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Urban Farming

Cats in the Pantry

Cat in pantry

Photo by Audrey Pavia

My mischievous tabby, Cheddar, got his head caught in the cat-food container lid.

Farmers who live in rural areas typically keep barn cats, who spend their lives outdoors catching mice and sleeping on bales on hay. But when you have an urban farm, it’s very likely you keep your cats indoors to protect them from speeding cars, marauding dogs and territorial tomcats.

At my urban farm, I have four cats who live in the house. Two of them — Cheddar and Stanley — are real terrors, and truly make life a challenge. More than once, I have thought about tossing them outside and letting them deal with the dangers of urban farm living. In my neck of the woods, this includes not only speeding cars and marauding dogs, but also hungry coyotes. My conscience gets the better of me just as I’m debating turning them out into the cold. Instead, I keep them indoors and I suffer. 

One of the greatest challenges of having Cheddar and Stanley — who are litter brothers — in the house is keeping them out of the pantry. This is where I store the cat and dog food, along with the much of the people food. Soon after we got these two cats about four years ago, Cheddar learned to open the pantry door. He discovered that if he jumped up and pushed down the lever handle, the door would pop open.

To thwart this, Randy added a lock to the door. We thought we were so clever, making it so our smart-ass cat couldn’t flip the lever down. We didn’t know that unless you slammed the door hard before you locked it, the latch wasn’t secure. It didn’t take Cheddar long to find out that if he reached his paw under the locked door, he could pull it open.

So yesterday morning, when I got up to feed the hungry mob of animals who live here, I wasn’t surprised to find the pantry door ajar and dry cat food scattered all over the floor. My normally hungry cats weren’t crowding around me meowing, so it was obvious all had dined on the spoils — including Bodhi, who is on a special low-ash diet and isn’t supposed to be eating regular cat kibble.

I began picking up the spilled cat food off the floor and putting it back in the easy-pour container I keep it in. I hadn’t yet noticed that the lid of the cat food container was missing. At least not until I got a look at Cheddar.

My incredibly smart but dopey-looking cross-eyed tabby was gingerly walking through the living room with the food container lid hanging around his neck. Apparently, he had stuck his head into the container and gotten it caught in the hole in the lid reserved for the measuring cup that normally rests there.

I calculated that the he must have been wearing the lid for quite a while, because the other cats were completely ignoring him. I can imagine the hysteria that must gave ensued in the middle of the night when Cheddar came racing out of the pantry in a panic, his head trapped in the giant lid. Cats must have been flying in every direction, with that terrified “What the hell…?” look on their faces that cats get under such circumstances.

After having a good laugh, I decided to let Cheddar wear the lid a little bit longer. He seemed none the worse for it, though I did notice that he was spending a lot of time walking along the walls. I’m guessing this was some attempt to feel balanced with this large plastic noose around his neck? 

I finally decided he had worn the lid long enough and removed it from his neck. Honestly, I wanted to leave it on him all day, but soon realized he couldn’t fit into the covered litter box with that thing on his head. And the last thing I wanted to do that morning was pick up cat poop off the floor. 

Do I think Cheddar learned his lesson? Absolutely not. He’ll be back inside that pantry at the next opportunity, wreaking havoc with his naughty brother Stanley close behind.

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News

When to Roll Rye

Rolling rye
Courtesy USDA/ Matthew Ryan
In a field of rolled cereal rye, ecologist Steven Mirsky evaluates ground coverage of the rye mulch and weed emergence through it.

USDA scientists are helping farmers adopt an environmentally friendly practice that’s catching on nationwide: rolling rye when using it as a cover crop.

Cereal rye is increasingly being used as a cover crop because it prevents erosion, helps the soil retain nutrients, and reduces the need to till the soil, according to Steven Mirsky, an ecologist in the Agricultural Research Service’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. This research supports the USDA priorities of responding to climate change and promoting international food security.

When used as a cover crop, rye is planted in the fall, killed in the spring, and left to decompose in the same fields where soybeans and other cash crops are later planted. But instead of mowing their rye, many farmers are now flattening it by attaching a rolling, paddlewheel-like cylinder with metal slats to a tractor and barreling over the rye, tamping and crimping it into a mat.

Rolling rye with a roller-crimper uses less energy than mowing, is faster and only needs to be done once per season. Unlike mowing, it also leaves rye residue intact in the field, forming a thick mat that can provide better weed suppression, Mirsky says.

