2,000 pounds of food, 1 city lot
Before the holiday weekend, I got to tour the thriving urban farm of Kate & Daniel, a St. Paul couple who are using their city lot to grow a ton -- yes, 2,000 pounds! -- of food. They've transformed their city lot into a beautiful and bountiful garden -- and a powerful reminder that the only limit on an urban gardener is his or her imagination!
They have cascading blueberry bushes, groves of cherry and apple trees, a whole forest of garlic, edible nasturtiums, paw paws, tomatoes, beets, chard, and so much more (figs! artichokes!). And did I mention the chickens? The chickens who eat cherries? Yep, seven chickens who love to nibble on the low-hanging cherries and run around the yard with the dog.
About the only thing the couple still buys at the store is meat. Almost everything else comes from the garden. You can read all about their garden, the meals they make from it, and their ongoing mission to reach 2,000 pounds of food on their blog. (Definitely go to the blog. My post can't do justice to this amazing project.)
My Garden's Mystery Death
I've been on an urban farming kick lately (tune in next week for some great photos and other dispatches from a thriving urban farm in St. Paul!) and I've been trying to turn a corner of my backyard into a small edible garden. So this spring my better half and I built a raised bed, planted seeds, and waited anxiously. Most of the seeds germinated, but once up, they stalled. Nothing was getting bigger and, then, some of the plants started to get yellow spots and die.
Something nefarious was happening to our plants. But what? Copious research [read: a quick google search] ruled out pests, underwatering, and overwatering. We figured the raised bed and compost effectively ruled out poor soil. Finally, we told our neighbor about our plight, and he said, "Oh, sure, the problem is the black walnut tree."
Turns out the black walnut -- a beautiful tree prized for its high-quality wood -- gives off a plant toxin that kills other plants in the vicinity! The chemical, called juglone, is concentrated in the tree's roots, buds, and nut hulls, with a much smaller amount in the leaves. Any plant near the tree's roots or in the canopy's drip path will be affected. Our raised bed was right under a stately but poisonous black walnut.
I've been badmouthing the black walnut ever since. I've wished it every sort of harm you can imagine. So today I wanted to clear my karma by trying to find some good things to say about black walnuts (don't you imagine there's a special sort of punishment for people who go around badmouthing trees?!). First, as I mentioned, black walnut wood is incredibly valuable. If you have a full-grown tree, you could sell the wood for a mint. Or plant one as an investment -- for your great, great grandchildren. Second, some things supposedly do grow under a black walnut. I haven't tried them yet, but here's a partial list of plants that can survive this poison tree:
Plants/Trees that tolerate Black Walnut Trees:
Beech
Black raspberry
Bleeding Heart
Catalpa
Cherry
Chestnut
Chrysanthemum
Clematis
Crabapple
Flowering dogwood
Hollyhock
Honeysuckle
Jacob's Ladder
Juniper
Kentucky bluegrass
Locust
Maple
PawPaw
Red Cedar
Tulip
Wild grape
Backyard Breakfast
My breakfast this morning came entirely from my garden! I had 6 radishes (dusted with sea salt) and 10 strawberries. They tasted incredible, and you can't beat the feeling (or the price) of just walking out to the yard and picking what you've grown.
I've been gardening for a handful of years, but I'm learning new things about the garden everyday. I thought I would do a couple posts on some of the more helpful garden advice I've come across lately. To start, here's a list of edibles that do well in part shade. Urban gardeners often have one or two shady spots in their yard, and most edibles like all day sun. But these plants can get by with only 4 to 6 hours of direct sun each day. And some of them, like peas and radishes, are quick to mature so you can grow two crops of them each summer instead of one (plant one crop in early spring, one in early fall and -- voila! -- you have two harvests in one summer).
Edibles that can tolerate part shade:
Beets
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chard
Cucumber
Lettuce
Onion
Parsley
Peas
Radishes
Spinach
Winter squash
The Food of a Younger Land
I love the library. I get all my books there. The only occasional downfall is that the more popular the book, the longer the wait to get it. When I first got on the list for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I was #197 in line and it took several months to get the book.
But I was thrilled, actually, when I found myself #250 in line for the book I'm currently reading: The Food of a Younger Land: A portrait of American food -- before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional --from the lost WPA files by Mark Kurlansky. I was ecstatic that so many people were reading a book about food traditions before World War II.
The book is a collection of short essays from the late 1930s/early 1940s on regional food around the United States. The essays were commissioned by the Works Progress Administration to help depression-era writers find work, but the essays were never put in print at the time.
