A Completely Random Post December 15, 2009

Now, this post isn’t very ecotarian of me but I just had to share.

Being a very analytical person I just love “stats”.   In relation to this blog one of the most interesting things to watch is what search engine terms bring people to the site.  Some make sense and others just seem so, well…random.  In any regard.  Here are the top 10 search terms that have brought people to this blog since it’s inception:

1. Ecotarian – Now this one makes sense, of course.  I would expect it to be #1

2. Chacos – Here’s where it breaks down.  Sandals?  Really?  I mentioned one pair very quickly that I had purchased before moving into a post about planned obsolescence.  It’s actually the only pair I’ve ever purchased, (and I love them) but how it became the #2 search term, I’m not sure.  There must be a lot of people looking for Chaco’s out there.

3. Confessions of an everyday ecotarian – Again, yes, this one makes sense.  Hey, by the way, did you hear that ecotarian made it into the Oxford English Dictionary this year?

4. Golden Comet Chickens – I’m really glad chickens made it in there somewhere.  I love my chickens. I’m glad to see others do too.  The Golden Comet chicks that I fooled my bantam into raising are doing fine and are laying big chocolate brown eggs now.

5. Kefir yogurt – Kefir is awesome.  Go Kefir!

6. Chaco Sparrow – The Chaco’s again!

7. Oven Cartoon – This one is just odd.  I’m guessing it brings people to a post I wrote on my experience being a surrogate titled, “The Oven: My Experience as a Gestational Surrogate“.  I need to rewrite that post…

8. Golden Comet Rooster – Chickens again, only the boys this time… I don’t even have a Golden Comet rooster!  I have a lovely little bantam rooster that the girls, (hens, that is) ganged up on and almost beat up the first day I introduced him to them.  They’re more gentle now and are letting him do his rooster thing.

9. Cranberry Beans - They are pretty great.  One of the best little beans out there.

10. Sparrow Chaco – Enough already!!!!  I don’t know.  Maybe this means Chaco’s should be the ecotarian poster sandal.  Maybe?

That’s it.  The top 10 search terms that brought people here.  Maybe you’re one of them…

Eating Your Backyard (or Foraging is Fun!) November 11, 2009

See, I even make my kids forage! More pictures below post...

I, being an obsessively resourceful person, happen to think that foraging for things to eat that grow from the earth without any human intervention is one of the most satisfying things I could possibly do.  It’s a fantastic way to get out into nature and really understand the environment around you, (because if you’re going to wild-forage you have to understand your environment or you could end up dead).   It’s something our ancestors did not all that long ago.   But somehow, in the ever-increasing gap between people and the origins of food many of us have lost our ability to hunt and/or  gather.  Now I’m not going to be talking about hunting in this post, (or probably ever, for that matter).   It’s not something I have any ethical issue with, it’s just not something that I or anyone in my family does.  Well, there was that one time my husband took a deer but it was with a very expensive bullet -his truck.  Being the obsessively resourceful people we are, we did process it and put it in our freezer.  However, I don’t recommend hunting with your vehicle as a great way to put meat on the table.

Anyway, foraging for me gives me this great sense of awe for the life around me that exists without anything I’ve done to make it that way.  To walk out of a field or the woods with something my family can eat really makes me think about how so much of what we have in all of life we get for free out of no merit any of us have earned.   I think when we are so separated from the origins of food one thing we really loose is the appreciation for what we’ve been given for nothing we’ve done.  When you walk into a grocery store with money in your pocket that you’ve earned from working and buy your groceries it’s easy to feel a sense of entitlement.  I earned the money, I bought the food = I’m entitled to this food.    But I don’t think that’s really all that indicative of reality.  If anything it’s a simplistic and cheapened reality.  Because the truth is, you didn’t earn the money to make the sun shine or the rain fall.  You didn’t plan a training session to teach the micro-organisms to break down the dead and turn it into new life.  The bees aren’t such fantastic pollinators because you’ve done such a great job managing them.  Yet, without these things the food wouldn’t be in the grocery store for you to buy to begin with.   So much of life is given to us and for me, foraging is a great and concrete reminder of this.

Here is a sampling of what I found this summer.  But first, a disclaimer:  Although there are many safe things to forage don’t go out and eat things you’re unsure of.  Make sure you know what you’re doing or are with someone who knows.

“Wild” Apples

These may not be exactly “wild”.  This year I got apples from two different orchards that had been unkempt for quite a few years.  However, in the past I’ve also gathered apples from trees that happen to grow on the side of the road or randomly in the woods.  Often times these apples are misshapen, a little wormy and otherwise just plain ugly.  However, with a little work they are great for applesauce, apple butter or apple jelly.   I’m always constantly amazed at people who say things like, “You can’t eat those apples, those haven’t been taken care of for years!”  Apples are apples, I say and I can eat them wild or not.   Besides, if they’ve grown wild for several years then I know that no pesticides have been used on them.  They are free “organic” apples.  It’s completely worth taking the time to peel them, slice them, clean them up and make them into applesauce.  Applesauce is one of the easiest things to make and can at home.  This year we made over 2 gallons of applesauce from wild apples.

