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Crops & Gardening Urban Farming

Mushroom Season

porchino mushrooms
Rick Gush

Gino shows off the huge Porcini mushroom he foraged this year.

It’s a good fall for collecting mushrooms this year. My wife and I drove up into the mountains this week to attend an agricultural festival, and the side of the road on the way up was dotted with the parked cars of mushroom hunters. We saw a lot of them carrying their harvest baskets filled with mushrooms, and we saw a fair number of wild-boar hunting parties, as well.

The most coveted mushrooms are the huge Porcini. We stopped at a friend’s home on the way up and took a photograph of her neighbor, Gino, who had just returned from his morning of foraging. He had a kerchief full of mushrooms and was happy to pose with one of his prizes.

Porcini mushrooms are Boletus edulis and are appreciated because they are large, extremely tasty and, best of all, they can’t be confused with some other species that might be poisonous. I do a little bit of mushroom collecting myself, and one of the most frustrating situations is finding some wonderful looking mushrooms and then not being certain if they are an edible type or not.

One does not want to be daring when harvesting wild mushrooms. I have a half dozen mushroom-collecting field guides that I take with me, and I always spend more time looking at the books trying to identify my finds than I do actually foraging. I’m learning, and there are now a lot of different species I can recognize, but I always find even more fruits that I cannot identify. There are a few places in Rapallo where I can take my mushroom harvest to have them identified, but it’s sort of a hassle. I can understand how people make mistakes and assume that what they have found is an edible variety.

Unfortunately, the news tells stories every year of people who have poisoned themselves with wild mushrooms. There was a whole family that died last year, and the year before that, a bunch of nuns in killed themselves and their convent’s guests with a deadly mushroom dish served for dinner.  Obviously, the fact that Porcini are easy to identify correctly is a big plus for mushroom collectors.

Italian craft artists

Photo by Rick Gush

Italian craft artists showed me the lace crafts their grandmothers taught them.

The ag festival was a typical Italian affair, with a whole bunch of booths crowded together inside an exposition area, all selling various cheeses, salamis, breads, produce and ag-related handicrafts. We loaded up on cheese, corn bread cookies and a small salami made from wild boar meat.

My favorite part of these affairs is chatting up all the oldsters demonstrating their heritage crafts.  The women pictured right were making lace crafts and were quite happy to talk to me at length about how they had learned this craft from their own grandmothers. Plus, they showed me the fresh borage and bietole (beets) ravioli they had just made.

We went to a restaurant for lunch with our friend and enjoyed, among other dishes, a plate of polenta with Porcini. Polenta is like corn mush and really good with a bit of mushrooms and gravy.  I also had stinco di maiale, a big leg bone covered with tender meat, sort of like a monster barbecued rib. I enjoyed my lunch and took the leftover bone with me in a doggy bag. Later, while wandering through the town of Santo Stefano, I gave the bone to a very appreciative dog.

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Urban Farming

Ain’t No Party Like an Eco-party

Global Work Party

Courtesy 350.org

Citizens in Ecuador plant hundreds of native trees. As part of the Global Work Party, events like this, which contribute to climate change, will take place around the world.

This weekend, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will take to streets, parks and other public places to fight global warming as part of the Global Work Party.

Participants of the event, to take place on Oct. 10, 2010, are encouraged to plant trees, install solar panels, build solar cookers, stage demonstrations, work in community gardens, organize bike rides and pick up trash. The charge: If you can think of a creative planet-saving activity, then turn it into a party.

“The goal of 10/10/10 is to really show politicians and the media that people all around the world are busy getting to work on climate solutions and that they expect their leaders to be doing exactly the same thing,” says Jamie Henn, from 350.org, an organization that, along with 10:10 Global and Project Laundry List, is helping to coordinate events.

The mission of 350.org is to raise awareness about lowering the atmosphere’s CO2 levels below 350 parts per million. According to the organization’s website, “If we can’t get below that, scientists say the damage we’re already seeing from global warming will continue and accelerate.” Current CO2 levels are 390 parts per million, says Henn.

