Thursday in the City- Halloween that is a little more green

Posted on September 30, 2010 · 4 Comments

{we heart it}

It is approaching quickly!  I am talking about Halloween, one of the funnest holidays of the year.  It is also one of the most wasteful.  This year may be a good time to switch up and start some new Halloween traditions or maybe revisit some from your childhood, like handmade treats and costumes.  I can still remember all of the amazing costumes that my mom made for me and my sister each year.  You can save a lot of money and make a lot of great memories. 





Decorations:
Avoid buying new plastic and make your own decorations.   
Mix handmade in with previous purchased decorations.
Re use or gather natural items to decorate like gourds, leaves and eco-friendly candles. 
Check out these beautiful vintage decorations you can find at yard sales.   


Treats:
Try to buy locally made candy, organic or fair trade.  
Organic cereal bars, honey sticks, or lollipops may be good substitutes.
Choose candy with the least amount of packaging. 
Click here for a list of eco-friendly candy selections
Skip the candy and give eco crayons, eco-play dough or stickers. 

Trick or Treat Bag:
Use a basket, canvas or nylon bag that can be reused each year or for another purpose.
Save money and use a pillow case.
Click here to enter your child’s Halloween design to Chico Bags!

Trick or Treating:
Don’t litter.  Take an extra bag to pick up wrappers.
Walk or ride a bike.  Avoid driving house to house or share rides with neighbors.
Use hand powered flash lights.

Costumes:
Skip the cheap plastic costumes.  
Make a unique one yourself! Try batwings out of a broken umbrella.
Look for places renting a costume if you don’t have time to make one. 
See if you can get a costume on Freecycle.  Have one?  Post it for someone else. 
Make your own face paint (See recipe below)  or buy lead/toxic free.
Oct 9th is National Costume Swap Day! Check out GreenHalloween.org for locations and tips.
Plan a costume swap party with your friends or at your child’s school.  

How to Make Face Paint: 
via the Campaign for Cosmetic Safety
Face Paint Made with Natural Food Coloring

Natural food coloring is available at health food stores and typically derived from foods and spices. We recommend reading up about natural food colorings and potential allergies first. Do not substitute conventional food coloring, which may contain synthetic chemical ingredients.

Ingredients:
-Base of safe, unscented lotion (search  Skin Deep for safe options) OR pure cocoa butter (available at health food stores) OR safe, fluoride-free toothpaste (search Skin Deep; avoid mint flavors, as they can make skin tingly)
-Natural food coloring (see note above)

Instructions:
Mix a few drops of natural food coloring into the base ingredient of your choice. Test on a small patch of skin before applying to face or body.

Face Paint Made with Food
Make sure young children understand they can’t eat these paints unless you make them without the base. Test a small patch of skin first to make sure your child isn’t allergic to the food you’re using.

Ingredients:
-Base of safe, unscented lotion (search  Skin Deep for safe options) OR pure cocoa butter (available at health food stores) OR safe, fluoride-free toothpaste (search Skin Deep; avoid mint flavors, as they can make skin tingly)
-Turmeric, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, beets, avocado, spirulina, cocoa, chocolate sauce, squid ink or other colorful foods, juices, herbs and spices

Instructions:
Yellow: Add 1/4 tsp. and a large pinch of stale turmeric to base.

Pink: Using a sieve, mash the juice from 3 fresh or thawed frozen raspberries, blackberries or beets directly into the base. Or, use a deeply colored berry juice or puree.

Mint green: With a fork, mash 1/4 of a small avocado until creamy. Mix this into your base.

Emerald green: Add small amount spirulina or bright green chlorophyll to base.

Purple: Using a sieve, mash the juice from several fresh or frozen blueberries into the base. Or, use blueberry juice.

Brown: Add cocoa powder or chocolate sauce to base.

Black: Use a small amount of squid ink in base for true black.

White: Mix powdered sugar and water.

Share
Filed Under: Current Events, DIY, Thursday in the City Tagged With: ,

By George, I Think We Have a Rooster

Posted on September 29, 2010 · 7 Comments

We’ve been really lucky. We’ve had 30+ chickens now over the years and it appears that we finally have gotten our very first rooster. Considering that sexing chicks is only about 90% accurate, that’s pretty good to go that long without having one.

