever seen? You can practically read through it! If it weren't for the distortion from the jar glass, you probably could!

One thing I've yet to master with this rose is propogating it. This year, just for grins, I stuck some of the prunings in the ground. Just shoved them in. I did nothing else to them. Whenever I have, it hasn't worked, so I figured I'd do it this way. It worked! At least thus far. They all have some roots, so I transferred them to a more ideal location with far better soil and that is more like the mother plant's location. So, we'll see.

Can you believe this jelly sells for over $1/oz, plus S+H? I'm not selling mine for nearly that much. It's not as little as my rhubarb, but it's not a buck an ounce either!

Tasting it is like truly capturing the smell of a rose. It lingers on your tongue the way you wish smelling one would. Just incredible. It's perfect for those days in december when you are holding to the hope that June truly will return again. Wow.

If you'd like to try some, please contact me. I'll be making at least 2 more batches. The smallest jar is 4 oz at 2.75. The 8 oz is 6. I'll figure out shipping individually. And if you live nearby, it just might be free!
BloomsBaker @ gmail.com
I broke the link, so take the spaces out to make it work right for you.

BPA From Endocrine Society

2009-06-13T08:21:00.002-04:00

WASHINGTON (June 10) - Hormone experts said on Wednesday they are becoming worried by a chemical called bisphenol A, which some politicians say they want taken out of products and which consumers are increasingly shunning.

They said they have gathered a growing body evidence to show the compound, also known as BPA, might damage human health. The Endocrine Society issued a scientific statement on Wednesday calling for better studies into its effects.

Studies presented at the group's annual meeting show BPA can affect the hearts of women, can permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be pouring into the human body from a variety of unknown sources.

BPA, used to stiffen plastic bottles, line cans and make smooth paper receipts, belongs to a broad class of compounds called endocrine disruptors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is examining their safety but there has not been much evidence to show that they are any threat to human health.

"We present evidence that endocrine disruptors do have effects on male and female development, prostate cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease," Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who is president of the Endocrine Society, told a news conference.

The society issued a lengthy scientific statement about the chemicals in general that admits the evidence is not yet overwhelming, but is worrying.

Dr. Hugh Taylor of Yale University in Connecticut found evidence in mice that the compounds could affect unborn pups.

"We exposed some mice to bisphenol A and then we looked at their offspring," Taylor told the news conference.

We found that even when a they had a brief exposure during pregnancy ... mice exposed to these chemicals as a fetus carried these changes throughout their lives."

The BPA did not directly change DNA through mutations, but rather through a process called epigenetics -- when chemicals attach to the DNA and change its function.

Widespread Exposure

Taylor noted studies have shown that most people have some BPA in their blood, although the effects of these levels are not clear.

Dr. Frederick Vom Saal of the University of Missouri, who has long studied endocrine disruptors, said tests on monkeys showed the body quickly clears BPA -- which may at first sound reassuring.
But he said when tests show most people have high levels, this suggests they are being repeatedly exposed to BPA.

"We are really concerned that there is a very large amount of bisphenol A that must be coming from other sources," Vom Saal said.

Dr. Scott Belcher of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and colleagues will tell the meeting they found BPA could affect the heart cells of female mice, sending them into an uneven beating pattern called an arrhythmia.

"These effects are specific on the female heart. The male heart does not respond in this way and we understand why," Belcher said. He said BPA interacts with estrogen and said the findings may help explain why young women are more likely to die when they have a heart attack than men of the same age.

U.S. government toxicologists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences expressed concern last year that BPA may hurt development of the prostate and brain.

A 2008 study by British researchers linked high levels of BPA to heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.

Jam Making

2009-06-09T15:04:00.004-04:00

I've been making jam. A lot of jam. For the farmer's market, which gives me a little cash flow, which is always nice. I can make jam - versus other far more perishable goods - when I have a little extra energy, rather than forcing the issue the day before the market. Like today!

I went and picked rhubarb at my aunt and uncles since my 2 clumps need a little time to recover. I've got enough for at least 8 batches, and probably more than that, if I really pushed the issue.

Since I hate regular store-bought jam, and since we've always made our own anyway, it seemed a natural thing for me to make to sell at the market. Sales are just starting to pick up, so I'm getting more hopeful about continuing to make it.

I always get angry when the jam doesn't set. Well, I have done a ton of research on the topic and have come to many conclusions...

Sugar is cheap. Fruit is expensive. Make jam with as much sugar as possible.

Pectin is a sugar, and needs regular sugar to help it set - it's a loose crystaline structure.

Pectin needs different cooking times with different fruits - whether you're using what's in the fruit only or supplementing with store-bought.

The sugar helps decrease cooking time as well as unify cooking times.

Rhubarb just coming up this spring.

By reading Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, I was able to see that longer cooking times might be needed - and won't ruin the setting. It gave the perfect visual que that the jam is ready - when the drops on the spoon suddenly congeal into one before they drop off the spoon. Ha! And that you can cook it too hotly. So if you have a longer cooking time, turn the heat down.

This also works with lower sugar amounts.

And while there are different types of pectin that will work better with high or low sugar or no sugar batches, you can putz around with it and make it work with just about any pectin. Which is why I bought a huge bag (10#) through Pacific Pectin. That'll be enough for roughly 80 batches of jam. LOL - I think I'll have enough. But still - at .80 v. 2.30 per batch, that's a huge price difference that I'd rather have in my pocket than sure jell's.

Last year's blueberries.

So right now, it's rhubarb jam and blueberry rhubarb jam. Very soon, the blubarb will be replaced with strawberry rhubarb, and strawberry. And very very soon, I'll be able to make a batch or two of rose petal jelly. The 7 sister's is getting ready to bloom, and so will use that. It's an old heritage rose that has gorgeous scent and color - perfect for jelly!

If you have a problem with your jam - cook it longer and at a lower temperature. It'll come together for you!

Corn Equals Fast Food

2009-06-02T20:27:00.002-04:00

That the $100-billion fast food industry rests on a foundation of corn has been known more through inference and observation than hard scientific fact — until now.

Chemical analysis from restaurants across the United States shows that nearly every cow or chicken used in fast food is raised on a diet of corn, prompting fresh criticism of the government’s role in subsidizing poor eating habits.

"People had talked about what they observed or found out about, as individual journalists or individual consumers," said University of Hawaii geobiologist and study co-author A. Hope Jahren. But anecdotes do not add up to scientific proof, she said. "We got national data on how this food is being produced. It’s very objective."

Corn is central to agriculture in the United States, where it is grown in greater volumes and receives more government subsidies than any other crop. Between 1995 and 2006 corn growers received $56 billion in federal subsidies, and the annual figure may soon hit $10 billion.

But in recent years, environmentalists have branded corn as an icon of unsustainable agriculture. It requires large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, both of which require large amounts of fossil fuel to manufacture.

Most of the resulting corn is fed to livestock who didn’t evolve to subsist entirely on corn. In cattle, eating corn increases flatulence emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — and creates an intestinal environment rich in e. coli, a common cause of food poisoning. That necessitates mixing cow feed with antibiotics, in turn producing antibiotic-resistant disease strains.

Many of those livestock end up in high-calorie, low-nutrition franchised fast foods, which have been repeatedly linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Fast food’s biggest selling point is its low price — and that, say industry critics, is largely possible because of corn’s ubiquitous cheapness.

"We’re seeing that corn is the number-one reason that fast food is so cheap and available," said Meredith Niles, a food policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety who was not involved in the study. "U.S. programs are subsidizing obesity in this country."

Jahren’s team analyzed hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and french fries from multiple McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurants in six U.S. cities.
In both types of meat at every location, a telltale configuration of nitrogen and carbon traces showed that the animals had eaten corn-heavy diets; in the case of beef, 150 out of 162 samples came from animals that ate nothing but corn. Fries were prepared in corn-based oil.

The results weren’t surprising, said New York University food studies expert Marion Nestle, but underscored the fact that "most people aren’t aware of the extent to which corn ingredients permeate the food supply."

Nutrition aside, Jahren urged consumers to consider the implications of what they eat. "When you give a nickel to fast food, invariably it goes right back to the corn industry," she said.

For Niles, the results are a political challenge.

"We have a new President taking his place in the White House. It’s a great opportunity to rearrange agricultural policy and to think about obesity," she said. "This study shows that it comes down in a lot of ways to one product."

Monsanto Bullying Obama

2009-05-22T17:59:00.003-04:00

From the Grist
I’m no expert on the mafia, but I have seen the first two Godfather movies and Goodfellas, oh, a few times. One thing I’ve learned: “protection” is a major mob racket. It works like this: a thug drops by your shop monthly and makes small talk. You hand him some cash, and your shop runs smoothly. You refuse to pay, and ... things go wrong.
I’ve been thinking about protection rackets ever since an agrichemical industry group chided Michelle Obama for not using “crop protection” products on her White House garden. The group famously wrote a letter (intercepted by Jill of La Vida Locavore) urging the First Lady to do so back in March.
I just found out that Croplife.org, the industry’s Web site, also launched a “letter writing campaign” among members. “The garden is a great idea and the photo op of the First Lady and local elementary schoolchildren digging up the ground was precious,” the campaign informs Croplife readers. But ... “did you realize that it will be an organic garden?”
An organic garden—one that fails to utilize the agrichem industry’s products? That simply won’t do:
What message does that send the general public about the agriculture industry that the majority of you are so proud to serve? What message does that send to the non-farming public about an important and integral part of growing safe and abundant crops to feed and clothe the world—crop protection products?
So Croplife urges members to drop a line to Ms. Obama:
I hope that you will take a moment to consider how important that message is to your livelihood, your passion for agriculture, and your growers’ future—and send your own letter, sharing the benefits of modern, conventional agriculture. Help allay any fears by providing a specific example of how what you do on a daily basis, including custom application and/or the sale of crop protection products and fertilizers, has saved a crop and/or improved yields to benefit more Americans.
So far, the First Lady seems to be holding out on using “crop protection.” Does that mean that some really scary insects are going to come eat her spinach?

FYI Only - I'm unable to verify this letter came from anywhere except La Vida Locavore - MACA doesn't have it on their site, which I would think they would, and none of their affiliate sites do as well. While The Grist has been highly accurate, I'm not certain about this one. But - will keep searching to verify...

The entire letter - as found on La Vida Locavore:

March 26, 2009

Mrs. Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mrs. Obama,

We are writing regarding the garden recently added to the White House grounds to ensure a fresh supply of fruits and vegetables to your family, guests, and staff. Congratulations on recognizing the importance of agriculture in America! The U.S. has the safest and most abundant food supply in the world thanks to the 3 million people who farm or ranch in the United States.