“Wild” Grapes

These can be actual wild grapes or again, grapes from vines that haven’t been used in years.  The grapes in my pictures are Concord grapes that are from unkempt vines.  Wild grapes are smaller and more tart -but often great for juice or jelly.  Unkempt grapes are easy to spot because of their size.  However, wild grapes do have a somewhat dangerous lookalike, the Moonseed plant.  This is a vining plant like the grape but there are a couple of important differences.  Grapes have a couple of small seeds inside while the Moonseed plant has one big crescent-shaped seed, (thus, “Moon”seed).  Birds can eat them with no harm but humans cannot without severe abdominal pain.

Wild Strawberries

This is a really safe little plant.  There isn’t anything else that I know of that looks like a strawberry but a strawberry.  They love to grow in sandy places where everything else seems to struggle for life.  My kids are out picking them everyday in mid-summer.  If you can gather enough they make a great jam.   They are tiny but pack a powerful little strawberry punch compared to what we find in the stores.

Autumn Olives

A few Autumn Olives

Red berries in the wild can be a dangerous thing.  However, as a general rule, it’s a good idea to stay away from red berries on weeds, (like Nightshade) while berries on woody shrubs and bushes are more likely to be edible, (but that doesn’t mean they’ll taste good).  Also, just because you see birds eating a berry doesn’t mean you can.  Watching bats feed will actually give you a better idea of what we can eat.  However, again, it’s not foolproof.  Luckily the Autumn Olive is an easy plant to identify if you know what you are doing.  It’s a woody shrub with silvery elongated leaves that resemble those of the olive tree.  It can grow up to 20 feet.  In America it’s an invasive, (but delicious!) species and can take over a field.  It does very well in poor soils because of the way it fixes nitrogen in it’s root system.  It comes from Asia and was introduced around 1830 as a potential commercial crop.  Why it isn’t a commerical, I’m not sure, because it’s a fantastic and prolific little berry.  It has a delightfully sweet, tart and almost spicy flavor reminiscent of cloves or cinnamon.   I found a field just full of these bushes this year -every shrub with branches heavy with berries.   The juice is a wonderful bright pink color and so is the jelly made from it.  It not only tastes good, it’s absolutely beautiful to look at.   It also happens to be a great source of natural lycopene.

Morel Mushrooms

Ah, mushroom hunting.  It can be really fun or really frustrating.  For me it tends to be frustrating but this year I actually found a few.  Morels are fairly easy to recognize.  Although, again, mushroom hunting is not something you should attempt to do unless you are quite confident about your identification skills. The morel grows in the forest, (most of the time, it sometimes makes up it’s own rules).   It pops out of the ground the best when the days are wet and the nights are warm.  They are frustratingly difficult to find due to the fact that they blend in with their environment extremely well.  We usually just eat the ones we find but you can also dry them and use them later or sell them for $50/lb on the side of the road to passing tourists who will pay that much.

Purslane

Ah!  This one is fantastic!  It grows almost everywhere in the world as a weedy ground cover.  It’s also eaten in most places in the world other than the US.  It has a delightful lemony flavor later in the season, (in the beginning of the season it just tastes like…well, a weed).  It also is one of the highest plant sources of Omega 3 fatty acids.  The type of fatty acid it contains in high levels is similar to the kind found in fish.  You can juice it, throw it into salads, put it on a sandwich, and more.  I actually like it in Tabouleh. In fact, in my favorite cooking book, The Joy of Cooking, it’s actually listed as an ingredient!

Mint

This is something else I wild-forage and use in many ways.  You can often find it growing near a stream or a body of water.  It’s easy to tell what it is because it’s…minty.  There are many kids all with slightly different flavors.  I gather mint all through the summer and use it in tea, tabbouleh and the occasional mojito.  You can even store your mint cuttings in water and they will grow roots.  You can plant these rooted stems if you’d like them to take over your yard.  Otherwise, the fact that they grow roots allows for you to keep a little mint alive a long time in a glass of water in a windowsill.

St Johns Wort

This one is an herb.  It’s often everywhere you look and you’ve probably stepped right on it at some point in the year, (depressing, isn’t it?)  It’s a weedy yellow flowering plant.  Gather the plants when they are in full flower and dry them.  At that point you can use the plants for tea.  St Johns Wort tea is often known as “liquid sunshine” perhaps because of it’s bright yellow color or because of it’s stated ability to improve your mood.  I saved some for the long, cold, dark months of winter this year.  I’ll let you know how it works.

Blackberries/Black Raspberries/Red Raspberries

This is another wild plant that is easy to identify because they look like nothing else.  All are found in thorny patches of briars.  Blackberries tend to be low to the ground with huge, leg-gashing thorns while Black Raspberries and Red Raspberries tend to grow higher with more delicate thorns.  Blackberries come off the stem core intact while Raspberries, (black and red) leave the core on the plant and come off the stem “hollow”.   They are usually easy to find and easy to pick.  Don’t pick them all, however, because the wildlife often relies on them for food.  Also, if you happen to be picking where there are bears keep an eye out, they are fellow omnivores who like them too!