A similar event last year—organized to coincide with the Copenhagen climate talks—encouraged 5,200 demonstrations in 181 countries, and this year’s promises to reach more than 7,000. So far more than 1,200 events have been planned in the U.S. alone, with at least one in every state. Just last week, Henn received a list of 248 events happening in China.

In Afghanistan, students will lead a tree-planting outside of Kabul. And in Iraq a group will work to put up solar panels at the University of Babylon. A group in India is hosting an anti-plastic rally.

A student group in Olympia, Wash., called Developing Ecological Agriculture Practices is organizing an event called “Permaculture Just Got Sexy,” to “explore how a permaculture lifestyle can prove to be the answer to sustainable human coexistence on this planet.”

And in Concord, N.H., more than 350 people are expected to turn out in costume for a rally in front of the state house to draw attention to “energy vampires,” appliances that use energy even when they’re turned off.

Inspired by 350.org, a Kansas City, Mo., organization, 350KC, will prep an urban plot for organic, no-till gardening next spring.

“There’s a huge number of events that are focused on urban farming and community gardens, food, and agriculture,” Henn says. “Here in Oakland, [Calif.,] they’re doing a big hip-hop show at an urban garden.”

He says he expects lots of community gardens to be planted on the 10th.

If you’re interested in joining the Global Work Party, visit 350.org to sign up your event or find one near you.

Categories
Crops & Gardening

Planning My Dream Garden

On a very exciting note, we have invited a landscape architect friend of mine (we went to college together) to come over and redesign our back patio and gardens. If all goes well and our budget allows, we’ll be getting a new backyard sometime next year. 

The idea is to create a sort of courtyard feel right around the backdoor. Right now, the patio is almost too big and is just an uninteresting rectangle with grass growing right up to it. There’s no buffer between our lawn and the brick patio. We spend a lot of time out there and hope to create a much more intimate space. My friend will probably laugh at us as we describe our vision: a new patio, retaining walls that have built in benches, a raised perennial border, a fire pit, some new trees and shrubs to “close in” the space, a low fence (hopefully) to keep the chickens and dogs out of the new beds, and, maybe, a redo of our pond. 

The possibility of all this is so exciting. It will be so interesting to see it all on paper and find out if she thinks our vision is possible.

I hope she doesn’t try to talk us into using those “stone” patio pavers that are all the rage right now. I can’t stand the brick pavers we have now. They just get covered in moss, weeds come up in the cracks and, though I’m sure it was level when it as installed, it isn’t now. The dips and valleys hold water and mud and make it too easy to trip.  I have a sneaking suspicion that those new pavers would do the same 10 years down the road. 

I think we want to do patterned concrete.  My aunt and uncle have a patio like this. There are seams to allow for expansion and contraction, but there are no little groves for weeds to take hold.  If anyone out there has experience with this or has on opinion on what we should or shouldn’t do, I’d love to hear it. Advice, please?   

« More Dirt on Gardening »

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Homesteading

Pioneer for the Afternoon

Forge
Photo by Cherie Langlois
Kelsey tries her hand at the forge.

The log cabin, dimly lit by oil lamps and a few small windows, bustles with activity: girls dressed in matching aprons and bonnets (and a few boys, definitely not in aprons and bonnets) kneading bread dough, churning cream and grinding corn.  I’ve been transported back more than 100 years, right into a scene from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book Little House on the Prairie—that is, until the sight of my modernly-dressed daughter among the bonneted girls returns me rudely to the present. At 18, Kelsey has deemed herself too old to dress up, but I’m happy to note she hasn’t outgrown the fun of playing pioneer for an afternoon. And neither have I.

Horseback riding
Photo by Cherie Langlois
Sami goes for a ride.

We’ve loved time-traveling at nearby Pioneer Farm Museum since Kelsey was little, and today we bring my cousin, his wife and their two young daughters, Gracie and Sami, along for the ride, too. Our tour starts with a short lecture inside authentic Stubbs Cabin, built in 1888, then takes us to the activity cabin where we sample chores like grinding coffee and cleaning clothes in a washtub. 