The CropLife Ambassador Network, a program of the Mid America CropLife Association, consists of over 160 ambassadors who work and many of whom grew up in agriculture. Their mission is to provide scientifically based, accurate information to the public regarding the safety and value of American agricultural food production. Many people, especially children, don't realize the extent to which their daily lives depend on America's agricultural industry. For instance, children are unaware the jeans they put on in the morning, the three meals eaten daily, the baseball with which they play, and even the biofuels that power the school bus are available because of America's farmers and ranchers.

Agriculture is the largest industry in America generating 20 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. Individuals, family partnerships or family corporations operate almost 99 percent of U.S. farms. Over 22 million people are employed in farm-related jobs, including production agriculture, farm inputs, processing, and marketing and sales. Through research and changes in production practices, today's food producers are providing Americans with the widest variety of foods ever.

Starting in the early 1900s, technology advances have allowed farmers to continually produce more food on less land while using less human labor. Over time, Americans were able to leave the time-consuming demands of farming to pursue new interests and develop new abilities. Today, an average farmer produces enough food to feed 144 Americans who are living longer lives than many of their ancestors. Technology in agriculture has allowed for the development of much of what we know and use in our lives today. If Americans were still required to farm to support their family's basic food and fiber needs, would the U.S. have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation, and the arts?

We live in a very different world than that of our grandparents. Americans are juggling jobs with the needs of children and aging parents. The time needed to tend a garden is not there for the majority of our citizens, certainly not a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family's year-round food needs.

Much of the food considered not wholesome or tasty is the result of how it is stored or prepared rather than how it is grown. Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical. Local and conventional farming is not mutually exclusive. However, a Midwest mother whose child loves strawberries, a good source of vitamin C, appreciates the ability to offer California strawberries in March a few months before the official Mid-west season.

Farmers and ranchers are the first environmentalists, maintaining and improving the soil and natural resources to pass onto future generations. Technology allows for farmers to meet the increasing demand for food and fiber in a sustainable manner.
Farmers use reduced tillage practices on more than 72 million acres to prevent erosion.
Farmers maintain over 1.3 million acres of grass waterways, allowing water to flow naturally from crops without eroding soil.
Contour farming keeps soil from washing away. About 26 million acres in the U.S. are managed this way.
Agricultural land provides habitat for 75 percent of the nation's wildlife.
Precision farming boosts crop yields and reduces waste by using satellite maps and computers to match seed, fertilizer, and crop protection applications to local soil conditions.
Sophisticated Global Positioning Systems can be specifically designed for spraying pesticides. A weed detector equipped with infrared light identifies specific plants by the different rates of light they reflect and then sends a signal to a pump to spray a preset amount of herbicide onto the weed.
Biogenetics allows a particular trait to be implanted directly into the seed to protect the seed against certain pests.
Farmers are utilizing four-wheel drive tractors with up to 300 horsepower requiring fewer passes across fields-saving energy and time.
Huge combines are speeding the time it takes to harvest crops.
With modern methods, 1 acre of land in the U.S. can produce 42,000 pounds (lbs.) of strawberries, 110,000 heads of lettuce, 25,400 lbs. of potatoes, 8,900 lbs. of sweet corn, or 640 lbs. of cotton lint.
As you go about planning and planting the White House garden, we respectfully encourage you to recognize the role conventional agriculture plays in the U.S. in feeding the ever-increasing population, contributing to the U.S. economy, and providing a safe and economical food supply. America's farmers understand crop protection technologies are supported by sound scientific research and innovation.

The CropLife Ambassador Network offers educational programs for elementary school educators at http://ambassador.maca.org covering the science behind crop protection products and their contribution to sustainable agriculture. You may find our programs America's Abundance, Farmers Stewards of the Land, and War of the Weeds of particular interest. We thank you for recognizing the importance and value of America's current agricultural technologies in feeding our country and contributing to the U.S economy.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Sincerely,
Bonnie McCarvel, Executive Director
Janet Braun, Program Coordinator
Mid America CropLife Association
11327 Gravois Rd., #201
St. Louis, MO 63126

Jam Making

2009-05-18T13:23:00.002-04:00

I make a lot of jam. I tend to know when it will set, when it won't, the different recipes you can fudge, the ones you can't. And rarely have problems with it not setting.

Of course, until I started making to sell.

I made 4 batches yesterday - 2 rhubarb and 2 rhubarb/blueberry mix (aka blubarb). I decided I'd make them all on the same day and really watch how I made them - being precise in my repetition to see if they'd all jell the same or not. The results I got were NOT expected.

There were jars in each *batch* that didn't set. What?! How can you have the exact same jars that were prepared at the exact same time in the same manner not set with the same batch of jam? It blows my mind. So, I have some jam, and some syrup. I'll probably try again with the syrup, just to see if I can get it to set, but WOW, who'd have guess THAT?

It's not me. It's not the pectin. It's not the weather. So what is it?

Composting Made Easy

2009-05-17T09:02:00.004-04:00

Can you believe people have written entire books on making compost? I actually find that very hard to believe, but put enough fill in anything and it can look real.

So, you don't want to compost because - it's dirty, smelly, time consuming, space consuming? Did I miss anything?

Done right, it's none of the above. And there are several ways to make compost, so you can find a way that suits you completely.

Apartment-posting

If you're like my sister and live in an apartment in an area that doesn't recycle anything, your garbage bags start getting big and numerous. You could cut down on the amount of stuff you throw out a couple of ways.

Worms - I'm not big into worm farms. People tire of them, and rather than give them away or destroy them, they get released into 'the wild'. The only problem with this is they eat too much too quickly and are rapidly destroying our forest floors. But, you can make a small bin out of a rubbermade container and feed the little guys all of your vegetable materials and newspaper. Use what's left for your houseplants or give to a neighbor. Either way works.

5 gallon bucket - put an ad on Craig's List or find a local community garden to offer your vegetable material to them for composting. They'll take it with a glad heart! A couple times a week, or once a week - whichever works best for you, and you're finished with it!

Home Composting

If you're lucky enough to live where you can compost outside, GREAT! You're options are far more plentiful. You can do either listed above as well as a few other ways.

Hot Composting
This is where you make a little effort once every week or two. You mix grass clippings, weeds, leaves, veggie scraps from the kitchen all together and literally let it cook. Given the right moisture content, which is about that of a rung out sponge, it'll get up to 140 degrees with little effort. You turn it at least every two weeks to give it oxygen - just stir it up - and it'll get hot all over again. This can be ready in as little as a month, but I usually just keep adding to the pile and let it cook all summer. It depends on how quickly you need the compost.

Cold Composting
This is where you add all of the same stuff as in Hot Composting, but don't bother turning it. It'll take longer for this to be ready, a full year, but is far easier to maintain. Build it and forget it. Take the top of the pile to start the new pile the next spring and use all of the bottom material in your flower beds, vegetable garden, container plants, etc.

Trench Composting
Yes, it's as easy as it sounds. Dig a trench - you decide the length - about 10"-12" deep. Fill the trench with your composting material, and cover it with the soil as you go. You can also do this as holes, if you don't have room for a trench. You do this right in your flower beds - plant right on top of the trench! - your vegetable gardens (put the trench or holes in the paths), or right in your lawn (the holes)

Blender Composting
If you have very little room in your yard for a pile, combine the Trench method with this method and the space saved will be phenomenal. Put your vegetable scraps in the blender, add just enough water to cover, and blend it until it's a slurry mush. Pour into the whole, cover and it's gone.

Tips

Hot compost does best when it's in 1 cubic yard piles. 3'x3'x3'. This is why I keep adding to the pile. As it breaks down, it gets smaller. So, I keep adding to it to maintain the proper size. By fall, you've been able to add all of your material from the summer and it will now become a cold compost pile, working more slowly, but just as well. Keep adding to it all winter and use the top few inches to start your pile in the spring.

Cold compost has no size limits. It can be as big or small as you wish. But, it does take a full year for it to fully break down everything, including seeds. So you must be patient with it.

Do NOT add anything with protein in it - milk, cheese, or meat. This will attract wildlife you'd rather not have and will smell horribly.

The smaller the pieces of material to be composted, the faster it will compost. If you place an entire head of lettuce in a compost pile, you'll still be able to recognize it as that head of lettuce up to a month later. But if you chop it or put it in the blender, you won't recognize it within a week. That is ideal!

Compost should look like dirt, but not feel like dirt. It'll be a rich brown with nothing that looks like grass, leaves, vegetable scraps and whatever else you put in. It'll be slightly damp, but won't cake or clump, and won't have that musty smell dirt so often has. It'll smell slightly sweet, but not like yeast.

Add it to anything you want to have grow well. Considering it's what nature has used from the beginning of time, it can't be bad!

Best of all - it's FREE. And doesn't go in the landfill! It's hard to beat that combination.

Links to More Information
From the EPA
From Cornell
From Farm Aid
Composting 101

Contrary Mary And Her Garden

2009-05-03T12:22:00.001-04:00

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row.

Ignoring the true significance of the nursery rhyme, Contrary Mary had the right idea – gardens! Our current ideas of a beautiful yard and property are so far beyond the natural, it’s freakish. Grass isn’t supposed to be short. It’s meant to grow long and lanky, only to be eaten short by the native grazers. Oh wait, we killed them all when the railroads when through. Oops!

Now, I understand not wanting a goat, sheep, cow or horse around just to get your lawn short naturally. I certain don’t want one! But what can we do to lessen our impact on this monoculture we’ve adhered to for so many generations? We own an acre, have mowed about a third of it for most of my life, but have decreased that amount by at least 1/3 over the last 4 years, and I strive to reduce it by a total of 50%. Everyone who comes over exclaims the property is like an oasis, with the flower gardens scattered about. It is gorgeous!

So you too can start by reducing the amount you mow. It is estimated that the US consumes 2.2 billion gallons of fuel just to care for their lawns. How you reduce is up to you, but the best way is by adding flower and vegetable gardens. These can be separate or integrated beds, since both the flowers and the vegetables benefit from the “companion planting”. They also add incredible depth and interest to the gardens when integrated.

Time
I have found that the amount of time spent mowing or tending flowerbeds is equal, but not constantly similar. Mowing is the entire growing season while the majority of the time spent on the gardens is in the spring. The summer is almost carefree. If you plant perennials, with an occasional annual for constant color, you’ll spend even less time in the gardens than if you only plant annuals every year. This way, you spend time admiring, rather than slaving away. I like that trade!

Emissions
The average riding lawn mower spews the same emissions as 34 cars for the same amount of time being run. That’s just wrong. And while the EPA is mandating all small engines have a catalytic converter starting in 2010, it will take a decade or more for all current small engines to be replaced. Since Americans are estimated to spend over 3 billion hours running small engines to care for their lawns and property, that’s a very long time to reduce emissions by the 35% that is estimated by the adding of the converters. If you reduce your lawn space by 30%, you will have affected the same goal the EPA is striving for with no expense to you. Considering we are spewing 44 billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the air per year, reduce that by a third is significant! Imagine being able to see the real blue of the sky from this one simple act!