There are many, many more plants I could list and perhaps I will in the future.  But for now, some pictures of this summers wild harvest.

Autumn Olives

“Wild” Grapes

Autumn Olive Juice

Purslane!

Wild Blackberries

St Johns Wort Flower

Morel Mushrooms

Mint in the top left

Wild Strawberries

Pretty Autumn Olive Jelly

Bright Pink Autumn Olive Juice!

A few Autumn Olives

Attack of the Tomatoes! October 21, 2009

I’m finally writing!  I’m finally writing!  It has been several weeks of steamy days in the kitchen canning, drying and putting away the summer’s harvest.  On top of that I seem to have found myself doing work of one sort another for 5 different non-profits.

Oooh, steamy!

Needless to say, it’s been busy ‘round here.  To further complicate matters we had a very cold and wet

summer.  This caused our tomatoes to ripen very late.  We then had a hard frostand had to move in the tomatoes from our 70 plants in late September.  We had every surface in the basement covered with ripening tomatoes well into this month.  However, the onslaught of tomato preservation is slowing and as always, we’ve learned a few news tricks this year.

When we first started living the gardening, canning, and ever-evolving ecotarian life 9 years ago we did what many new gardeners do.  We planted everything we could think of, lost most of it to inexperience and attempted to preserve the rest.  That first year we had a particularly good crop of tomatoes.  We thought we’d make all kinds of tomato products:  salsa, all kinds of marinara and spaghetti sauce, diced

All colors of tomatoes ripening in the basement after a hard frost

tomatoes, barbeque sauce, ketchup and more!  Although we were somewhat successful we burned ourselves out on canning right away.   We’ve learned a few things since that and now we stick to two rules for preserving the harvest:  1. Keep it practical.  2.  Keep it simple

We found that if we preserve the simplest tomato products possible we can then alter those tomatoes for different uses during the year.  Also, when you can you need to be mindful of the acidity of your product.  Tomatoes by themselves are high acid and can be canned in a simple boiling water bath.   However, when you start adding other vegetables it can lower the acidity too much and cause the need for a pressure canner.   So, because we like to keep things as simple as possible, this year we decided to stick to chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce and dried tomatoes.   Here is what we did:

Roasted Tomato Sauce

In order to make great, smooth tomato sauce you need to do three things.  Remove the skin, remove the seeds and remove some of the water.  I used to cook the tomatoes down in a stockpot before running them through a food mill to remove the seeds and skin.  Not anymore.  I’ve found a much better way to get a great tasting sauce is to roast the tomatoes first.  Simply wash the tomatoes, cut out any bad spots and quarter them.  You can use any kind of tomato for this –even a surplus of cherry, pear or other small tomatoes.  Just to dispel the long-standing myth,

Tomatoes ready for roasting!

Smooth sauce cookin’ away

yellow tomatoes are not any less acidic than red so throw them in there!  Put them on a baking dish lined with foil or better yet a foil roasting pan, (unless you want a huge cleanup job later) and roast them at 275 degrees for about 2 hours.  I even threw a few cloves of garlic in to roast along with the tomatoes.   When the tomatoes are soft and have lost some of their water run them through a food mill to remove the skin

Roasty Toasty Tomatoes

and seeds.  Put the remaining sauce back into the stockpot and cook it down until it’s as thick as you like it.   Then, just can it in a boiling water bath for 45 minutes.   The end result is a lovely, deep and complex roasted tomato sauce.  When you’re ready to use it, open it up and season it with garlic, peppers, onions or whatever else your recipe calls for.

Naked little tomatoes

Chopped Tomatoes

Nothing fancy here.  We remove the skins by plunging the tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds.

Then we pull them out and give them an immediate dip into an ice bath.  At this point their skins slip right off.  We then chop the tomatoes in our food processor, (the best kitchen tool we’ve ever purchased) for a few pulses.   When the tomatoes are sufficiently chopped we put them into a stockpot and heat them to boiling.  Then, we can them in quart jars in a water bath for 45 minutes.   That’s it.  Then they are chili, enchilada, marinara, even salsa ready!  Just season appropriately when they’re needed.

Dried Tomatoes

Yellow Pear and Cherry Tomatoes

These are great to have on hand.  This year we had a plethora of small tomatoes including little round cherry tomatoes and adorable tiny yellow pear tomatoes.

You can throw them in with your tomatoes for saucebut what we’ve found is that they make lovely dried tomatoes.  We use a dehydrator and simply wash the tomatoes, cut them in half and place them face up on the trays.  When they are sufficiently dry, (You can’t squeeze a drop of moisture out with your fingers) we

“pasteurize” them in a 175 degree oven for 15 minutes.  This helps take car

e of any little organisms that might decide to cause your tomatoes to spoil.