Next, we walk to a cluster of outbuildings—barn, blacksmith’s shop and carpenter’s workshop—where our crusty guide gives us instructions, then turns everybody loose to try milking a cow, collecting eggs, wielding a bucksaw and more. 

Milking a cow
Photo by Cherie Langlois
Gracie tries milking a cow.

In the blacksmith’s shop, amidst the acrid scent of burning coal, Kelsey and I take turns stoking the forge and pounding on a glowing horseshoe. Gracie and Sami are all smiles as they leap into a fluffy pile of straw and go for a horse ride. We finish up our tour by investigating the replica of a one-room pioneer school house, where I pause to read the list of punishments (in lashings!) posted on the wall. 

Back home, I reflect on how modern life has made our lives easier but also brought us some unpleasant complications. Sure, we have things like electric coffeemakers and lights, computers and cars, but we also have factory farms, cell-phone rudeness, road rage and climate change. Sometimes I just can’t help wishing for simpler times. 

~ Cherie  

Categories
Urban Farming

Nashville and Corn Bread

Corn light bread

Photo by Judith Hausman

Nashville introduced me to many corn bread variations, including corn light bread, which is a sweet, loaf version.

I got around this summer! Lucky me, within 10 days I was in a covered market hall in Montreal and another in Nashville, Tenn. At the start of the autumn harvest season, the two markets shared much in common despite the radically different grow zones: tomatoes and squash, string beans and garlic, grass-fed meats, sophisticated cheese (get a hold of Bonnie Blue Farm’s wonderful farmstead goat Camembert, if you can), lined-up jars of jam, and pickled  vegetables. In fact, even the music was similar; the fiddle and twang of Celtic roots are the sturdy backbone of both bluegrass and Acadian music.

But what I loved at the Franklin Farmer’s Market at The Factory just outside of Nashville was noticing what was different there.

Tiny, pale-green bagfuls of lady peas or field peas never show up in my market at home. They looked wonderfully tender and moist, just begging for a succotash. We have foxy Concord grapes but no Muscadines in the Hudson Valley. Those sweet, wild grapes must make a great pie. Jam made from the large fleshy variety (aka Scuppernogs) was for sale as well, next to jars of pickled okra and chow chow, a sweet-tart relish that enlivens stewed turnip or collard greens.

Now, I make a pretty good corn bread, but I’ve never seen so many gradations of corn bread as I did in Nashville. Corn light bread is sugary and cake-like; we had a thick slice on our plates with the smoked brisket and chicken barbecue we ate for lunch later that day.

At our cafeteria-style, meat-and-three lunch (fried chicken, squash casserole, turnip greens and sweet potatoes for me), I found out that fried corn bread is a skillet cake. It’s puffy, not lacey like johnnycake, made with flint cornmeal in Rhode Island, not thick like Colombian arepas made with masa.

Round hush puppies are actually the deep-fried version of corn bread, and my hostess described another intriguing, simple corn bread she makes by spooning the batter right into the fry pan. And grits is just hominy cornmeal, and it’s just amazing made with butter, some cheese and topped with grilled shrimp, peppers and tomatoes.

It’s funny to think that polenta can be a fancy Italianate menu item when you see how many down-home ways cornmeal is prepared in the South. And visiting the Franklin Market was like hearing the gracious Nashville accent represented in local food.

Melba’s Corn Light Bread

Turns out, my hostess usually buys her corn light bread from her favorite barbecue joints, but this is the recipe she uses when she makes her own. I found dozens of variations of the bread (sorghum syrup, more butter, an egg, self-rising flour, heated pan) and also the history of the specialty. Light is not the color; it’s the leavening, and light was also synonymous with loaf—that is, bread baked in a loaf pan not a skillet. Expect this to be grainier and sweeter than other corn breads.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups corn meal
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 3 T. hot bacon drippings, melted shortening or butter

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together cornmeal, sugar, flour and salt. Combine buttermilk and baking soda, then stir into dry ingredients until combined. Add bacon fat, melted shortening or butter. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan, and bake until golden brown, about 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf.