Air Purification
Just as different houseplants filter different impurities from your indoor air, a variety of plants outside will help filter different impurities from that air. Nature never supports monocultures. To do so sets the stage for infestations, over-population and disease manifestations (think swine flu, which only manifests when swine are concentrated in large numbers in a small setting). With nature having hundreds of different plants and thousands of different microbes per acre, it can purify air and sequester carbon at far higher rates than our lawns. And by having this diversity, the wildlife supported is also diverse, helping eliminate the need for pest control. By adding many native varieties of perennials, along with a select number of noninvasive non-native varieties, you help offset the emissions by those who choose not to reduce their lawn.

Insects
There are very few “bad” bugs. What become bad are their affects when allowed to overpopulate. This happens when there is too little diversity in the plant life, which leads to little diversity in animal life, which controls insect life. There will always be occasions when an infestation of whatever insect occurs, but these times are moderated and become less frequent when an array of plant life is allowed to flourish. Birds and bats will flourish in the new variety, reducing all of the bugs – and you get to enjoy their activities throughout the year!

Included in the insect section are the pollinators. These little guys supply at least 1/3 of our food, but are constantly being slaughtered by pesticides and diseases created by our monoculture (planting only corn, only grass, only wheat, etc.). Honeybees have seen devastating losses over the last 3 years, for as of yet unpublished reasons. Pesticide use never decreases, giving the native pollinators no chance to contribute support.

By adding flowering plants, both native and non-native, perennials and annuals, you give the native pollinators a chance to recover and thrive, reducing the risk of an entire collapse of 1/3 of our food chain.

Oil Dependence
Farmers don’t measure their fuel consumption in miles per gallon. They measure in gallons per hour. So does your lawn mower – an average of .73 gallons per hour to be exact. Be reducing your use by 1/3, you will save the US about 730 million gallons of fuel per year, which mostly comes from outside the US borders.

Another Option
If you just can’t live without every square inch of lawn you have now, please consider raising the mower deck up to 3” or longer. This will save in a number of ways:
When the growth of the grass slows, you mow far less frequently
The longer grass needs far less water, allowing you to eliminate irrigation
The longer grass needs far less fertilizer – which comes from foreign natural gas
The longer grass supports a more diverse set of insects, which protects you from infestations.
It diminishes the chances for fungal infections, needing fewer chemicals to maintain that gorgeous green carpet you so desire.

Sources
University of Vermont Extension
Organic Gardening Magazine
EPA.gov

Vitamin D is Another Reason To Change Our Lives

2009-04-26T14:05:00.003-04:00

For the past year, more news coverage has been given to Vitamin D than in years past. And with good reason.

For years, I've been saying the advent of sunscreen was going to be our largest downfall, creating a D deficiency and osteoporosis at a scale never before known. Unfortunately, I'm right. Between the sunscreen actually working, causing us to not be exposed to the UV rays we need to live, and the chemicals being smeared on our largest organ causing an unknown affect on our health, we've created a large host of problems. Compounding the issue is our culture of sedentary indoor living.

Humans, and animals in general, are not designed to be in such an isolated environment. Add that we've expanded our territory far beyond the med latitudes that we were designed to live in, we are at a great disadvantage to survive and thrive. So what do we do? We go further north (or south, depending on which side of the Equator you're on), create shelters to protect us from the cold, only to live in them during the milder months. We cover ourselves year-round with clothes and then smear our bodies with chemicals to hide from the sun even more.

Does anyone else see something wrong with that cultural adaptation?

But we fortify foods like milk and dairy products with Vitamin D to make up for this, and are further lulled into a false sense of security.

Enter my sister. She has a severe dairy allergy that has made it impossible for her to consume any amount of dairy for her entire life. She also had an adverse reaction to an antibiotic that has made her skin react to sun light - true sun poisoning. She's always been active, but further health issues have made it difficult to remain as active as her early youth (we prefer to think of ourselves as being in mid youth). Recently, she had blood work done, along with an x-ray of her back and found she is depleted of Vitamin D. Not deficient. Depleted.

The doctors have prescribed a supplement of 50,000 iu per week for 12 weeks, with the possibility of 3 more rounds of this 12 week regimine. Ew! They are that concerned.

Now, the USRDA is 400 iu per day. In fairness, this is being re-examined in light of the recent studies showing Americans are deficient in D. Many scientists are now advocating a minimum of 1000 iu per day. Some are saying forego sunscreen. Others are saying you only need 15 minutes a few times a week of unprotected sun exposure to gain the benefits of natural D production. That's it?! I'm doubting it highly.

First off, how much skin exposure? 10%, 20%, 30%? What time of day - 10am, noon, 4pm? And 15 minutes? We were designed to be outside 24 hours per day. Admittedly, seeking out shade is a good thing, but you're still out, and get reflected sunlight along with direct. And all of the hype about skin cancer and sunscreens - the retail industry just loves selling through fear. Common sense, not fear, should drive decisions and purchasing. However, our culture has taught us to not think, someone else will for us. How sad!

An example - Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine and nutrition who laid out his case in a keynote lecture at a recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif. His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer.

What D is known to help prevent or lower your risk factors:

Cancers - Breast, Colon, Lung, Lymph, Melanoma, Ovarian, Prostate, Rectal.
Breathing - Asthma, COPD
Brain Chemistry - Depression, SAD, Cognitive Function, Alzheimer's, Autism
Hormonal - Pregnancy, Menopause, Parathyroid Function, Liver, Thyroid, Diabetes, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
Gastro-Intestinal - Inflammatory Bowel Disease, general function
Diseases - Cerebral Palsy, Parkinsons, Epilepsy, Cystic Fibrosis, HIV AIDS, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Multiple Sclerosis, Rickets, Osteomalacia, Osteoporosis

Vitamin D Council

Pretty extensive there, huh?

From the National Institute of Health:

Season, geographic latitude, time of day, cloud cover, smog, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are among the factors that affect UV radiation exposure and vitamin D synthesis [28]. The UV energy above 42 degrees north latitude (a line approximately between the northern border of California and Boston) is insufficient for cutaneous vitamin D synthesis from November through February [6]; in far northern latitudes, this reduced intensity lasts for up to 6 months. Latitudes below 34 degrees north (a line between Los Angeles and Columbia, South Carolina) allow for cutaneous production of vitamin D throughout the year [14]

Complete cloud cover reduces UV energy by 50%; shade (including that produced by severe pollution) reduces it by 60% [29]. UVB radiation does not penetrate glass, so exposure to sunshine indoors through a window does not produce vitamin D [30]. Sunscreens with a sun protection factor of 8 or more appear to block vitamin D-producing UV rays, although in practice people generally do not apply sufficient amounts, cover all sun-exposed skin, or reapply sunscreen regularly [31]. Skin likely synthesizes some vitamin D even when it is protected by sunscreen as typically applied.

The factors that affect UV radiation exposure and research to date on the amount of sun exposure needed to maintain adequate vitamin D levels make it difficult to provide general guidelines. It has been suggested by some vitamin D researchers, for example, that approximately 5-30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back without sunscreen usually lead to sufficient vitamin D synthesis and that the moderate use of commercial tanning beds that emit 2-6% UVB radiation is also effective [11,28]. Individuals with limited sun exposure need to include good sources of vitamin D in their diet or take a supplement.

So where am I going with this lengthy diatribe? Go outside! Let the sun shine on your skin! Play! Quit eating Burger King and Pizza Hut and go buy some REAL food and eat that! Change the way you live. You'll feel better than the completely artificial life you live now.

Egg Information

2009-04-24T20:42:00.004-04:00

I did the research for this to become a tri-fold for the eggs my brother is selling from his nearly 60 hens. I can't promise it'll all make sense, but please read it. It's pretty important information for anyone trying to eat right.

The following are statistics for the chickens and the eggs, comparing naturally foraging “pastured” chickens to their industrial caged “battered” (so appropriately named!) counterparts.
Life Span
Pastured 7-20 years
Battered 12-23 months
Fryers 41 days

Chickens are like any other bird. They forage for their food. Pastured chickens spend their days clucking about, scratching the earth for bugs, grass, and even the occasional mouse. Caged battered chickens are forced to eat cottonseed meal and soy proteins, with an elongated daylight period to enhance their egg laying. This means they can lay up to 380 eggs in a few months, but their life’s energy is literally gone in that short period. A pastured chicken will lay 400-600 eggs in her life, all in a more natural setting.

The eggs from the pastured hen are also far more nutritious than those of the battered chicken. Mother Earth News has corroborated 15 years of research in extensive testing to prove exactly how healthful these eggs are.

Comparing pastured eggs to egg substitutes is apples to golf balls. However, if you like a little egg with your chemicals, we can crunch the numbers!

Vitamins

Vitamin A
You need anywhere from 4,000 (infant) to 12,000 (lactating woman) international units (iu) of Vitamin A per day.
The Egg Substitute - 180
The Industrial Egg - 244
The Pastured Egg - 405

Vitamin D
The old RDA was 400 iu. It has since been increased to 1000 iu since everyone has become severely deficient.
The Egg Substitute - 0
The Industrial Egg - 18
The Pastured Egg - 73

Vitamin E
You should get at least 30 iu of E per day, about half for children. Many people are deficient in E as well, so please pay attention.
The Egg Substitute - .13
The Industrial Egg - .49
The Pasture Egg - 1.46

Beta Carotene
This is a provitamin, meaning it is only 1 step away from being a vitamin - namely vitamin A. A is so vital to all aspects of the cells that make up your body, affecting every organ and its function. Most people recognize vitamin A for it's work with eye function, but that is only one of hundreds of functions it aids.
So, by having both Vitamin A and Beta Carotene available in 1 place, it will help serve the body for both immediate needs and easier storage for use later.
The Egg Substitute - a synthetic form - 108
The Industrial Egg - 5
The Pastured Egg - 35

More Reasons To Buy Pastured Eggs
Now that you know why it is so much better for you to eat pastured eggs, here are other reasons you should buy them:

Extinction – There are over 40 breeds of heritage chickens, 12 of which are original to the US. These breeds are all threatened with extinction by the breeds used in industrial farming. The majority of pastured eggs are from these 12 heritage breeds.

Diversification – all 7 or 8 of NYS industrial egg farmers are supplied by only 3 breeders. As we have seen with lettuce, spinach, beef and peanuts, the ability to damage an entire sector of farming that is so centralized is frightening. By supporting small farms, this ability is reduced significantly.

Economic – Studies throughout the world have proven money spent at locally owned businesses is far more valuable than money spent at regional, national or international stores. $1 spent locally (at small farms or businesses) equals $1.86 in locally re-spent capitol. $1 spent at a chain store equals $.83 in locally re-spent capitol.