To be honest, we’ve known about him being a rooster since about 6 weeks of age. He’s just developing much quicker than all of our other chicks. Now he’s 10 weeks old and it’s becoming much more obvious. Especially when compared to one of our other chicks that’s the same age and breed. Besides the much more pronounced comb and wattle he’s beginning to get spurs. He’s also much larger – taller and longer – and he’s now developing pin feathers. Ever since he was about 4 weeks old and we started letting him interact with the older hens, he’s been struttin’ his stuff and bossing them around. Yes, a 4 week old chick was bossing around our hens.

So here he is running alongside our other chick that is the same age and breed.

So what to do with a roo? Well, it depends. He’s a Black Australorp. They’re supposed to be quieter birds, but he’s a roo after all even though we haven’t heard so much as a peep out of him yet. Technically we can have a rooster here, but they do fall under the noise ordinance. If he starts crowing we’ll have to get rid of him. I don’t want to. Not because I’m attached to him or anything. I want to keep him so we don’t have to buy chicks anymore. But chances are that he’s eventually going to have to go. If he survives I think we should name him George.

Share
Filed Under: Chickens, Farm Diary, Livestock Tagged With:

Flickr of inspiration- Mushroom

Posted on September 28, 2010 · 2 Comments
fluesopp-2
Share
Filed Under: Flickr of Inspiration

Top Bar Beekeeping

Posted on September 27, 2010 · 3 Comments
Tom working on a Top Bar Hive

This past weekend Tom and I took a class through the Institute of Urban Homesteading on Top Bar Beekeeping. The class was run by the founder of IUH, Ruby Blume, at her home in Oakland, California. Ruby has been using top bar hives for 15 years. She did use the more common Langstroth hives for 2 years and they just didn’t suit her so she now exclusively keeps 2 top bar hives in her urban backyard.

Ruby holding up a brood comb

The first part of the class she discussed bees and beekeeping along with showing slides. The most experience we’ve had with bees is just doing minor maintenance work around the hives we’re hosting for someone else so we learned a TON of great information about bees, from their biology to their behavior to possible problems. Her knowledge on bees and beekeeping was amazing. It was also great to have another student there that was a professional beekeeper in France.

Capped honey with nectar beneath (the shiny stuff in the open cells)

My favorite part, of course was interacting with the hives. The first hive was less active than the other hive, but it had a good amount of honey. The bees were pretty mellow and only got mildly irritated with us messing with them. The consensus was that the hive must have swarmed when Ruby was on vacation, which would explain why there seemed to be so few workers. Otherwise the colony was thriving.

Mummified brood signal Chalkbrood

The second hive wasn’t so happy. She had chalkbrood in it. Because of this stress, these bees were much more irritable and didn’t like us messing with them at all. She simply showed us the problems with that hive and how to check it and close it back up. Her philosophy with that hive is to just let it be. If it dies from the chalkbrood then they genetically weren’t strong enough to survive – definitely a more natural way of beekeeping where it’s survival of the fittest.

I would highly recommend this class for anyone that wants to learn more about top bar beekeeping or just beekeeping in general. A lot of the information we learned could be used for both styles.

And I just have to give a shout out to Yolanda who we met that is a regular reader. It was lovely meeting you!

Share
Filed Under: Bees, Current Events, Livestock Tagged With:

Croissant Bread Pudding

Posted on September 26, 2010 · 4 Comments

It is not hard to get your hands on day-old pastries. What’s hard, sometimes, ARE the pastries.

But here’s your chance to make them ol’ croissants shine like new! Croissant bread pudding!
There’s really not much to it. Which is good, what with how busy I’ve been this week. Fortunately, there’s always room (er, I mean TIME) for pudding!
Croissant Bread Pudding
serves 8-12, depending on portion size
3-6 day-old croissants
4 eggs
1 c sugar or evaporated cane juice
2-3 c milk (any kind is fine, I tend to use whole or 2%)
1 tsp vanilla extract (use almond extract if topping with almonds, if’n you wanna)
2 Tbsp butter, softened but not melted
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c crushed or slivered nuts (I prefer walnuts or pecans, but almonds are tasty too)
Grease a casserole or large cake pan with butter or oil – I like to use my Pyrex casserole dishes (one is 8″x14″ and the other is about 10″ square), as they are easy to clean.