Pretty little dried tomatoes

Store them in an airtight glass jar in a cool, dry place.  Or for fun, store them in olive oil. You can also dehydrate tomatoes in the sun and in the oven.

Pickled Pink! And Other Things of the Summer September 24, 2009

I should have posted something some time ago.  But, the summer has kept me very busy and sitting down to write just hasn’t happened.  So, instead, I’ll recap the summer in pictures.  Then, when the onslaught of veggies to put away for the winter ends I will write again.  I really will.  I promise.

Love turnips! I like to pickle them…pink.

…and why not throw in a mosaic floor project…

A blue heron rescue/relocation from our farm to the river, (he got lost in a storm)

Peach Galette, (w/vanilla bean) A pie for those too lazy to make a pretty crust! (me)

Pickled turnips, a mid-east favorite. They’re great on wraps and easy to make.

We cut and split all of this in one very long 13 hour day.

This years Monarch. Every year we take in a caterpillar, name him Jerry and watch him grow!

My youngest helping me harvest the potatoes.

A dill forest.

So many kinds of cucumbers this year. Make fridge pickles w/= parts water, vinegar and sugar!

Eeek! They strike again! But now I know how to combat them. :)

Young tomato plants in our homemade cages.

What I gathered one day in early summer.

Wild-foraged blackberries from our secret place, (no, we’re not telling) ;)

Cute, cozy warm frost-free pepper plants.

Tomatoes roasting in the oven for sauce

Tabouleh in a bowl, purslane and everything, (we eat weeds).

One batch of applesauce made from wild apples, (no worries, no worms)

Turnips, pickled pink by beets!

Pretty young watermellon plants

The Ecotarian Family: Easing the Constant Battleground Between Kids and Food July 23, 2009

I was recently contacted by a writer of a natural parenting section in a UK magazine called, “Junior”. She had questions that many of us who are parents often have about kids and food. How do we best feed our kids keeping in mind the environmental and social impact? How do we teach them to be mindful of this and will attempting to do these things only make the issue of food more of a battleground than it already is?

This summer's early lettuce crop

Anyone who has kids knows that feeding them can get exceedingly complicated and frustrating. One week they like something, the next they can’t stand it on their plate. What’s a parent to do? Is there anyway to get your kids on board with the big picture of ecotarianism without making things even more complicated? I think there is. In fact, I think there is an advantage in using ecotarian ideas to help kids become more adventurous eaters. So with that, her questions and my answers below, (or you can check out the article in the April 2009 article of Junior…it’s the world’s finest parenting magazine).

How do you get your kids involved in your ecotarianism? Is there stuff they can do with you to get them on board?

Absolutely.

First of all, answer their questions. Kids have a natural, (if not somewhat obsessive) desire to ask “why”. Combine that desire with their innate desire, (seemingly equally obsessive) to pick apart and examine everything they eat and you have a natural lead-in to talking about where food comes from. Does your child ask, “What is this?” when you put dinner in front of them? First breathe and count to ten and then see it as a teachable moment and actually start answering that question. It’s not only a great way to get your kids on board with what’s for dinner but also on board with the understanding that food comes from somewhere and it’s important that we know how it got to our plates.

Use every shopping trip as a teachable moment. Talk about where the food comes from, how it was grown and how it got to that market. If you don’t know, ask the farmer or the store clerk. Sometimes there will even be information printed at the stores. Get your kids thinking backwards -not just where will this food end up (at dinner) but how did it get here. Ask your kids to help you shop. As they get used to the dialog you have with them about their food ask them to start “helping” you to make choices about what you buy. Let them choose a fruit or vegetable they’ve never tried before. Show them a banana and a local strawberry and tell them you would like a fruit that didn’t have to travel very far and you need their help. Tell them how smart they are when they get the answer right!

Wild Strawberries

Grow something! Grow anything! Find a container, a garden, a plant or a seed, some dirt, water and a sunny spot and grow something. Find someone who knows more than you to bounce questions off of. If you cannot find anyone, there is a wealth of information on the Internet on just about problem you may run into. Even if you can’t bring your tomato plant to fruiting maturity, your kid’s will at the very least, see how something grows and what that tomato looked liked when it was merely a sparkle of potential in a tomato seed. You can even harvest a seed from many store-purchased tomatoes! From my experience, even the pickiest eaters will walk into my garden at the end of the summer and eat a fresh and sun-warmed plum tomato off of the vine. If you are successful with your growing endeavor and do get some fruit for your labors make sure to get some generic matching produce from the store so you can do a one-on-one taste comparison. Then start asking a ton more questions about why your produce tastes different than what you purchased at the store. Some vegetables that are easy to grow in somewhat small areas are tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, (a short variety) and leaf-lettuce. Leaf lettuce is especially easy to grow and harvest . ­Just pick and eat when the leaves are big enough. Strawberries also grow quite nicely in containers and small spaces of earth. One of my favorite places to get seeds is Seed Savers. They have hundreds of varieties of heirloom plants and seeds from around the world as well as a beautiful and garden-inspiring catalog.