Environmental – Industrial Animal Farming is estimated to account for 55% of soil and sediment erosion, 37% of nationwide pesticide use, 80% of antibiotic usage, and more than 30% of the total nitrogen and phosphorus dumped into drinking water resources. By supporting your local farmers, you significantly decrease these numbers, and assist in the rebalancing of the environment. By having small flocks of chickens, all of these issues are balanced out. Bugs and weeds are controlled, the soil is fertilized naturally, and the birds are healthier for being outside, so there is no need for antibiotics for health or growth.

EarthDay Eco FootPrint

2009-04-22T10:23:00.002-04:00

Wow. All of my answers were in the minimal or little range and it would still take 3.5 earths to support my lifestyle, if everyone chose to adopt it.
That's scary!
We're in a little bitty house that uses not a lot of electricity or natural gas (compared to national standards), don't drive around much, recycle everything possible, grow our own food and buy what we can't from within a 200 mile radius (their definition of local).
And it's STILL 3.5 earths!
So much for being low key. And we'd need 15.6 global acres to support little old me.
I make most of my clothes, rarely buy new stuff yearly, much less monthly, and reuse what I can in other forms around the house.
This is just nasty! Insulting! Humbling! Humiliating even. LOL
I guess I'll be trying harder.
Let me know what your scores are.
http://earthday.net/footprint/
You can do this without signing up - just look below their box to enter your email address. It's there.

What a Spring

2009-04-18T20:28:00.005-04:00

Getting ready for warmer weather is always hectic. But when warmer weather gets here before you're ready, woof!

I've overdone twice so far this spring, and it always comes back to haunt me. But, I'm never lacking in projects, so I just have to change direction, rather than fret over the inability to do what I had planned for a specific day.

I've made a quilt - Baby quilt for a friend's baby girl, Erika.It's a simple 9-patch block but with a little tweek to make it look like it has circles, which is always a fun thing to add. It has 39 different pinks in it - this is why I love quilting. It allows you to use scraps to create a completely new piece of fabric. Re-use at one of its more attractive moments.

I've also made a flag for the front yard to help my brother sell some of his eggs. This was a really fun project! It's part of an old sheet and crayons. I traced the picture on, and colored away! Well, warmed the fabric up with the iron, and then colored - it absorbs better that way. I hung it out today, but it was a tad windy this afternoon, making it a challenge. But, it's a prototype, so I'll keep working on it. Then I'll make one for my brother's property as well. Since he has constant wind where he is, it needs to be far tougher than here in the valley.

Pretty snazzy, huh?

So then I cleaned the fish pond. It's a puddle. But Dad likes it, so it was my turn to do the Spring cleaning of it. Never again. My brain is still spinning out from doing that. I did find out we have 8 fish instead of 6 instead of 4. We started with 4 3 years ago. Then we had 6. Now we have 8.

And I did find out that frogs indeed don't rot, but mummify. Pretty amazing! He was dead and just a bag of water when I scooped out some leaves, so just figured he'd burst and that would be the end of it. Nope - in only 3 days, he's completely dried and mummied. Mom turned green when I showed her, but her sister thought it was pretty cool.

I've gotten the first part of the garden planted - peas, spinach, salsify, sweet peas and onions. I can throw beets in any time, and will be putting shallots in just because I have some and can find the room. The rest, thankfully, has to wait another 4 weeks - or more. That allows me to work on other parts of the yard - like weeding the flower beds.

Daffodils are in full bloom, the weeping cherry is going to be in full bloom tomorrow - the first bud popped today. You can just watch that open up. Just gorgeous!

And the rhubarb is up! I've always been fascinated with how the leaves come up, but finally took a picture. It's like eggs hatching brains that unfold into the leaves. Very cool!

Spring Green From This Old House

2009-04-13T17:57:00.001-04:00

Seriously, the magazine. Not my house. LOL

Choose Green Interior Materials - Editor picks, including zero-VOC paint, flooring, more

Build a Table Using Salvaged Woods - Create this piece with stair spindles and a tread

Use Energy-Smart Devices - Dimmable LED downlights, rain harvesters, more

Make a Raised Vegetable Garden - A 2-hour project you can do with the kids

Best Stormwater Solutions - Attractive landscape ideas that filter pollution from water

Install Healthy Kitchen Cabinets - How to find nontoxic wood, bamboo, or MDF options

5 Lawn-less Yard Solutions - Plant conservative growers in place of a demanding lawn

Install a Solar Attic Fan - Save on cooling costs and save energy with this quick upgrade

Add Drip Irrigation - Conserve water; send it to the base of plants, where it's needed

Grow Succulents - 12 low-maintenance water-savers in striking shapes and colors

A Day In The Life Of

2009-04-12T11:06:00.003-04:00

Chickens.

LOL

You'd be surprised at the number of people who have never seen chickens doing what they do best - forage.

The only pictures or videos seen anymore are of chickens in huge barns, all white, except where other chickens have crapped on them, just milling about.

Chickens do a lot more. They're great for insect control, removing thatch from a yard, fertilizing, egg laying, and of course, eating. They're also a great source of entertainment.

Since I grew up around chickens, it was pretty easy to see my brother's flock doing their thing. But trying to convey this to our friends who've never been around chickens was another thing entirely. So, I asked my brother to take a video. And now he's looking at getting a chicken cam.

LOL - I'll put a link to it when he gets one set up.

Until then, enjoy this video. You can hear them clucking and talking to each other. Just don't jack the volume up too much since the rooster does crow. Twice.

Video Link

And for more - the history of these chickens:
The First Chickens
The Coolest Chicken Coop
Their First Day In The Wild Green Yonder

Name Change

2009-04-10T22:06:00.002-04:00

I've changed the name, even though the address is the same. To protect the innocent? Ha! No innocence here.

Since becoming disabled 8 years ago this July, I've searched for a way to be independent. It's not easy since I have to be able to fit a day's worth of work into 3 hours or less, but this little obstacle doesn't stop me. It just makes me work to be more efficient.

About 2 years ago, I finally realized that I *like* living so simply. I've never been one to enjoy luxury of any sort - some even call me spartan. Years ago, my sister got me cable so she could watch when she visits. I would probably be without a TV if it were up to me. It used to be a great plant stand and that was it.

But truly, having a veggie garden, having a small orchard of fruit trees and bushes really makes me happy. Making the house as energy efficient as I can to cut down on monthly bills, really working with the wood stove for maximum whole-house heating are fun. They are challenges that take time to overcome, just like my disability.

And what is my disability? Vertigo. Vestibular Neuritis to be specific. I'm one of 2% of people who get it to become permanently disabled by it. I'd rather win the lottery, but this will have to do for now.

So, I'm working on making this 1-acre plot of my parents' into a homestead. And since I'm always spinning, it is the Spiraling Homestead. I like it!

My brother and his wife have green houses and chickens to sell their wares at a local farmer's market. I did some research and found out I can bake and cook certain things to also sell at the market to enhance their stall. And since I raise much of what I'd be using, it makes the effort about as local as possible. It also makes it cheaper for me and will create a better cash flow to give to the parents.

Most of all, it gives me hope. Hope that I can live on my own again someday. Hope that my example will inspire others to simplify their lives, even just a little. Hope that we may yet not destroy the earth. I do believe the earth will survive - it's humans that won't. And a host of other animals. So I'd like to think we can get ourselves out of this pickle and if me gettig disabled makes it so I convert to the simpler life, well I guess that's not so bad.

So hopefully this blog will be a bit more active. I will be posting ideas and articles like I have in the past, but will also post more about daily life and opinions - of which I have many - in hopes of helping others make the conversion a little easier.

A Green Easter

2009-04-04T21:28:00.003-04:00

Easter should be about more than gluttony. Children shouldn't be allowed to see how much candy they can eat prior to the church service - or Easter brunch in a restaurant - which ever way you Christians choose to 'celebrate' it. Adult shouldn't be eating everything in sight at that all you can eat brunch buffet. And families in general shouldn't be looking toward another huge meal in the afternoon - one that rivals Thanksgiving.

Easter History
First off, Easter is a rather arbitrarily assigned date. It is on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the Spring equinox - March 20/21. As you can tell, Rome chose to place it close to the spring celebrations of many different cultures, in order to better convert those cultures to Christianity.

As an American culture, Easter didn't become a large event until after the Civil War, when comfort from that devestation meant turning to religious holidays. Since the first settlers were here to escape both the Anglican and the Catholic church rules, the celebration of Easter was a minimalist event at best.

So between the Pagan influence and the settler's Protestant ways, America's cultural heritage with Easter is scant at best. So, rather than expanding on the capitolistic ways the retailers would have you believe has been with us since Christ himself, try a different tactic. Try toning it down a bit.

Suggestions

Buy Local

Particularly during this economic climate, buying local will be of paramount importance. Buying locally has a few different implications.

The first is to buy as many locally produced goods as possible. Use the local bakery and the local butcher to buy the items you need and can't make yourself. It may mean you buy less, but less isn't such a bad thing. Since most of our food is transported an average of 1500 miles, buying locally produced goods cuts down significantly on greenhouse gasses produced just by transporting them.

The second way is to buy from locally owned stores. Don't go to Sam's to buy your Easter food or candy. Go to Maine's, The Giant and other locally owned stores. Even Wegmans isn't local. It's in the state, but it's well outside of the 100 mile radius that is considered "local". By purchasing from locally owned businesses, your dollar is kept IN your community.

Studies in England, Maine, Colorado, and Tennessee have proven that a single dollar goes as far in the community as $1.76, while that same dollar used at a chain store only goes as far as .76 to .82. England's local economy fared far better than the US, however, the numbers are still staggering.

And considering the amount of money that is spent just on candy - American consumers spend over 1 million dollars on Easter candy every year and that nearly 20 billion jellybeans are produced just for Easter - that adds up to a significant portion remaining in the local economy.

Buy American.

I know there is much ado about protectionism. However, buying American is similar to buying locally - it keeps wages up and more money circulating in American, than leaving its shores. American chocolate, jelly beans, peeps, etc. And if you have a local chocolatier, great! Buy from them!

Buy Organic

While buying local is the 'New" buying organic, it makes a difference. The less you buy that ruins the environment, the better. And if it's local AND organic, you've hit the jackpot! Organic is slowly coming down in price, so the sacrifices made aren't nearly what they used to be. Grass-fed beef (preferably from intensive grazing - will post the article soon), versus lot-fed (CAFO) beef, pastured chickens and turkeys versus CAFO fowl, pastured pork versus CAFO pork, milk produced without hormones, pastured chickens for eggs, rather than industrial eggs, etc. The products are out there to find and are becoming more common every passing season, so that's wonderful!