If you don’t have slightly-crusty old croissants, you can certainly use them fresh. Do, though, leave them out for a while and let them get a bit stale (this helps them become absorbent). If you skip this step, the pudding will still taste great, but can get a little over-moist and slimy.
Leaving the croissants out overnight should do the trick, or even a few hours (tear them up first to increase the surface area for faster drying) if that’s all the time you have.
Tear the croissants into bite-sized pieces, layering the pieces in the pan. Make sure that you have enough to really fill it, as the custard mix will cause everything to deflate a bit. It’s a good idea to press down on the mass of torn croissant: when it will not flatten further than 2/3 of the height of the pan, it’s good. Yes, this will look like too much to fit in the pan, but I swear it’s OK. Pile it on!

Mix the eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla together into a cold custard mix. It is not necessary to scald the milk or temper the eggs. Pour this mixture over the torn croissant pieces, making sure that every bite of pastry is soaked in the custard. Toss if necessary to get an even coating.

Let this sit in a cool place for about 10 minutes to let the bread rehydrate.
Meanwhile, mix the brown sugar, nuts, and softened butter into a crumble, and sprinkle it evenly on the top of the bread pudding mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes, or until a knife stuck into the center of the pan comes out clean (no raw egg custard slime). This means the custard has set and your bread pudding is done!
There will be several stages in the cooking process. At first, it will stay the same shape for a while, but the topping will start getting crisp and there will be bubbles on the sides of the pan. Later, the pudding will start puffing up along the edges of the pan. This is a good thing. Finally, the whole pan of bread pudding will rise and puff out of the top of the pan, the crust becoming golden brown. THIS is when you want to start checking for done-ness.

Allow the bread pudding to cool slightly before serving, but it is lovely served hot (maybe with some huckleberry sauce?), and is just as good served cold for breakfast or as an addition to a brunch menu (with some maple whipped cream, maybe).
Enjoy!
Share
Filed Under: Baking, Breakfast, Desserts, Recipes Tagged With: , ,

One More Week

Posted on September 25, 2010 · Leave a Comment

This is our last week of grocery store shopping before we take on The Project. To be honest we haven’t really been grocery shopping for awhile. I’ve slowly been phasing it out. But we have been eating out a lot more lately. I guess we just want to get it all out of our systems. I’m really going to miss Mexican food and sushi. I’m REALLY going to miss sushi.

Because of the project, we’ve been canning and preserving like mad. I’ve also been planting crops like it’s going out of style. However, even with the chicken wire barrier, the damn squirrels have succeeded at digging up most of my seedlings. Grrrrrr. I’m going to have to move my seedlings closer to the house – where they will not go in fear of the mighty Squeek. Oh well.

Share
Filed Under: Farm Diary

Dogs and Gardens part 2

Posted on September 24, 2010 · 2 Comments

Our yard had been completely overrun by squash for pretty much the entire season. We could barely get to one of our herb beds and reaching the second herb bed was completely out of the question. For those that aren’t familiar with squash vines, they have lots of little spines all over them, and while they won’t draw blood, I have had the misfortune of getting invisible splinters from them. Actually, come to think of it, I have had blood drawn from scraping against them too quickly – but more in a road rash kind of way. Little did we know, however, that Squeek was immune to the spines and had been getting in there on a regular basis to do her business.

As the vines began to die back we decided it was time to pull up all the squash so we could begin the process of curing it. Curing is simply allowing the skins to harden so the squash keeps for as long as possible. Of course it also sounds more difficult than it is. All you really have to do is store it in a well ventilated, warm area out of the sun for a couple of weeks.

As we pulled out the vines we became acutely aware of the smell that our darling dog had left amongst the spiny vines. The horror that awaited us under the dying vines was getting uncovered. Somehow these vines were shielding the smell. Wow! It hit us like a truck.

Fortunately the smell dissipated quickly and once it was all cleaned up, everything was back to normal.

Share
Filed Under: Farm Diary, Garden Planning, Gardening

Thursday in the City- Vanishing of the Bees

Posted on September 23, 2010 · 3 Comments

Hayes Valley Farm hosts a wonderful community activity of watching select movies outside in their urban farm, called Farm Film Night!   This Friday, September 24th, join them for a free screening of “Vanishing of the Bees”.  

If you are going to miss this one or if you are in a different area, check out the below upcoming shows.  You can even become a host of your own home screening or fundraiser!  What a great way to get involved.  More information on “BEE THE CHANGE” campaign can be found here.

Upcoming Public Screenings

Bee Friendly Gardening (Source: Vanishing of the Bees website)

Brighten up your garden with some bee-friendly flower seeds – Plant wildflower seeds in your garden, patio pots or window boxes to provide essential nutrition for bees. 