Mirsky planted two common types of rye, Aroostook and Wheeler, in test plots in Pennsylvania at six 10-day intervals in two successive autumns. He used a 1½-ton steel roller-crimper, constructed by colleagues at Pennsylvania State University, to flatten the rye at 10-day intervals each spring. He then visually rated the rye’s regrowth on a scale of 0 to 100, six weeks after each plot was flattened.

The results, published in Agronomy Journal, show that the best time to roll the rye is when it reaches 50 to 75 percent of its flowering state, because that’s when rolling consistently kills the rye. The researchers also are working to develop a web-based tool that growers around the country can use for guidance, possibly by typing in ZIP codes or other information that identifies their locations.

Categories
Urban Farming

The Dogs of Rapallo

Principessa

Photo by Rick Gush

I call this dog “Princess” because I can never remember her Italian name.

Another item on the long list of things that I like about life here in Rapallo, Italy, is the fact that there are a whole lot of dogs to play with on the streets.

Here in Rapallo, almost everybody lives in a condominium, which means people need to take their dogs out for walks every day. The dogs get used to mixing with strangers, so no matter where I go, I get to play with them. I think these street-smart dogs are friendlier than dogs kept behind fences in backyards, too, and I’m always assured a warm reception.

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Photo by Rick Gush

My neighbor adopted Buddy after his original owner passed away.

The first year I lived here, I couldn’t speak much Italian, but I found that playing with dogs on the street was a good way to make friends with people. I now have a roster of dogs that I see regularly. I don’t carry dog biscuits with me as much as I used to, but I still have great fun walking downtown because I’m sure to encounter several of my dog friends.

I took the pictures for today’s blog this morning while I waited on the street for my friend who is helping me move [LINK: /community-building-and-resources/urban-farm-bloggers/urban-farmer-rick-gush/moving-time.aspx]some of my stuff. In the space of the 10 minutes I was on the street, three of my dog friends passed by. Buddy (pictured right) was adopted by a neighbor of mine after his previous owner passed away. The top photo is of the dog I call Princess because I can’t remember her Italian name. 

I suppose one drawback of all these dogs on the street is the phenomenon I call the “sidewalk lottery.” Everybody steps in it once in a while. Still, as bad as Italians are at keeping things clean, I’ve only won the sidewalk lottery five or six times in the 10 years I’ve been here.

I’ve been photographing the dogs of Rapallo for 10 years now, but the best shots are the most elusive, and I’ve only gotten a few of those. What I’m talking about are photographs of dogs riding on scooters with their owners. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see a few different dogs riding on scooters, but getting a photograph is really tough. One day I stood on a likely corner for an hour with camera in hand, ready to take action shots of dogs on bikes. Unfortunately, all I have to show for that is a few dozen blurry shots of scooters zipping past me. Oh well. I’ve still got the dogs to play with.

Read more of Rick’s Favorite Crops »

Categories
Urban Farming

Fighting Homelessness with Sustainability

Vertical garden

Courtesy Institute for Human Services Hawaii

As part of the urban farming initiative at the Institute for Human Services Hawaii, residents grow vertical gardens, which provide food for the emergency shelter and help lower the building’s cooling costs.

The state of Hawaii depends significantly on imported foods, due in large part to the high property values: a whopping $95,000-plus per acre of farmland. For organizations such as the Institute for Human Services Hawaii, an emergency shelter that serves approximately 635 meals per day to homeless and at-risk people, costs can really add up.

In response, IHS Hawaii started an urban farming initiative to help lighten that load, increase Hawaii’s food security, reduce the environmental impact of imported foods and add greater nutritional value to its meals. All the while, it teaches its residents the skills to develop and maintain these sustainable systems.

At IHS, a vertical garden provides fresh produce for the shelter’s kitchen. The garden, created and implemented with help from green design firm First Look Exteriors, produces fruit and veggies grown without pesticides.

“We’re growing tomatoes, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, mint and thyme,” says Kate Bepko, IHS’s community relations manager. “When we were in our first run, we even planted a little papaya seedling. We didn’t expect it to work, but the papaya seed did so well that we actually planted the little tree into the ground. It blew us away.”

In addition to providing the resident’s meals with a boost of nutrition, the gardens, which are grown along the building’s walls, help reduce the cooling costs and provide a beautiful, natural aesthetic for the shelter.