Buy Fair Trade

There is movement afoot for Domestic Fair Trade as well as International Fair Trade, which is well established. There are several local organizations, VUMC included, that sells fair trade products at least monthly. Please check into it.

Get Rid Of

Get rid of the plastic. Who thought of plastic Easter eggs? Wrap the goodies in small bits of bright paper. And plastic grass?! Odd! Get your shredder out and shred some left over wrapping paper, the funnies or brightly colored pages from a magazine. Considering the kids look at the plastic for a total of 4 minutes or less, it doesn't make sense to spend the money OR the oil in making it just to throw it away.

If you don't already, buy special baskets and keep them for the child's entire Easter life. We had our own baskets every year, and always looked forward to finding OUR basket. It builds a tradition and a strong family connection, as well as cutting down on waste.

Get rid of excess. If the kids don't eat the hard boiled eggs, don't decorate them. They can color and make beautiful designs on paper just as easily as on hard boiled eggs. Give them about half the candy. This isn't Halloween revisited. It's Easter. No one should do what my sister did, which was to eat an entire pound of a solid chocolate bunny before the early service at church. While she didn't throw up, she didn't feel good for 2 days.

Make Easter special. Or, do as the settlers did and be very quite about it. Christ was.

Reduce Your Paper Use

2009-03-30T20:28:00.005-04:00

Reducing the amount of paper is pretty easy. Far easier than you think.

Mom relayed a story to me of her youth. It seems their pig loved toilet paper. LOVED toilet paper. Well, once her mother figured out what was happening with all of the toilet paper, the kids were told (Mom and her cousins), they could use the toilet paper for themselves, or feed it to the pig and use the Sears catalog.

The pig didn't get anymore toilet paper.

See how easy that is?

For this post, I'm not going to give suggestions to you about how to reduce. You already know how. What you may not know is why it's so important to reduce. That's what I'll be focusing on.

Each person in the US produces 730 pounds of waste paper per year.

Every year, 535 million trees are cut just for the US paper demand, using over 12 billion gallons of petroleum products.

Making 1 ton of paper from virgin pulp uses up to 72,000 gallons of water, whereas producing recycled paper only needs a tenth the water, 60% of the energy and not even 50% the chemicals.

Americans recycle only 1/3 of the newspapers they purchase.

The average American gets 400 pounds of mail order catalogs every year.

Americans use over 50 pounds of tissue products per year. Tissues, toilet paper, paper towels and packaging encompass this category.

If every American replaced 1 package of regular TP with one of recycled paper, it would save 1.4 million trees. With napkins, it would be another 1 million trees.

Since 1960, office paper generation increased by 4.8 million tons, or 320 percent

And some good news - However, office paper generation has declined by 750,000 tons during the last six years as the use of personal computers has spread.

15 million sheets of paper are used in US offices every 5 minutes.

Here's a picture from Chris Jordan depicting the 15 million sheets of paper:

And a detail:

A Visit To The Homestead

2009-03-30T20:00:00.005-04:00

And you didn't think there was any such thing as a real pecking order! Ha! You're wrong. As you can see, the first Red came out while the others were watching. Once they saw she was ok, they started coming out. It reminded me of a horror flick gone cute. Rather than beasts of evil flooding through the unprotected gates of hell, it was chickens coming out of a camper made just for them. Very circus like.

The part I couldn't capture on the camera was a single hen standing on the top of the water bucket while all the others departed. She stayed there the whole time. It was very interesting to watch!

These two pictures - of the Rocks - Heads I win, Tails you lose. LOL It's a cute little butt - as chicken butts go.

Here, you can see they've blended nicely. They've all got more room to scratch out a meal than they've ever had before. The Reds came from a 20x24 concrete floored room and have never really seen the ground before. So this is an extra special treat for them. They can actually be chickens!

The Rocks have had ground to play on, but never more than an 8x8 space at any given time. So, going to a 25x25 is pretty exciting for them all! Talk about clucky!

And if you'd like to know more about these and other heritage breeds, please visit The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

They had to stay inside the next day since it was a bit difficult getting them to understand night time meant they went INTO the chalet to roost. Their homing instinct doesn't include the building - just the location of the building. Chickens have never been accused of being the brightest bulbs in the world.

I also got to see Venita's green houses. Very cool! They aren't packed yet, as she still is in the seedling stage, but they'll be too full to move very soon. Good for her!

We're all planning a joint venture actually. I'll be making jams, jellies, bread and coffee cakes, utility bags and potholders (quilts are out for now - way too much time needed to make them for this year). They'll sell eggs, flower and veggie plants. I believe their neighbor will be selling goat milk - which is wonderful - have had it.

Bro is looking into making more Chalets to sell since this one went together so well and is working just as he had hoped. He has a solar electric fence around it so they won't leave without permission.

I'm hoping to get a bunch of stuff written up for either the end of the market season this year or the beginning of next season. I don't know which yet. It truly depends on the weather this summer. If it's rainy and crappy, obviously I'll be inside more than out working. If it's super sunny, I'll be working outside a lot. So - again, it just depends.

But we're all such Jack of All Trades that we can probably make a good go of it as a combined homestead of sorts. We're all homesteading, but we all have our specialties within the homesteading. With any luck, it'll work!

VUMC Weekly Green Tips 2009

2009-03-28T20:59:00.001-04:00

Sorry for any confusion. I was just told that the order the hints were put into the bulletin was mixed up. So, I'm trying to get them back in order. Forgive us!

January Week 1 - Repurposing Christmas
January Week 2 - Use a Humidifier
January Week 3 - Seal Those Leaks
January Week 4 - Windows, The Weak Link
January Week 5 - Second-Hand Scents

February Week 1 - Buy A Houseplant
February Week 2 - Valentine's Day
February Week 3 - At Least 10 Uses For Just About Anything
February Week 4 - Lent is Coming

For Lent - Carbon Fast

March Week 1 - Why Kermit's Team Blog Exists
March Week 2 - Reduce Your Use of Processed Foods
March Week 3 - Use Less Water
March Week 4 - 1 Less Hour of Power - Earth Hour
March Week 5 - Use Less Paper

DIY Links

Water Is NOT Infinite

2009-03-28T17:52:00.004-04:00

Our bodies (human, that is) are at least 60% water. I say at least because I learned it to be 80%, but the numbers vary. I think that's because they are talking about what isn't directly in cells, rather than cell and free floating.

Anyway, we aren't just carbon-based units - we are far more water-based. So, with something that is so vital to us, we tend to be very casual, and abusive of it. Why is that? When you look at a country such as Australia, which is in a drought of unprecedented proportions. I have friends there, and have only heard about the drought. I've never heard anything else but drought conditions, and it's going on its 8th year.

I just found the following quote from a newspaper article from The Australian online newspaper: But Dr Cai and Dr Cowan are convinced that the DOI is a “bigger scale” phenomenon which can overpower ENSO. As well, they will report in GRL that climate change is an even broader scale phenomenon that is increasing the frequency of IOD events.

The above quote truly points out the theory posed in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". While it may not happen nearly as quickly as the movie shows it, it's a very solid theory that is being borne out in a different way, south of the Equator.

How we use our water in the US is not going to make a difference in what happens in Australia. However, if we learn from them, we are far less likely to be so severely affected as they. What is scary is, we aren't learning. The following picture is a map of the Great Plains (Ogallala Aquifer) and it's water decline (without replenishment) over the last 50 years:

You know what that major area is called? America's Breadbasket. And what else? Desert.

They are now saying that the 30 million people who rely on the Colorado River in 7 different states will be without water by 2021. All from overuse, and increasing temperatures evaporating it as well as reducing the snowpack that fills it in the springtime.

So - what can we do? It's easy - reduce!
Look at an article I wrote on how much water is used just to produce our energy.
Reduce the amount of energy you use.
Reduce the amount of WATER you use.
Reduce the amount of water you BUY - really, how stupid is that?
Learn good gardening techniques that will significantly reduce watering you might need to do during the hottest months of the summer.
Use rain barrels. Divert the water from your rooftops and driveways into your lawns and flower beds.
Use the water from your washer to water your container plants.

Check for leaks in your water system. Make sure all faucets are turned off in your house. If your meter changes position during this time, you have at least one leak. Find it by ruling out all lines - shut off all but one and check the meter again - keep doing until you find the leak. Fix the leaks!

Don't flush your toilet as often. If you have an old toilet that uses up to 8 gallons per flush, start looking at replacing it. The first generation of low flow toilets were horrid, but they've improved greatly (we have a Toto that is phenomenal).

Change the way you shower. WWII Navy personnel learned to take the 2 minute shower. Challenge yourself to take a shorter shower. You can reduce your time, reduce the flow which reduces the volume you use, or shut the flow off while you're soaping up. My dad uses the first, I use the second and my mom uses the third. All work the same.

Don't wash your car. It's actually better to leave the grunge on in the NE during the winter time, as warm wet salt. Cold wet salt does less, and cold dry salt doesn't do anything. Leave it. You're also less likely to have it stolen. If you must wash your car, do it at a public car wash. You use about half the water, and it's generally filtered and recycled now.

Don't water your lawn. If you live in a dry area, cut down on the amount of lawn you have. Pay attention to your irrigation system. Don't water the road or the sidewalk. I lived in Dallas TX for about a year, and was able to reduce the water use at the house by half, just by changing the way the system watered the lawn. Rather than 1 30-minute cycle for each zone, I watered it in 4 5-minute cycles. It didn't run off, but had a chance to soak in. This meant it stayed moister for a far longer time, reducing the number of times the lawn was watered, and used less water overall.
If you don't live in a dry area, don't water. It isn't necessary. And often, it isn't watered properly, making the grass even weaker during the hottest period.

Don't use container plants. I hate container plants. They have no way to hold their moisture. They just evaporate and transevaporate (through the leaves) so quickly that you're watering gallons for singular plants. That's just wrong.

Divert Rain Water - it's virtually impossible to use a rain barrel that will collect enough water, but if you want to, go for it. It only takes a few minutes of a good thunderstorm to fill a 55 gallon drum. What happens to the rest of the storm's water? And what if there are several in a few days' time? Look at the flow of the water and sculpt your lawn to either collect it in an area that is perpetually dry, or to disperse it much like irrigation ditches in developing countries. It works wonders! I'll be posting one project here that I started last year and will be making look good this year.
Only wash full loads. When you use your washer, particularly if you have a teenager, you tend to not wash full loads. Stop that right now! It's costing YOU, not just the environment. In energy, water and detergent.

Use your dishwasher. If you use your dishwasher, vs hand washing your dishes, you can save half of the total volume. Washers are even smarter now, using only what is necessary for your style of washing - the first few times it washes, it may use more, but it's "learning" you and your dishes dirt level. This saves ever more.