Allow a patch of grass to grow long and densely plant an area of your flowerbed to provide bees with shelter from the rain or a sudden drop in temperature. 

Provide water for bees to drink – this can be as simple as a shallow edge dish of water with pebbles in it to help bees climb in and out 

Do not keep unwashed honey jars outside the back door. Honeybees may feed on the remaining honey and overseas honey can contain bacteria and spores that are harmful to the bees, which they may then take back to the rest of the colony 

Protect swarms – if you see a swarm of bees, contact the local authority or the police, who will contact a local beekeeper to collect the swarm and give it a new home. 


Reduce pesticide use in your garden by: (Source: Vanishing of the Bees website)

Introducing natural predators – by encouraging natural predators of any specific pest into the area, the pest in question will be controlled. Ladybirds, lacewings, frogs, hedgehogs and birds are all great at limiting numbers of garden pests such as aphids and slugs. 

Hand-picking – although time consuming and intensive, removing areas of infestation by hand may be beneficial to the rest of the plot. 

Water spraying – spraying with water or with a light soap solution has been used for some time to remove aphids and similar species from plants. 


Companion planting – by planting close together with species that attract predatory insects or disguise vulnerable plants, the impact on crop species can be reduced, as pests are less likely to find their food plants. 


Deterrents and barriers – many potential garden pests are sensitive to specific features. Slugs, for example, do not like copper piping or the sharp edges of eggshells, so surrounding plants with such materials may keep many species away. Other methods to keep pests away are plastic bottles and straw around the base of plants.
Share
Filed Under: Community, Current Events, Livestock, Thursday in the City Tagged With: , , ,

Autumn

Posted on September 22, 2010 · 5 Comments
Magical Harvest, originally uploaded by karenmeyere.

I normally don’t post twice in one day, but I had forgotten about something that is so near and dear to me occuring today that I have to do this second entry.

Today is the Autumnal Equinox. Not just that, but it’s also the Harvest Moon – the last time this happened was 20 years ago. Autumn is my absolutely favorite season (Halloween being my all-time favorite holiday and not just because I got married on that day).

Around September 15th I start to notice the change in the azimuth, or sun angle. That’s my first sign that Autumn is truly on her way. The air feels different too. It’s not so heavy.

I’m not entirely sure why Autumn is my favorite season. Maybe it’s the crispness in the air. It’s not quite cold but it’s no longer hot. The reintroduction of true comfort foods. Baking is once again tolerable as is drinking tea during the day while curling up on the couch with Tom. The colors that abound through Autumn are my favorites. Oranges, reds, yellows, greens.

Whatever the reason, I’m excited it’s here!

Share
Filed Under: Farm Diary

Pluck and Feather Farm

Posted on September 22, 2010 · 4 Comments

Saturday we got to go hang out with our new friends Esperanza and Dipak of Pluck and Feather Farm in Oakland. We got to also meet Maya and Nevada, who are just starting their homesteading adventures in El Sobrante on 2 acres (Awesome!). And of course we can’t forget Kumar, Dipak’s father, and Marcel, their roommate.

Pluck and Feather Farm is near the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. They have the most awesome chicken/turkey house ever! The yard is covered in vines so it’s perpetually in shade.  I want! The gardens are very free form and beautiful with beds lined in stone. In the little nooks and crannies hide the various rabbit hutches. They also have these really cool vegetable beds that kind of remind me of sharks teeth.

And the little door at one of the vegetable gardens? Now that’s my kind of garden art. Oh, and did I mention Esperanza is an amazing artist? She of course won’t call herself one, but I will!

Esperanza made an amazing meal including stewed chicken (which just so happened to be one of our old hens that we had traded for a rabbit with her – more on that later), the most amazing coleslaw, rice and beans. Maya and Nevada brought a wonderful goat cheese quiche that was to die for. We, of course, brought a lemon meringue pie, my signature dessert. The food was fantastic, the company was amazing, and the conversation was spectacular.

Esperanza is raising American rabbits. They are a rare rabbit breed that is on the critical list with the American Livestock Conservancy. She has some recently weened kits that we traded some chickens for. She also sent me the contact info for the breeder she got hers from so we can get it a mate. I think we got a buck, but now I’m not so sure. We’ll have to wait a bit longer before we know for sure. So, without further ado, here’s our new addition – Scooter!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Share
Filed Under: Community, Meet Your Farmer Tagged With:
«Older Posts