Visit where the food begins. Many farmers are happy to help young children understand what they do. Let your child see you pay the farmer for their products or even better, let your child give the farmer the money. Use this to begin a conversation about paying people fairly for their work.

Make something from scratch. We are often extremely disconnected from our food. Make bread, noodles, peanut butter, yogurt, cheese, (fresh ricotta is superbly simple ­besides, then you can sing “Little Ms. Muffet”) or a delicious desert from the very basics. Then when you have other foods start asking your children what ingredients they think are in them. Make it a guessing game. Ask, “Who knows which of the things we are eating has flour in it? Where does flour come from?” “What else do we use flour for?” or even “Who knows which of the things we are eating had to travel the furthest?” My kids have become pretty good at figuring this out and it makes for great dinner-time conversation!

I could go on and on with ideas but the biggest thing is questions, questions, and more questions. Kids are born wanting to ask them so use this opportunity to indulge that desire a little and get them really thinking. Help them develop the patterns that they need to continue asking important questions about more difficult issues later in life. To take on an ecotarian view of the world, you have to be comfortable wrestling with the often complex ideas of how, when, why and where when dealing with consumption.

Baby goat nursing, (we use the extra milk)

What are your words of wisdom to other parents who would like to take the ecotarian plunge but may feel a little overwhelmed?

First and foremost, try not to view ecotarianism as a series of black and white issues. Sometimes the decisions may be easy and sometimes the decisions may be very gray. Our food system did not get to where it is in just a short while and it will take time, effort and a lot of small changes on the part of individuals and systems for it to change for the better. It may seem as though we have a lot of choices at the grocery but in reality, our food system is not set up in a way so that we can even know a lot about the origins of our food. We have a lot of information about our food ­but often not that kind of information. So, in reality, if you are trying to take on ecotarian principals, your choices are quite limited. These two things combined, our existing food system and lack of pertinent information at the store, can definitely leave you feeling overwhelmed. So take it slow and give yourself time. Find something you can start with. Local produce, honey and dairy are often the easiest to find, (and delicious as well). Also, we, as consumers, can begin asking for that kind of information and transparency with our food. With a little pressure, we’re sure to get it.

Don’t let this issue make you feel guilty, (as if we need any more guilt as parents). Guilt is a terrible motivator and it doesn’t often lead to real change. We also cannot afford to make this a platform on which we can place ourselves so that we can judge how others are doing. That is completely missing the point. It’s not about keeping up with the Jones’s, it’s about making informed food choices that in turn make this world a better place to live in and keeps our families healthy. We are all coming to this from different places in life with different sets of resources. That will change the way in which we can approach ecotarianism. Some may be able to throw out their entire pantry and start over. Others will have to take it a piece at a time. Some may be able to till up an acre of their land and plant a huge garden. Some may have the power to advocate for rooftop gardens on commercial buildings. Others may be able to grow a garden plant in a windowsill of an apartment while others try to make their produce purchases at a local farmers market. Starting anywhere is good. To change the system we have to change as individuals. We can’t afford to waste time and energy judging each other on our progress. We should spend that time and energy encouraging the changes, big or small, we see in each other!

And for parents where food is already a battleground with their children – is taking on the principles of ecotarianism going to make life even more complicated?

I find that taking on the principles of ecotarianism is actually much more simple. Simplicity can in some instances, be quite complicated. However, on the issue of “food as a battleground”, I think it makes matters much easier. I really believe, from my own experience with my children and others, that kids are willing to eat good food. A strawberry in the middle of the winter shipped from thousands of miles away doesn’t taste as good as a sun-ripened local summer strawberry. Any child will know that even if they can’t express it. You might find that a child who “doesn’t like” tomatoes really doesn’t like tomatoes that have been grown a distance away and were not allowed to ripen on the vine and develop the natural sugars and sweet taste. Good for that child! He has a great natural instinct for good nutrition! Will this child be hesitant to try any other tomatoes if his first tomato experience was tasteless and out of season? Of course. Initial food experiences make a big impression on kids. However, give them several chances to try that naturally grown produce and you may be pleasantly surprised when on one occasion, they finally eat it. With that, I think it is very important that our children’s initial food experiences be good. ­And that means as natural and as flavorful as nature, (not agribusiness) intended. There is no better way to do this than taking on ecotarian principals, (fresh, natural, local) while choosing food.

Wild Foraged Morel Mushrooms

I really think what makes a toddler suddenly pick through something he’s been eating fine for months is a developing awareness of his food. He wants to know what he is consuming. Isn’t that what ecotarianism is all about? Use that, (sometimes irritating) trait for good. When kids know more about their food they are more likely to “trust” it again and often more willing to try new things. If we train our kids to love fresh, natural, local foods, if we also impress upon them that farmers are valuable and need to be compensated fairly they will be more likely to refuse the impostors in the food system as they mature. That, in turn, will lead to real change in how our societies eat.