None of these ideas are ground breaking or life-changing. But they all work. Be efficient!

Talk about Reuse!

2009-03-24T17:00:00.007-04:00

This past week has been pretty hectic at my brother's place.

As you know, he already has some chickens
Well, he didn't just triple his flock, he quintupled it! Rhode Island Reds, and he seems pretty proud of them. Pullets - so they aren't laying eggs yet, but he figures in about 6 weeks, they'll be laying a combined 3.5 dozen a day. Salada Eggs!

When he got them, he wasn't anticipated expanding just yet, or to the degree in which he expanded. So he needs a super duper fast "egg mobile" as he calls it. He had been talking about making a more portable coop, so he can give them new foraging as often as they need, but hadn't worried about it just yet. He's worrying!

So in I step, suggesting he ask our neighbor for her ancient pop-up camper that's been parked for over 20 years. Dad called, and he was told that if bro could come and get it, it was his! He was down the next day. LOL

We were all certain that thing would be ruined inside. We were wrong! The tires hold air, the stoves works, the ice box is cracked, there's virtually no mildew and hardly needed airing. Uh oh. He's also been talking about something like this for a spare bedroom too. Now what? The chickens are here NOW, so it's the latest and greatest in chicken coops. Talk about Haute Poule. These babes are it!

So, he's in the process of gutting the camper. The stove already has a new home, and the other things are still in search of somewhere useful to live. Once we have pictures, they'll be posted.

It's a wild and wacky world around me, that's for certain.
New pictures! LOL
It's a topless camper!

Monsanto's Dream Bill In The House of Reps

2009-03-24T17:00:00.006-04:00

My brother and I were actually talking about this last night. And it all has to do with food security. I'm sure it's being advertised as a way to improve security, but diversification is the only way to keep anything safe - whether it's electric, natural gas, your own money, or your food.

Europe is a prime example with natural gas. They've been held hostage by Russia at least twice this winter, by actually stopping gas transport through Ukraine. Having only one source for anything is bad.

Also - if you remember from history lessons, monopolies were outlawed for a reason. They create a huge imbalance that has catastrophic consequences to all, not just those directly affected by a conglomerate.

Another example is something as simple as egg and poultry farming. Here's what my brother found...
(NYSEQAP). Over 85% of NY eggs come from just 12 commercial egg farms, 5 replacement pullet growers and one large breeder. 12 growers supply over 19,000,000 people. Please explain to me how that's safe. I could list hundreds of such example all over the nation.

Pease - go to Senate.gov and House.gov and contact your elected officials. No one should have such an inside track to total control over OUR lives. Monsanto has already bought the larger seed companies. Don't let them take the smaller ones or OUR personal right to grow, exchange or store our own seed.

Leslie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monsanto's dream bill, HR 875
by Linn Cohen-Cole
To begin reversing GM contamination will require ending the power biotech companies such as Monsanto exert over our government and through that, over our food.

HR 875, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto.

The bill is monstrous on level after level - the power it would give to Monsanto, the criminalization of seed banking, the prison terms and confiscatory fines for farmers, the 24 hours GPS tracking of their animals, the easements on their property to allow for warrantless government entry, the stripping away of their property rights, the imposition by the filthy, greedy industrial side of anti-farming international "industrial" standards to independent farms - the only part of our food system that still works, the planned elimination of farmers through all these means.

The corporations want the land, they want more intensive industrialization, they want the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones they own, they want the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals. They want control over all seeds, animals, water, and land.

Our farmers are good stewards. That is who is threatened by Rosa DeLauro's bill (and because of that, we all are). At a time in this country when wise stewardship and the production of anything real - especially good food - is what is most needed, it is our best stewards whom Rosa DeLauro threatens, under the cruelly false name of "food safety."

And now Monsanto wants its own employee, Michael Taylor - the man who forced genetically engineered rBGH on us (unlabeled so us, unaware) when the Clintons placed him over "food safety" in the 90s - back in government, this time to act with massive police power as a "food safety tsar" from inside the White House. HR 875 would give him immense power over what is done on every single farm in the country and massive police state power to wield over farmers and punishments to break them at will.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have a real chance to get this bill dropped from committee, as the head of the Energy and Commerce Committee is Congressman Democrat Henry Waxman.

Please call his office immediately and let them know your feelings on the matter and please tell them that you "disapprove" of HR875.

His office is located at:

8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)

My Brother's Chickens

2009-03-19T14:40:00.000-04:00

3/19/09 - Well, he's at it again. He's tripling his "herd" (I know, flock. But I'd like to call him a chicken herder. LOL). Today he's going somewhere down in PA to get another 20 chickens. Don't know if they're the same breed as what he has now, but he's getting more. He has the demand for eggs, and he has plenty of property to put them on, so he might as well increase his population.

Good for him!

And here's a picture of his chicken coop in action, with chickelfinks attached. He couldn't decide which to put on the 'back' of the coop, so both went on the 'front'.

The spring of 2008 had a neighbor of my brother bring him some chicks and proclaimed him a chicken farmer.

Naturally, my brother kept them and, has indeed, begun his chicken farming stage of life.

These chickens are Plymouth Rock - barred variety. Who knew there are 7 varieties of Plymouth Rocks out there?

Naturally, once fall came, he had to build them a coop. Being the over-engineering sort, and plenty of wood to harvest as lumber, he made them a COOP. Those chickens have no clue how good they have it. As you can see, it's a 2-story coop. And it's portable! He can move it with his tractor to new foraging whenever he wants. The chickens apparently love it when they move and come out to watch the tractor whenever he starts it up. The second floor has roosts and nesting boxes that you can access from the outside with a hinged portion of the roof. Easier egg gathering and cleaning - no bending!

Once I saw the design, I was driven to make him some distelfinks. Only - distelfink for a chicken just doesn't sound right - so, I totally bastardized the concept and called them chickelfinks. I've not gotten any pictures of them on the coop, but I'm sure I'll get one someday. Obviously, I took great liberties with the second one. However, for chickens, it just seemed incredibly appropriate! The first is far more traditional, using standard symbols and colors. The only non-standard part is the rooster instead of a finch.

The amazing part is, these chickens are already laying eggs! I figured early spring would be the soonest, but they're doing quite well - especially for pullets (hens less than a year old. The rooster is a cockerel until he's a year old - then he's a cock).

A little tidbit I found while doing my turkey farming research is that chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs and chickens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs - with a few exceptions.

First - WHO knew chickens had earlobes and WHO looked?

And if they lay speckled eggs, is it because they have freckles on their earlobes or what?
Ah well, that little bit of pondering will have to wait for another day. So do they have varying shades of red earlobes? And the 2 eggs on the far right are speckled - freckled earlobes? If they lay consistently the same shade/tone, we have eggs from 4 different hens. But, I don't know if they do lay consistently or not. Such research to do!

I honestly don't know what my brother will do with all of his eggs. I've offered up different people within my circle who would love to buy them, but I've not hear. He may already have them all spoken for. But considering he'll be getting an average of 2 per day from each hen, that's 20/day to get rid of. LOL Just a few.

Maple Surple

2009-03-18T17:29:00.004-04:00

Roses are red

Violets are purple

Sugar is sweet

So is maple surple.

Anyway, a long story for 2 pints of syrup.

I had to move all of our firewood away from the south wall of our garage because I have to 'install' (read, DIG) a drainage ditch/culvert/trench. The water along the E/NE wall is making moss grow on the radio shack (don't ask about the radio shack. I lost in the vote to get rid of it). So - moved the firewood. As I was finishing the second day of hauling and tossing, I noticed the maple nearby was dripping. I knew the sap was running, but it's always good to have that affirmation

If you've never had plain sap, it's one of those 100 things to see/do before you die. Wonderful! So, I started wiping up the drops from cleaner pieces of wood (anything not dirt) and tasting. WOW is it sweet! I've had sap before, but none this sweet straight from the tree. I had Dad try it and he thought the same thing. So, I said to him - find me a tap and I'll make some syrup.

Never mind I've not made it before and that it's very late in the season. While I was moving the wood, I had been thinking I would try it next year. Well, what's a year among friends, right?

He trotted right off to find one. It took him an hour, but he found one! And while he was gone, I was online searching out exactly how to do this thing, tapping a maple tree. First off, the hole they suggest you drill is PUNY. 5/16. Right! I had to up it to about 7/16 because the tap just wouldn't even start. But, with it that little bit bigger, I was able to coax it in without splitting the tree.

I got a gallon in 4 hours. Wow! Fast! It has slowed considerably since then. Now I might get a gallon in about 8 hours. But, that's ok. I've already exceeded my hopes of how much syrup I'd get.

The set up now isn't nearly as picturesque as it used to be - the slightly beat up bucket hanging under the tap, with the sounds of the drips quietly coming from inside. It's a plastic bag. Ew. But, effective. And bungy cords. Where has the beauty gone in our lives? Sigh. But, again, effective.

All of the sites I looked at said the ratio is 40:1. You need 40 ounces of sap to get 1 ounce of syrup, 40 gallons to get 1 gallon, etc. They also said the average tap would yield 4-10 gallons of sap before drying up. So I figured if I could get 5 gallons of sap, I'd be a happy camper. It is a full month into the season and I have no clue how much difference that makes in the volume or how long a tap lasts.

So, I've been boiling a gallon of sap at a time on top of our kitchen stove. You know how they show piles of steam just rolling off like fog? Not with a mere spit of a gallon. It's like you're making spaghetti for a couple of hours. That's not much steam at all. So, I boil it down from a gallon to a cup. I thought I'd do this until I was finished collecting sap, and then boil down all of it at once.

Well, I didn't feel like having that many jars of partial syrup/sap around. So last night, I took my 2 pints of boiled down and started to boil it down again. I had only collected around 3.5 gallons, so figured I'd be lucky to get a cup of syrup from the 2 pints. When it was finished, I had 1 pint plus 3 ounces. I knew the sap was sweet, but holy crow! That's a significant difference from the average.

And considering this maple is a hybrid - it's not a red maple and not a sugar maple - I figured it would take more boiling. So maybe I've got something here in this hybrid! I'll know next year when I try this again.

I'm probably going to pull the tap tomorrow after the morning collection. I've got enough for us and now I know it's not some hocus pocus years of trial and error thing that you only master after 20 years. I have 4 maples on the property I can tap, plus 2 on the neighbor's property. Plus, there are 2 box elders that I can tap as well. And I may next year. It's said they aren't as sweet and don't have as much of the quintessential mapleness to them. Mom hates maple, so she might like it. We'll see.

It's been fun! And not hot or sweaty or steamy. I'm pretty happy with it. And it tastes wonderful! WOW.

This is a picture from last fall - early September. It's the tree on the right with no leaves on it. It's a strange beast - it's always done that. It changes from top to bottom - as does another on the property, but it changes early and loses them as soon as they change color. The others hold the leaves for far longer.