“The seeds are placed in small pots and germinated until they can be placed in the grid. We used recycled paper in the grid around the soil. The plants reach up to the sun; it’s beautiful,” says Bepko.

With the vertical gardens being a success, IHS has plans to construct a rooftop garden that utilizes hydroponics and aquaponics. In a test run, IHS’s aquaponic system—a symbiotic system of fish and plants, where fish waste feeds the root systems that in turn filter the water—yielded copious lettuce used throughout the two-month trial. The rooftop garden, already equipped with a solar-powered water-heating system and safety measures, will also offer a place where agricultural technology can be taught to the shelter residents.

Since mid-2009, IHS’s youth residents have participated in a wide variety of sustainability classes, from sustainable agricultural practices to composting and even solar-oven design. The goal of the classes is to nurture and empower students with experiences that will instill a greater knowledge of the Earth and invaluable tools to actively engage in sustainable practices throughout their lives.

“They learn that we can reuse things, for example crayon stumps. We use a solar oven to melt them down and make a beautiful rainbow crayon,” says Bepko. “This allows children to think twice about how they can take something that might be conceived as garbage and recycle it.”

More recently the sustainability courses have been offered to the adult residents as a pathway to career development. At the end of each course, adult residents receive a certificate of completion, which they can add to their skills and accomplishments when updating their resumes.

“There are a lot of opportunities, especially in Hawaii, for jobs related to what is being taught here,” Bepko says.

Learn more about IHS Hawaii and how you can support its sustainability efforts in the new year.

Categories
Crops & Gardening

Scoring Grow Lights

Grow-light system
Photo by Jessica Walliser
My used but new-to-me grow-light system takes up much less space in my basement than my current grow lights.

Jackpot! A gardening friend sent me an email a few days ago to let me know she had a grow-light system that was currently homeless. Did I want it? Of course I did! Apparently her brother-in-law found it sitting at someone’s curb for the trash man to pick up. He put it in the back of his pickup truck and took it to her house. My friend doesn’t have the room for the system at her place, so she thought of me (how kind!), and offered it up.

Although it isn’t exactly as slick as a modern grow-light system, it functions perfectly. The whole system is about 5 feet tall and has three tiers of grow lights. The lights go up and down on a track by twisting a knob. Below them are two black trays per tier, each of which can hold a full flat of seedlings or several 6-inch flower pots. Each of the three lights plug in separately so there is no wasted electricity if you only have one or two flats in place. There was even a timer with it!

The fluorescent shop lights I’ve got on chains in the basement have now been replaced. I have wanted a grow-light system like this for years but never felt it was financially prudent to spend nearly $300 on one. It takes up much less room (as is true for all types of vertical gardening) and is way more attractive. I haven’t decided where to put it yet but I may move it upstairs into the family room. That would be so much more convenient than trekking to the basement every day to check on tomato seedlings and lettuce starts.

Never have I felt so strongly that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And, I’m so very lucky to have a friend who is willing to share the good stuff. Thanks, Sherry!

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Categories
Equipment

Fit Your Anvil to Your Needs

Anvil
Remember, an anvil doesn’t have to be pretty to get the job done.

If you have limited needs for an anvil, a foot-long piece of railroad rail might be enough. For those who are intrigued by the idea of having their own working anvil, there are multiple other options, including online sources and stores such as Northern Tool + Equipment. While many anvils are European made, some like JHM Manufacturing in Peaster, Texas, are still made in the U.S.

While most anvils share many common features, they often have unique design variations that fit one purpose more than another. Before you make the investment in an anvil, consider possible uses. Are you interested in learning blacksmithing, or do you simply want a farm tool for straightening twisted shafts or flattening steel? If you want a new, high-quality anvil, you can expect to spend $600 or more. The lower end can cost $100 or less.

Once you’ve evaluated your needs, talk to local blacksmiths and metal workers. Let them guide you to sources they trust. If you are looking to create farm tools, they may even be able to meet your needs themselves. If it’s the craftsman tool you seek, visit the wide variety of companies online. Many of them offer in-depth information on the products they carry. Remember, an anvil likely is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase.

Of course, one of the joys of looking for a tool when you live in the country is to use it as an excuse to attend farm auctions. Personally, this is how I intend to find my anvil. I’ll bring my steel ball bearing with me and do the drop and bounce test that my blacksmith friend suggested. It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

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Categories
Homesteading

Stuff

Cat
Photo by Kelsey Langlois
“Who put this stuff on my TV?”