The essays, with titles like "Eating in Vermont," "Nebraska Cooks Its Rabbits," "Coca-Cola Parties in Georgia," are these amazing little snippets into food culture and recipes before food science and big ag hijacked our food system. I'd recommend the book to anyone who eats.
Here's a short excerpt from the essay/list, "New York Soda-Luncheonette Slang and Jargon." (My favorite is the Bay State Bum.)
Angel's Delight Cake with vanilla icing
Bay State Bum Customer who demands much service and leaves no tip
Bottle O'Red Ketchup
Burn One An order of toast
Burn the British Order for toasted English muffin
Deep down bleeding Root beer with cherries
Houseboat Banana split
Nervous pudding Gelatin dessert
One on a pillow Hamburger on a bun
Two in the dark Two pieces of rye toast
Uncle Ezra Elka Seltzer
Wrecks Broken dishes
The national divorce rate? Shockingly low.
A new book -- For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage by Tara Parker-Pope -- recently crossed my desk. The book is a compendium of scientific insight into different aspects of married life: how long a marriage will last; how marriage affects health; how kids, money, and housework each impact a marriage. It's a pretty fascinating read whether you're married or not. I won't give away all the interesting details, but here's one surprising thing I learned: the national divorce rate is not 50 percent.
That's right: The current divorce rate is much lower than the oft-cited 50 percent. So why does that number still get bandied about so much? First of all, writes Parker-Pope, "One reason is that we have the most data on people married in the 1970s, so those tend to be the statistics that are quoted most often." And the thirty-year divorce rate for people married in the 70s is, in fact, 47%. That's likely where the 50% statistic originated.
But, writes Parker-Pope, "the divorce rate of couples married in the 1970s isn't particularly relevant to people who have gotten married more recently or are planning to marry in the future...The divorce trends showing up in later generations are more hopeful. People married in the 1980s and 1990s are getting divorced at lower rates than their counterparts in the 1970s. In fact, marital stability appears to be improving each decade." To wit, the ten-year divorce rate for women married in the 1990s is only 16 percent.
Parker-Pope goes on to theorize that if today's lower divorce rates were more widely known, divorce rates would drop even further. "I think it's so important to get the word out about what's really happening in marriage today," writes Parker-Pope. "Inflating divorce statistics has the potential to increase everybody's risk of getting divorced. Just as we become inured to violence when we see a lot of it on television or in the movies, I think the 50 percent divorce rate myth has trained a generation to be ambivalent about marriage and divorce. If half of all married couples are getting divorced, what's the big deal?"
So why does the 50 percent myth persist? "Some researchers speculate that fretting about the demise of marriage -- and perpetuating the myth that half of all marriages will end in divorce -- feeds a national agenda about family values that benefits both ends of the political spectrum," writes Parker-Pope. "The inflated number can be used as ammunition to win funding or undermine a public program, depending on the goal of the person or group involved."
Want more juicy data on the state of marriage today? Check out this interesting book!
A Guide to Water Filters, Part 3: The Best Filter For You
Choosing the best filter for you starts with knowing what's in your water. (See Part 1 of this series to learn how to get a report on what's in your local water.) Only when you know what's in your water, say experts, can you choose a filter that matches your needs. So here are some of the top resources I came across for helping you decide which filter is right for you:
Here's how to decipher the NSF ratings on water filters
Here's the NSF's water filter products database -- you enter the make and model, and it will tell you what it filters -- and what it doesn't
Here's a handy Water Filter 101
Consumer Reports has a good starter guide to water filters and brands (to access specific buying info, you must subscribe, but the info available to nonsubscribers is also worthwhile)
A Guide to Water Filters, Part 2
After sorting through a few basic facts about water filters, its time to take a look at the most common in-house water filtration technologies, how they work, and what they filter (I drew this information from the National Resource Defense Council and the EPA's Water Health Series). Here goes:
1. Activated Carbon filters
Used in: pitcher filters, faucet filters, and under-the-sink filters
How it works: the carbon bonds with and traps impurities
Gets rid of: Bad taste and odors; products with NSF Standard-53 certification can also reduce heavy metals, disinfection byproducts, parasites, pesticides, and VOCs
Good to know: Carbon filters should be replaced regularly according to manufacturer's instructions (some systems require a simple cartridge change, while others are better maintained by a certified professional). If carbon filters are left in too long past the replace-by date, they can clog up and release captured chemicals back into your water.