Kefir: The other Yogurt July 19, 2009

I recently had someone ask me about Kefir and I thought the topic would make a lovely post.

One of my first experiences with true homemade Kefir, (pronounced “Keh-feer”) was at a neighbors house.  They have a nice little Jersey cow that was producing milk.  -And when you have a cow in milk you have a LOT of milk.  They began making Kefir as a way to use some of it.   They took the Kefir made with the very high butterfat milk of their Jersey cow and blended it with dark maple syrup created that spring from the maple trees on their property.  It was blended until it was almost frothy.  The Kefir was sweet, a little sour , slightly carbonated and very, very creamy.  It was delicious.   I took a little home to start my own batch of Kefir.

Kefir Grains

Kefir, like yogurt is a cultured milk drink, (unless you make water kefir…but that’s another post).  It originated in the crossroads of Russia, Europe and Asia.   According to Wikipedia it was first made in a skin bag and hung in a doorway so that it would be hit, (and thus mixed) every time someone entered or exited the door.  Although it does have similarities to yogurt it is also quite different.  Yogurt is made with a variety of milk-loving bacteria the most popular of which is Acidophilus.   Other species can make appearances  but as a rule yogurt is a big milk-loving friendly bacteria party.

Kefir.  It’s a different kind of party.   In a batch of Kefir you will find a variety of bacteria as well as yeasts.  This lends the end product a different flavor and feel in the mouth.  Because of the yeast you get yeast by-products.  As the little yeasties eat the sugar naturally present in the milk they create a little alcohol.  That’s right.  Alcohol.  Just a little bit.  Made at home and fermented a little longer kefir is around 1-2% alcohol.  Industrially, where the fermentation time is often shortened, it tends to be around 1%.   Another by-product of yeast in the mix is carbon dioxide.  This gives it an almost carbonated feel and is why Kefir is often referred to as the “champagne of milk”.  This blend of bacteria and yeasts give your body even more health benefits than yogurt.

Also, Kefir is much easier to make at home than yogurt.  Really, it’s easier!  With yogurt you need an incubator or something to keep it warm for 4-10 hours.  If you go over that 10 hours you have a really sour yogurt.  If you keep it too warm you end up with cheese.  If you keep it too cool the bacteria are not warm enough to culture the milk at all.  Kefir, on the other hand,  is a room temperature fermented milk product and in my experience is much more fool-proof.  All you need is a container, (I like quart or 1/2 gallon glass canning jars), milk, (raw or pasteurized), Kefir grains and 12-24 hours.  Kefir grains are little cauliflower-looking, jelly-like globs of bacteria and yeast.  You place the Kefir grains in your room-temperature milk and set it somewhere dark and well…room temperature…for 1/2 to an entire day.  Then, you use a strainer to strain the Kefir grains out, (who have now procreated and multiplied…some party!) and then drink your Kefir.  Here is a more in-depth tutorial, (because why make one if it already exists?)

One last piece of information.  You may be wondering where to get Kefir grains.  Start by asking around.  You may know someone already making Kefir.  If you can’t find any locally then you will find a plethora of options with a simple Google search.  After you start making Kefir you will not be lacking for grains again.  They multiply like rabbits.  You will be begging your friends to start making Kefir.  You can also strain the grains out, rinse them in water and dry them for later use, freeze them for later use or just blend them up in the blender with the Kefir and eat them.

That’s about it!  Enjoy your Kefir!

Ecotarian Factory Food July 13, 2009

Kids. You just can’t please them.

We have fresh free-range eggs and milk right out of our back door. Our kids can wander through fields of wild

Factory Food: My daughter's original and unprompted watercolor

strawberries and eat to their hearts content. They can spend the morning grazing on sweet, crisp snow-peas out of the garden or dig a carrot or potato from the ground and bring it to me to prepare for lunch. They get fresh mozzarella cheese and homemade wheat rolls made for them by their father every week. I make them whole milk yogurt and top it with local maple syrup or honey and freshly made granola in flavors like vanilla bean pecan or caramel cashew.

However, I must confess. When my 6-year-old daughter is especially pleased with something her father or I have made what does she say? Is it “Thanks mom! This is so deliciously wholesome!” or even “Wow, this is better than any restaurant!” No, our daughter’s gold standard, her highest compliment is this:

“It tastes just like it came from the FACTORY!”

We’re not sure whether to cry or to laugh (and we tend to laugh). It is funny. It’s really funny. It’s partly the nature of kids. If your mom fed you Fruit Loops you probably wanted granola, if your mom fed you granola you probably wanted Fruit Loops. That’s just the way kids operate, right? It’s also the insane amount of marketing targeted towards kids. Outside of making them live in a bubble their entire lives we just can’t get away from all of it. Although like many things, it’s something we should work to change we also need to realize its part of the world we and our children are living in right now.