Where did all of this stuff come from? I’m writing this from our living room futon, hemmed in by a somewhat intimidating mini-Grand Canyon of furniture and stacked boxes. No, I’m not a hoarder. (At least, I didn’t think I was before surveying all of this stuff). We just had to empty our two bedrooms and my home office so we could rip out the prehistoric carpets (major eww) and the installer could unfurl clean, unsmushed new ones in their place. 

Don’t ask me why we decided to take on re-carpeting the house before Christmas (as if the holidays weren’t hectic enough!). I suspect it may have had something to do with my husband and my subconscious need for a major project that would keep us too busy to mope around as we continue coming to terms with our daughter leaving the farm-nest for college. But right now, it just seems like sheer insanity.

And as an environmentally-minded person who tries to embrace the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mentality, I’m dismayed to discover how much stuff we’ve accumulated over the years and crammed into our 1,500-square-foot home. There’s stuff bought from stores, thrift shops and yard sales, and stuff given to us. There’s souvenir stuff made in countries we’ve visited, some stuff made right here in America, and way too much stuff made in China. There’s stuff we needed (a light to read by), stuff we didn’t need but wanted (CDs and DVDs), and stuff we didn’t need and don’t remember ever wanting. (Certain items I won’t identify on the off chance they were given to us by someone who reads this.) I seem to have an entire forest’s worth of paper stuff here, too:  books (my biggest weakness), saved magazines, and files brimming with travel brochures and old stories. Oh, and don’t forget the boxes of sentimental stuff:  photos and Kelsey’s grade school artwork and more.
 
Don’t even get me started on our outside farm stuff.

Realizing we have too much stuff in too little space—stuff that needs to be dusted (um…sometime) and generally weighs us down like an overstuffed backpack—I’ve decided to undertake a stuff-purging mission as we put things back. And with Christmas speeding toward us, I find myself thinking more along the lines of giving (and wishing for) stuff—I mean presents—that won’t linger too long. Things like soaps, coffee, homemade chocolates or herbal jellies.

I wonder, what gifts do you give or wish for that don’t add to all of the stuff?

~ Cherie 

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Categories
Recipes

Citrus-braised Wild Duck

Citrus-braised Wild Duck

The acid in orange juice helps tame duck’s wild flavor. Braising is a successful all-purpose cooking method for any type of wild duck—fat or lean, young or old, dabbler (such as mallards or teal) or diver (such as bluebill or canvasback).

Ingredients

  • 1 large (around 4 pounds) or 2 small (approximately 2 pounds each) wild ducks
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 5 T. butter
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped onions
  • 3 sprigs of thyme, about 4 inches long
  • 1 sprig of rosemary, about 3 inches long
  • 3 cups orange juice, divided
  • 2 cups chicken or duck broth, divided

Preparation
Cut up duck as you would a chicken, into breasts, legs, thighs and wings. Leave leg-thigh portions whole if desired, or separate if pieces are large. Discard or set aside neck, back and giblets for another use. Salt and pepper each piece.

In a large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-low heat. Working in batches so you have only one layer at a time, add duck pieces. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook, turning once, until pieces are browned on each side. (Add more butter if pan gets dry.) Return all browned pieces to Dutch oven, arranging so they are stacked in no more than two layers. Add onion, herbs, salt and pepper. Pour 2 cups of orange juice and 1 cup of broth over. Cover tightly and bring to just below a boil; reduce heat to the lowest temperature able to maintain a slow simmer (i.e., liquid should be moving slightly—not continuously bubbling but not sitting so still that it skins over). Braising is about cooking as slowly as possible, at as low a temperature as possible.

Add the remaining orange juice and broth as liquid reduces, cooking for 6 to 8 hours, or until meat is tender and falling away from the bone. Serve hot.

Makes 4 moderate or 2 large servings.

Categories
Recipes

Leftover Turkey Casserole

Turkeys are large birds with plenty of meat to spread around. Don’t toss leftover tidbits not used in other recipes;  be resourceful with your bird, and bake leftovers in this cheesy casserole.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup turkey “bits”
  • 10 ounces cheddar cheese soup
  • 10 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 3 cups stuffing (prepared)
  • 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine turkey, soup and beans in 8-inch baking pan. Add stuffing on top. Top with cheddar cheese. Bake for 40 minutes or until bubbly.

Serves 6 to 8.