Earth Hour March 28, 2009

2009-03-18T11:42:00.002-04:00

Earth Hour is 10 days away. Go to the website and sign up so they know how many people are going to participate.

From 830 to 930 PM, all you have to do is turn off your lights. That's it. Incredibly simple!

Organizations, schools, cities, towns, and businesses can all sign up. And if you leave the name of your organization, it'll be scrolled across the website sidebar! Very cool.

You have nothing to lose except a little reading time. Why not join 28 Scouts in this effort? Or the 2.2 million in Sydney Australia? It's worth it! And hey - make it a habit!

Reducing Use of Processed Foods

2009-03-14T10:13:00.003-04:00

It is truly amazing how little of the food we eat we actually prepare from scratch. Here's an example:

My family makes our own spaghetti sauce. It's cheaper, we like the taste better than the store bought and is supposed to be better for us. BUT - we buy the cans of tomatoes, sauce and paste; we buy the cheeses and the spices. What did we just make on our own?

Yes, it's cheaper for us and yes, we like the taste better. But is it better for us or the environment? Each can of tomatoes is lined with chemicals to help "improve and maintain freshness". One of these chemicals is BPA. Chemicals are also added to help "maintain color and flavor". Huge amounts of salt are added, and salt is now being linked to memory problems as well as the hypertension issues. The cheeses are processed and shipped from hundreds of miles away, as are the spices. These are usually shipped in plastic, which is known to outgas at room temperature.

Energy may or may not be saved by making spaghetti sauce this way, compared to buying individual jars of processed sauce. I do know the number of chemicals we consume is decreased substantially. Just look at the labels of your favorite sauces to see what has been added compared to mixing it up yourself. Each year I am growing more tomatoes to can and use, rather than buying them, but I'm still not able to grow a full year's supply. I'm getting there.

While I don't expect most people to look as closely as I do at what we make, what we eat, how we eat it, or how we buy it, I do hope you *will* look.

Changes are simple. Drink 1 less soda per week. Eat 1 less candy bar. Eat out 1 fewer times per week. Cook a meal rather than eating a heat and serve TV dinner. Grill your own burgers rather than driving down to the local burger bar. Make soup out of left overs instead of opening a can and dumping it in a sauce pan.

Here are some facts for you to think about when you go shopping or go out to eat:

Overall, food—and all the energy it takes to grow, process, transport and prepare it—is responsible for 1/3 of all global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Pew Center.

The average restaurant in the US uses 38 kWh of electricity and 111 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot of space per year.

Here in the US, for every 10 calories spent to grow/produce our food, we get 1 calorie in return.

Calculate your diet's carbon footprint. Eat Low Carbon

Why This Blog Exists

2009-03-13T20:04:00.002-04:00

How did Kermit's Team come about? I'm not sure really. Like all good Methodists, I chimed in and offered my assistance when the Greent Team was formed.

"Use a blog and connect it to the church web site. It's easy!", I chirped. "Here, I'll show you." So I started this one, choosing a name that wouldn't intefere with a name the Green Team came up with, but that would be easily remembered by its members when they actually reviewed it (which they don't). Ask them.

Why reinvent the wheel if it's already rolling under your cart? Ahh, yes. The prototype becomes the functioning model. LOL

That's fine. I was going to keep posting to it anyway, so gearing it mostly toward the church wasn't such a difficult task.

I try to post 3 times per week. As you can see, my ability to do that is spotty at best. At least once a week is the real goal. The one per week is strictly for the church. It's an expansion upon the teaser line that's placed in the weekly bulletin - giving you accurate and timely information that can help you make decisions in your life on being a better steward of the earth.

The others, as I have time, are articles I find - or are sent to me - and that I deem important enough to place here, with any additional information I might find to add to them. I'm a geek. A lab rat that hasn't come out of the closet yet. I love research, I just hate being called a researcher.

I do my best to not editorialize, but I will write a sentance or two of my opinion when I feel and real need.

I strive to make the blog a resource. I'd prefer it to be an interactive one, with you, the reader, placing comments or questions that I *will* answer as quickly as I can.

The blog isn't as actual website, so there are limitations. But it's also nicer in that it is so interactive. I've posted as much as I can on the side bar, as well as making different resource pages so that you need only to refer to one or two pages before reaching the information you want. The rest of the side bar is solid websites that you might want to review for more specific information on any number of sustainability topics.

I post simple projects, complex projects, extreme projects, new technology, new findings, and common solutions to making life more efficient along with more sustainable.

So please, keep coming back. It's designed for you to aid in improving your health, your bills, and your earth.

Leslie

Formaldehyde in Personal Care Products

2009-03-13T15:47:00.003-04:00

If you would like to know more about Formaldehyde exposure, please refer to many studies performed on katrina survivors living in the toxic trailers. Exposure is cumulative and long lasting.

(March 13) -- Many children's bath products contain chemicals that may cause cancer and skin allergies, according to a report released Thursday by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
Twenty-three of 28 products tested contained formaldehyde, the report says. Formaldehyde — considered a probable carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency, — is released as preservatives break down over time in a container.

Thirty-two of 48 products contained 1,4-dioxane, also considered a probable human carcinogen by the EPA, is a byproduct of a chemical processing techniques used to make petroleum-based ingredients gentler to the skin. Nearly two-thirds of products tested, including Johnson's Baby Shampoo, contained both chemicals, according to the campaign, a coalition of environmental and health groups that includes the Breast Cancer Fund and the Environmental Working Group.
Formaldehyde can trigger allergic reactions in sensitive people, the report says, and Japan and Sweden have banned formaldehyde from personal care products.

Analytical Sciences, an independent laboratory in Petaluma, Calif., performed the tests.
A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, Iris Grossman, says the company's products are safe, meeting or exceeding all regulations. And a spokesman for the Personal Care Products Council says the study's results are old news.

Manufacturers have known for years that bubble bath, shampoo and other products contain small amounts of formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, and have already reduced theses levels significantly, says John Bailey, the council's chief scientist.

Bailey says that preservatives make products safer by preventing the growth of bacteria, fungus and other potentially harmful microbes. There's no reason to take "extraordinary measures" to further reduce levels of these chemicals, he says, because there's no evidence to prove that low levels pose a risk.

"Cosmetic and personal care product companies take their commitment to safety and their responsibilities under the law very seriously and work hard to earn and keep the trust of consumers and their families," Bailey said in a statement. "Parents should be given complete and accurate information about their products based on sound science rather than on incomplete and alarmist reports."

Other scientists say the report raises important safety concerns.

Sheela Sathyanarayana, an environmental health pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital and an assistant professor at the University of Washington, says she's seen kids become "extremely sensitized" from formaldehyde exposures. These children develop bigger and bigger reactions with each new exposure. That can make skin sensitive to a variety of substances, beyond just formaldehyde, she says.

Although Sathyanarayana was not involved in the new report, her research has shown that many other baby products contain chemicals called phthalates, which can interfere with the hormone system.

She notes that formaldehyde also irritates the nasal and respiratory passages.

A report released last week by the Organic Consumers Association found that makers of many personal products and household cleaners have significantly reduced levels of 1,4-dioxane in the past year. The study found that products bearing the U.S. Department of Agriculture Organic seal, such as items by Dr. Bronner's, Intelligent Nutrients and Terressentials, were free of 1,4-dioxane.

Whole Foods is reformulating its 365 Everyday Value products to be free of 1,4-dioxane by this summer, spokeswoman Libba Letton says.

Brands that have sharply reduced levels of 1,4-dioxane since March 2008, when the association released its last report, include: Earth Friendly Products, Ecco Bella, Giovanni, Jason, Johnson & Johnson, Kiss My Face, Life Tree, Method, Nature's Gate, Planet Ultra and Seventh Generation, which contributed $10,000 to fund the Organic Consumers Association study.
More on This Story: Full Product List

Pesticide Study

2009-03-12T15:06:00.003-04:00

This is scary. Truly scary. The Environmental Working Group compiled the following list of foods (fresh fruits and veggies) harboring pesticides. It's just one more reason to really wash all produce very well before eating...

Every year, new research is published demonstrating the toxicity of pesticides to human health and the environment, often at doses previously declared "safe" by the pesticide industry and the government.

The wallet-size version

As acknowledged by the U.S. and international government agencies, different pesticides have been linked with a variety of toxic effects, including:

Nervous system effects
Carcinogenic effects
Hormone system effects
Skin, eye and lung irritation

Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment; they have inherent toxicity because they are designed to kill living organisms – insects, plants, and fungi that are considered "pests." Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health risks to people, risks that have been acknowledged by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.

1 (worst) Peach 100 (highest pesticide load)
2 Apple 93
3 Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4 Celery 82
5 Nectarine 81
6 Strawberries 80
7 Cherries 73
8 Kale 69
9 Lettuce 67
10 Grapes - Imported 66
11 Carrot 63
12 Pear 63
13 Collard Greens 60
14 Spinach 58
15 Potato 56
16 Green Beans 53
17 Summer Squash 53
18 Pepper 51
19 Cucumber 50
20 Raspberries 46
21 Grapes - Domestic 44
22 Plum 44
23 Orange 44
24 Cauliflower 39
25 Tangerine 37
26 Mushrooms 36
27 Banana 34
28 Winter Squash 34
29 Cantaloupe 33
30 Cranberries 33
31 Honeydew Melon 30
32 Grapefruit 29
33 Sweet Potato 29
34 Tomato 29
35 Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37 Papaya 20
38 Eggplant 20
39 Cabbage 17
40 Kiwi 13
41 Sweet Peas - Frozen 10
42 Asparagus 10
43 Mango 9
44 Pineapple 7
45 Sweet Corn - Frozen 2
46 Avocado 1
47 (best) Onion 1 (lowest pesticide load)

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to about 10 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 15 least contaminated will expose a person to less than 2 pesticides per day. Less dramatic comparisons will produce less dramatic reductions, but without doubt using the Guide provides people with a way to make choices that lower pesticide exposure in the diet.

Insulate Safely

2009-03-09T10:05:00.002-04:00

One of the gentlemen at Asbestos.com sent me this article in hopes of educating people on the dangers of in-home asbestos.

One thing I found out last night, doing other research is that asbestos is in asphalt shingles as well.

The path to owning a home is an exciting time that will bring many rewards for you and your family. It will also require additional responsibilities. Used throughout the 20th century, asbestos became one of most sought after building applications in the world. The state of New York contains three naturally occurring locations of asbestos.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, about 400 public facilities, job sites and oil refineries are still known to have asbestos exposure issues. These cities include Brooklyn, Bronx, Long Island, Manhattan, Albany, Rochester, Staten Island and others.