Now, we’re certainly not purist parents. Somewhat ironically, the thing that makes me think like an ecotarian is the same thing that makes me see the big picture in everything I do. I know that if there isn’t some kind of moderation, if I don’t let my kids experience fast food or junk food every now and then it’s likely to hit them all at once later and they won’t know what to do with it. They won’t know how to moderate themselves. I have nightmares of my 7-year-old son sitting in front of the TV all day in college eating french fries for every meal. The kid will watch anything on a screen. Even golf. He’s been captivated by television since he was a baby. My other two kids not so much. Anyway, my point is that as parents our ultimate goal is to help our kids see the big picture, make good choices and moderate themselves when a choice isn’t so black and white.

And that might mean “factory food” once in a while. But, there is a silver lining and a huge teaching opportunity in these experiences. Here is what I love to do. Make something “factoryish” from scratch with your kids. An apple pie is a lovely example with easy ingredients. Have them pick the apples from the store –or better yet, from the tree. Have them mix the dough and roll it out. Put it together and bake it. Then, when it’s time to serve it put it next to the most tasteless pre-made apple pie you can find from the store. Let them try each one and ask them what they think. I tend to believe that kids enjoy things that taste real. Then talk about the ingredients a little. Ask them what is in your apple pie and where the ingredients came from. Then look at the ingredients in the store pie. Are they the same? Different? Do you know what they are or where they came from? At the very least it’s an exercise in being conscious about what we eat.

So, I’ll finish with a couple of “factory foods” that we re-created at home: Donuts and Marshmallows. Both are really fun to make. Also, when my daughter finished her first test marshmallow she told me, “Now mom, to make the BEST s’mores ever we have to make homemade graham crackers and chocolate! Do you know how to make those?!” Now that’s more like it. I told her no, but we could certainly figure it out!

Homemade Marshmallows (from slashfood.com)

Homemade Marshmallows

.75-oz unflavored gelatin (3 envelopes of Knox gelatin)
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups light corn syrup (I used homemade vanilla syrup)
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or one vanilla bean scraped into the mixture)

Line 9 x 9-inch pan with plastic wrap and lightly oil it. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and boil hard for 1 minute.

Pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, to high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, add in the vanilla extract beat to incorporate.

Scrape marshmallow into the prepared pan and spread evenly (Lightly greasing your hands and the spatula helps a lot here). Take another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and press lightly on top of the marshmallow, creating a seal. Let mixture sit for a few hours, or overnight, until cooled and firmly set.

In a shallow dish, combine equal parts cornstarch and confectioners’ sugar, (I also think they’d be fantastic in equal parts cocoa powder and confectioners sugar…or toasted coconut). Remove marshmallow from pan and cut into equal pieces with scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef’s knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners’ sugar mixture.

Store in an airtight container.

Homemade Donuts

More Marshmallows...

How To Fool A Chicken May 7, 2009

It’s really not hard to fool a chicken.

Here is our dilemma. We have laying hens. We have no rooster. Why, you ask? Because all of the roosters we’ve ever had love to attack toddlers. That’s neither here nor there so back to our dilemma: Laying hens occasionally go to laying hen heaven for various reasons, (I wonder what that’s like…or maybe they are reincarnated…into eggs…which asks that age-old question…). In any regard, we need to add more hens every couple of years.

Golden Comet Chick under her adopted Bantam mom

Well, without a rooster, that’s difficult to do right here. Luckily, it’s not hard to fool a chicken. We have one little Bantam that gets “broody” every year. What does that mean, you ask? It means she gets in the mood to have a “brood” -of baby chicks. She will sit on her eggs and any other hens eggs waiting for them to hatch which just isn’t going to happen at our house because of the rooster thing. She will sit for all eternity waiting for those eggs to hatch. So, every couple of years I buy a few chickens at the feed store and slip them underneath our broody hen. One year I bought 6 chicks and a duckling. The broody hen is instantly pleased that her eggs have “hatched” and her adopted chicks are instantly pleased that they have a real mom instead of a heat-lamp. It’s a good situation for everyone. -No awnry roosters, no unfulfilled broody hens and chicks that get to follow their mom around a barnyard instead of live under a heat-lamp.

So, it’s a good thing it’s not hard to fool a chicken.

Eco-Chic: DIY Thoughtful Children’s Clothing May 7, 2009

How can you dress your children, (and even yourself) in eco-friendly clothing while sticking to the ecotarian big ideas of keeping the big picture in mind? Natural fibers…organic…non-sweatshop…soy inks? Sure! -But I’ve got something better. Here are some really fun ways to re-purpose old material. Re-purposing old clothing is super rewarding for those of us who really dig

The Princess Dress

making something valuable and useful from something that was formerly…uhg. And it’s fun! A little background on the thought process that led my daughter and I to get out the sewing machine and get to Goodwill:

I have a budding Fashionista for a daughter. Before she could talk she would longingly look at the racks of clothing in the mall and reach for anything she though was beautiful, (and somehow also expensive). Now her mother, (me, right?) -she’s a different story. She’s all about what’s practical and comfortable. She wishes somehow everything she needs would just appear in the right size in her closet. Not so with my daughter. If it’s pink or purple or encrusted with gems she’s all about it, (it’s what all the 6-year-old girls are wearing!). Well, here comes the “confessions” part of Confessions of an Everyady Ecotarian. Do you want to know one of my biggest fears for the future of my fashion-conscious daughter and clothing? Hollister. There, I said it. I don’t know, there is just something about it that gives me the creeps. Maybe it’s the way the store smells when I walk by it, maybe it’s the music emanating from the doors like some kind of elite club, but more likely it’s the plastic models with pants so low that they are nearly showing their plastic private parts, (“mom, why are his pants falling off?”) I guess I just can’t stomach my present carefree, smart, beautiful and budding Fashionista daughter someday getting sucked into...that. So, in order to have a little fun as well as be proactive in encouraging my daughter to develop her own sense of style I got out the sewing machine and we took a mother/daughter trip to Goodwill.

Now, this was not my idea originally. I have an incredibly creative friend named Heather who makes beautiful things out of the most unlikely pieces of fabric scavenged from here or there. She has a blog entitled: Heather In Bloom. You really should check it out. It will greatly inspire you.

But back to Goodwill. Using Heathers free-sewing ideas, (no patterns, no directions, just how I operate!) my daughter and I went through the racks of clothing looking for anything that could potentially turn into something beautiful for a 6-year-old girl. She spotted a teal multi-tiered women’s skirt with a bit of shimmer woven into it and brought it to me declaring it “beautiful!” We purchased it for $1.50, brought it home and with the sewing machine and a little input from my daughter we turned it into a summer dress. Staying true to Heather’s “free sewing” idea I won’t go into too many details. We basically took the sides in and turned the material we removed into straps. We also shortened the dress a bit. That’s pretty much it. I’m not an expert seamstress and I don’t desire to be exact but my daughter is thrilled with the results. Here are some other ideas for “re-purposing” clothing:

Turn Womens Button-Down Shirts into Little Button-Down Skirts

This is something my friend Heather does a lot of.

Cupcake Pink Shirt Skirt

It’s a super-simple project with quick results. Find a button-down shirt you like and cut the top of it right off right below the arms! Sew some elastic into a hem on the top, (adjusting the size as needed) and presto, a skirt. Here’s one Heather did. I did the shirt. Quick, cute, practical and inexpensive enough to let her play outside and climb trees in it.

This is also a project a child just learning to sew could do. My cupcake shirt in the picture brings me to the next Eco-Chic idea…

Screen Printing on Second-Hand

Shirts

This is also loads of fun and not as difficult as you might first guess. The first thing you need to do is self-explanatory. Go to a thrift store and get some second hand shirts -whatever size you are looking for, (I do recommend 100% cotton. For some reason I find they print with less problems). Next, find an image you want on your shirt. You will also need some variety of textile paint. You can find it at most craft stores and many places online, (Dick Blick Art Supplies is great!) I recommend a water-based printing ink. Next, you need a way to get your image on the fabric. Butcher paper is the easiest way to jump into it in my opinion. -No fancy supplies needed. Butcher paper is a thick, one-side waxed paper used for wrapping meat. You might even be able to convince a butcher to let you have a bit. You trace your image onto the butcher paper and cut it out -like a stencil- in the butcher paper using an exacto knife or something similar. Then, iron the butcher paper right on your shirt wax-side down making sure that all of the small corners are nice and tight to the material. Then, using a brush, paint the ink onto the fabric that is showing. You will probably want to have a piece of cardboard inside the shirt between the front and the back to stop ink seepage. Wait until it dries, (or go at it with a hair-dryer if you are impatient like me) then peel off the butcher paper. Your image is now on the shirt. There is a good visual tutorial here. You can also cut your stencils out of acetate, (overhead sheets) and put them under and actual screen that is used for screen printing and get literally years of use out of your stencil-prints. Here are a few more I did.

Chicks Dig Me

Alright, that’s all for now. I have more ideas to add so check back!

Dinosaurs and Pirates

Eatin' Machine

Spring + Ecotarian + Garden = No Time to Blog! April 28, 2009

broccoli, cabbage and all things cruciferous...

Spring is finally here! There are pockets of snow here and there tucked into the woods but I am dutifully ignoring those flashbacks of Winter. I’ve been spending a great deal of time outside preparing our two gardens and strawberry beds as well as doing some winter cleanup in the animal paddocks. So, it’s not that I don’t have anything to write about it’s just that I don’t have any time. I love being outside in the dirt as much as I love writing and teaching so I guess my current predicament is ok for now. I would, however, love it if someone invented a wireless brain-activated blogging mechanism. I could then be outside in the garden and blogging at the same time. Just think of the possibilities it would open up in the blogging world! -And while I’m at it another great invention would be a one-handed keyboard for mothers who are holding a child in the other hand. Some of you know exactly what I mean.

Anyway, here’s a picture of my daughter watering newly started seeds from a few weeks ago. More to come…

In the meantime,

Busy One-Handed Typing Moms Unite! (we could start some sort of union…)