2. Distillers
Used in: countertop or whole house point-of-entry units
How it works: water is brought to a boil and the vapor is collected as it condenses. This kills disease-causing microbes and leaves most chemical contaminants behind (though contaminants that easily turn into gases, such as gasoline components or radon, may remain in the water)
Gets rid of: heavy metals such as copper, lead, and mercury; arsenic; barium, fluoride; and sodium
Good to know: Distilling water removes all its naturally-occurring minerals and can leave water (and anything made with that water, like coffee or tea) tasting flat. Some experts advise against drinking distilled water precisely because of the lack of minerals.
3. Reverse Osmosis filters
Used in: under-the-sink units, often in combination with a carbon filter
How it works: water is forced through a semipermeable membrane that leaves contaminants behind
Gets rid of: almost all disease-causing organisms (like giardia); heavy metals; pollutants including arsenic, nitrate, and perchlorate
Good to know: This filter is tremendously effective but uses about three times as much water as it treats
4. Ultraviolet Disinfection filters
Used in: under-the-sink units, often with a carbon filter and sediment screen
How it works: ultraviolet light kills bacteria and other microorganisms
Gets rid of: bacteria and parasites, even hard-to-kill parasites like giardia
Good to know: UV light treatment is a completely chemical-free process that makes bacteria inactive, though it doesn't remove the bacteria from the water. Using UV light in combination with a pre-filter can remove large suspended particles that would otherwise remain in the water with just the UV treatment.
Next up in the water filtration series... a look at which filtration systems are best for specific situations and which products rise to the top when it comes to keeping your water clean. And, remember: while you anxiously await that post, YOU COULD WIN a $300 Whirlpool Central Waters home filtration system. If you visit our website and comment on the article "Troubled Waters" by Wednesday, June 30th, you will automatically be entered to win!!!).
A Guide to Water Filters, Part 1
In our June "blue" issue, we talk a lot about water and water related issues -- and that got me thinking about the water in my house and, more specifically, water filters. I've often stood in the filter aisle at the store, scanning all my options, and wondering: What's the difference between this one and that one? Why is this one twice as much money? Does it clean up twice as many contaminants? Should I choose a faucet filter or a pitcher, or go for a countertop system? What about whole house systems?
So I decided to do some research on water filtration. I started by trying to decipher what's in our tap water that needs filtering in the first place. You can get information on the quality of your local drinking water at the EPA's website. The National Resources Defense Council issued a report on the quality of the water in 19 cities across the nation, which you can check out here. And The Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water has numerous resources at its website that will help you obtain -- and then decipher -- reports on the quality of your local drinking water.
Next comes understanding the filters themselves. Here are some filter basics I learned at the National Resources Defense Council's Consumer Guide to Water Filters page:
- Household water filters generally fall into one of two categories: point-of-entry units, which treat water before it gets distributed throughout the house; and point-of-use units, which include countertop filters (e.g. filter pitchers), faucet filters, and under-the-sink units.
- Some filters use more than one kind of filtration technology.
- As a general rule, the National Resources Defense Council, suggests looking for filters labeled as meeting NSF/ANSI standard 53 and that are certified to remove the contaminant(s) of concern in your water. They write, "While the NSF certification program is not flawless, it does provide some assurance that at least some claims made by the manufacturer have been verified."
- NSF International is a not-for-profit, non governmental organization that specializes in "standards development, product certification, education, and risk management for public health and safety." NSF has a drinking water treatment units product database on its website. You can search the database by product or by type of pollutant(s) you want to filter.
Meanwhile, don't forget that YOU COULD WIN a $300 Whirlpool Central Waters home filtration system. If you visit our website and comment on the article "Troubled Waters" by Wednesday, June 30th, you will automatically be entered to win!!!).
How do you eat raw garlic?
I've read that you get the most benefit from garlic when you eat it raw (that is, raw garlic gives you the most free-radical fighting power). I love garlic -- when its roasted or sauteed or cooked in any way. But raw? The only palatable way I've found to eat raw garlic is to blend some raw cloves in white bean dip. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to eat more raw garlic?
Kava Test Run
I was feeling stressed the other day and so I bought some Kava extract. A tall shrub that grows in the South Pacific, Kava is said to ease anxiety and help with insomnia. I remember hearing about its wonders when I worked at the co-op years ago.
I took some when I got home from the store and I felt.... absolutely nothing (except for the tingle that alcohol-based tinctures leave in my mouth). I tried again the next day and nothing! Maybe I'm immune to relaxation? If anyone has had a different, more successful Kava experience, let me know!
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