Potential New York home buyers and those remodeling older homes should know that asbestos exposure is easily preventable by taking simple precautions. Many healthy, green alternatives now exist that make the use of older construction materials obsolete.

Homes and buildings built prior to 1980 still may contain asbestos-containing materials. Although not all asbestos can be toxic, damaged asbestos fibers can be released into the air, which can lead to the development of rare, but severe health ailments such as asbestosis and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma treatment is limited to a handful of options, but new diagnostic procedures are being tested specifically for detecting diseases such as mesothelioma. The amount of asbestos-related incidents in the last century has lead to mesothelioma lawyers advocating and protecting victims’ rights. The asbestos and corporate industries were aware of the health hazards involved with asbestos, but continued the widespread manufacturing of the substance anyways. Millions of people have been wrongfully exposed for financial gain.

If any asbestos is suspected, the best advice is to leave it un-disturbed. Touching or breaking it off may cause it to become damaged and release its fibers into the air. Sometimes the best action is no action. , a home inspector can determine the proper course of action. If asbestos removal is necessary, it must be performed by a licensed abatement contractor who is trained in handling hazardous materials. The New York Division of Safety and Health oversees the abatement of toxic hazards such as asbestos during remodeling, reconstruction or demolition. They enforce state and federal laws regarding the safe disposal and removal of asbestos.

Many cities and states are implementing green strategies to reduce carbon footprints, save energy and maintain healthy homes. Many eco friendly alternatives exist that replace the need for asbestos. These include cotton fiber, lcynene foam and cellulose. Not only do these healthy substitutes provide the same qualities as asbestos, they can even reduce annual energy costs.
Conducting a study in 2003, the United States Green Building Council reported a savings of $50 to $65 for green constructed buildings. A water based spray polyurethane foam, lcynene is becoming a favorite for healthy insulation, containing no toxic components. These options allow for a safe, environmentally sustainable home, free of any health corroding materials.

Please look at this diagram closely - click on it to enlarge in a separate window. It will help you identifity where there are possible asbestos issues within your home. Understand that asbestos that is NOT disturbed will not harm you. It's only when it is dust or particulate form that it is so dangerous.

Artificial Wetlands for Wastewater Management

2009-03-05T12:42:00.004-05:00

Since it's coming up on Ground Water Awareness Week - who knew an official week existed for Ground Water?! - I'm posting a paper I wrote for my assemblywoman and a few town officials in the area.

The primary reason for using Artificial Wetlands for our wastewater management is outlined both in the paper, and in understanding the basic "ground water hydrology". I learn more good words because of this blog!

So - read the above, and then read the paper. I've written another that I am sending to Mother Earth News with the hopes of it being printed. We'll see. Until then, I can't post it here as it would violate their publishing policies. Wah.

NYS's fact sheet on ground water

Introduction

In the 1700’s, NYS had approximately 2.6 million acres of natural wetlands. By the 1980’s, 60% of these wetlands had been destroyed by agriculture, industry, housing development and water overuse. Since Federal Regulatory rollbacks during the 1990’s, NYS has an infamous position as one of the top 15 states for wetland destruction. (Riverkeeper.org)

What we are failing to understand, but other states and nations are seizing upon is that wetlands provide a vital service of purifying our water for future use.

Example

Egypt, as a developing nation, faces an increasing need for water purification without the funding or resources to treat their human black water. From 2000 to 2004, they focused on a low-tech solution to this low-tech issue of sewage treatment – the construction of a 60-acre artificial wetland adjacent to natural wetlands at ¼ the cost of conventional sewage treatment for a comparable volume of sewage. The initial volume of sewage treated was 25,000 metric tons (1 mt = 2205 pounds) per day. However, after a year of use, it was determined the wetland was capable of treating 40,000 metric tons per day. This increase in treatment volume increases the value of the initial investment of $9 million (US) even more than the initial estimated savings over conventional treatment facilities.

For Egypt, maintenance costs are nothing, with local livestock handlers cutting the reeds for feed at no cost to them. It has also improved the local fisheries by lowering the contamination of the waterways with nitrates and heavy metals, improving the health and size of the fish. This, in turn, has improved the local fishing industry. The combination of factors has substantially improved the local economy, the health of the local population and the environment surrounding them. It has thus piqued the interest of other locales within Egypt to assist in solving poverty, health issues and environmental imbalance with a very low overall cost. (WaterWiki.net)

History

The idea and development of artificial wetlands to treat human wastewater began in Germany during the 1970’s. The research included the optimal size of each wetland “cell”, ideal plant life to act as biofilters to remove solids, nitrates, and heavy metals, and ideal delivery methods of the black water. And while the very convincing data was collected quickly and with great success, the promotion of the technology failed miserably.

In roughly 30 years, only 600 US communities have seized upon the opportunity to reduce their costs and environmental impact, compared to Taiwan, which filters 230,000 metric tons per day (19% of their population’s waste) with 43 artificial wetlands and at a cost of only $17.7 million (US). (Taipei Times)

Technology

Artificial wetlands can be adapted to any environment, from sub-arctic to a desert climate due to the microorganisms living among the reed and grass roots, filtering 90% of the contaminants. The reeds and grasses, absorbing the nitrates and heavy metals the microorganisms make available through the breakdown of the solids, manage the final 10%. Native species to each region are used as often as possible, allowing native wildlife to flourish as well, with virtually no risk to the wildlife.

Depending on the region that adopts the artificial wetlands for black water purification, native soils may be used to form the cells, furthering the environmental improvements. Also, 2 forms of black water delivery have been developed to allow easier adaptation to climate, land availability and purpose. A subsurface delivery of the black water occurs through a gravel substrate into the root zone of the reeds and grasses, allowing less land to be used and a lower risk of mosquito infestation. A surface delivery requires more land, but allows for a larger variety of soils used as the walls and floor of the cells, can absorb storm run off more efficiently and is superior to sustaining native wildlife, which in turn controls mosquito infestations.

A hybridization of the artificial wetland is being met with equal success, by incorporating septic tanks, grinder pumps and aerators into the delivery system of the black water.

Studies

Studies at several universities within the US and Canada are proving the successes sited at a diverse range of communities, from CO to AZ to NY and NH. The communities within these states (and others) have known for more than a decade the artificial wetland is comparable (if not superior) to conventional sewage treatment with the added benefit of substantially lower costs, less odor management issues, wildlife recovery and improved property values. Appropriately designed and observed, these designed ecospheres allow for less contaminated effluent to escape during storms, increase wildlife habitat and increase in quality of life for their communities.

Research done at the University of Nevada has determined their climate’s ideal cell size is 30’ x 130’ x 38”, which can handle 7500 gallons per day with a construction cost of approximately $185,000, including twice yearly checks and pump maintenance.

Some studies have stated cells fill more quickly with residual solids, making the cells’ life cycle shorter than the 20-30 year projection given by professionals. This can be remedied in a way similar to Milwaukee’s solution to their bio-solids removal for over 80 years. In the early 1900’s, after adopting the newly designed process of the activated sludge process, there was still a volume of bio-solids that needed to be disposed of. After analyzing the solids, it was determined the solids could be utilized as an organic fertilizer marketed to commercial growers, landscapers and golf courses with a superior growing result to artificial (and more expensive) fertilizers marketed with great success following WWII. Milorganite has since been marketed at the consumer level as well as the commercial growers, with continued success. (Milorganite.com)

By draining a cell, moving the established flora to a new cell and then dredging the full cell will allow for the use of the accumulated matter by the community, renewing the cell for use once again.

Adaptation

The most recent adaptation of the artificial wetlands is in the CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) Industry. CAFOs have discovered the lagoons created by the bovine and swine they raise can be effectively managed with the artificial wetlands. The wetlands virtually eliminate smell, the need for pesticides to manage insect infestation of the waste lagoons, and the health hazard the lagoon once posed at identical cost. Along with these obvious bonuses to the investment, the location of the CAFO greatly improved by the sight of wetland grasses and reeds versus the previous lagoon of waste.

What If

The August, 2005 lagoon breach in Lowville, NY could have been prevented if it had incorporated this solution, avoiding the death of nearly 250,000 fish over a roughly 40 mile run to Lake Ontario, where the effluent ultimately settled. (DawnWatch.com)

The flood of 2006 suffered by multiple counties in upstate NY and PA would have caused far less damage to the Chesapeake Bay, had the communities affected used artificial wetlands to treat their sewage and wastewater.

Links
University of NV contact information:
Angela O’Callaghan
AREA SPECIALIST
UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA

The paper presents an introduction to EcoSan principles and concepts including re-use aspects (available nutrients and occurring risks), and case studies of EcoSan concepts in both industrialized and developing countries.
EcoWaters

Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Water Pollution Control, BOKU—University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Muthgasse 18, A-1190 Vienna, Austria

Links to companies and researchers working on artificial wetlands for blackwater treatment
Constructed Wetlands

Ohio State Research Paper

Ground Water Awareness Week March 8-14

2009-03-05T12:25:00.002-05:00

Well Owners www.wellowner.org. information site
An estimated 88 to 100 million persons in the United States are served by community drinking water systems that rely on ground water as their sole or primary source (1,2); approximately 15 million U.S. households have their own private wells (3). Each year, the National Ground Water Association sponsors Ground Water Awareness Week to stress the importance of protecting ground water and to focus attention on annual private well maintenance and water testing (4). This year, Ground Water Awareness Week is March 8--14.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations that protect public drinking water systems do not apply to privately owned wells (5). Owners of private wells are responsible for ensuring that their well water is safe from contaminants of health concern. Possible contaminants include disease-causing microorganisms, natural contaminants, and manufactured pollutants. Twenty waterborne-disease outbreaks associated with drinking water were reported to CDC during 2005--2006, including seven outbreaks caused by bacteria and viruses in ground water sources (6).

Private wells should be located away from potential contamination sources such as septic and waste-water systems, animal enclosures, and chemical storage areas (5). Private wells also should be checked every year for mechanical problems, cleanliness, and the presence of coliform bacteria and any other contaminants of local concern. A local health department or water well systems professional can help ensure delivery of high-quality water from an existing well or, if needed, help locate and construct a new well in a safer area. Additional information about well maintenance and water testing is available at Testing .

References

1. US Environmental Protection Agency. Factoids: drinking water and ground water statistics for 2008. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency; 2009. Available at EPA Factoids .

2. US Environmental Protection Agency. Economic analysis for the final ground water rule. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency; 2006. Available at EPA Safewater .

3. US Census Bureau. American housing survey for the United States: 2007. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau; 2008. Available at Census .

4. National Ground Water Association. National ground water awareness week. Westerville, OH: National Ground Water Association; 2009. Available at Awareness Week .

5. US Environmental Protection Agency. Private drinking water wells. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency; 2006. Available at EPA Private Wells .

6. CDC Surveillance for waterborne disease and outbreaks