Read more of The Hungry Locavore »

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Equipment

Get a Grip

My shop is back to normal. It’s not just the clutter on the workbench; it’s the engineer’s bench vise. Nearly 30 years ago, shortly after I built my workbench, I installed a small vise at one end. It had all the prerequisites—a small flat anvil surface, swivel and jaws with removable steel faces. When working with wood, I could quickly replace the steel faces with wood, eliminating the certain marring that would otherwise have occurred.

I always intended to replace my little vise with a larger one, but year after year, it did its job. I did countless repairs with it, replacing tool handles, bending rebar and other jobs. It was the extra hand that I often needed in the shop.

Then it happened. Too much pressure and a cast iron member cracked. I salvaged parts such as nuts and bolts that might serve another use and recycled the rest.

I knew the replacement would be bigger and stronger, but how big and how strong? Vises range in size from tiny jeweler’s styles on up to commercial behemoths. Even the 4- to 8-inch home shop versions can range in price from under $50 to well over $500. Variations include jaw capacity, which is the distance between the jaws when fully open; jaw width; and jaw depth or throat, which is the distance from the jaw faces to the screw that attaches the two jaws. Other common features include type of face, swivel and pipe jaws. An anvil is less important, but nice to have for small metal-working jobs and repairs.

Next week, I’ll compare options and describe some of the guidelines I used in making my selection. I’ll also offer some pointers on general use of a vise.

<< More Shop Talk >>

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News

California Forms Environmental Farming Panel

The Scientific Panel of Environmental Farming is researching farms like this one to study the impact
Courtesy the California Department of Food and Agriculture
California farms, such as this one in Monterey County, will be affected by the research peformed by the state’s new Scientific Panel on Environmental Farming.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture recently held its first meeting on environmental farming with its five-member scientific advisory panel. The panel formed to advise state agencies on sustainable agriculture.

As California leads the pack in legislation surrounding environmental protection, food safety and climate change, the Scientific Panel on Environmental Farming will help define that role by providing agricultural research to regulatory agencies, says Steve Lyle, CDFA’s director of public affairs. The panel will review data regarding the impact that agriculture has on the environment and make recommendations to appropriate state agencies. In addition, the panel will publicly document agricultural activities that produce net benefits for the environment and ecosystems.

CDFA, working with American Farmland Trust, the state board of agriculture and hundreds of stakeholders, recently completed a two-year process of public meetings to complete Ag Vision 2030, a report that highlights sustainable agriculture issues. The panel will focus on these issues, which include requirements for environmental flow (or the natural water needed to maintain ecosystems), water salinity and air quality.

“California’s farmers and ranchers operate in a regulatory environment that contributes to the safety and innovation of our food supply and protects our natural habitat,” Lyle says. “All of California’s farm families will benefit from this panel, which will provide research to help document the impact that agriculture has on the environment, providing greater transparency to the rule-making process of regulatory agencies.”

One of the first priorities of the panel is to research an environmental impact report, drafted by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, on the state’s dairy manure digester and co-digester facilities.

Three members of the panel are appointed by California’s Secretary of Food and Agriculture to represent production agriculture. One member is appointed by the Secretary of the state Environmental Protection Agency to represent human health and environmental science. One member is appointed by the Secretary of the state Natural Resources Agency to represent resource management.

“This panel will bring together diverse expertise to educate and consult with state agencies on environmental issues paramount to sustainable agricultural production,” says CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura. “While feeding the nation, California agriculture strives to build consensus to address multiple complex issues confronting the state’s 80,000 farmers, like resource management, invasive species, water, local and organic food production, and environmental stewardship.”

Categories
Urban Farming

Funds for Foodies

Michael Pollan

Courtesy Alia Malley

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, will receive a Lennon Ono Grant for Peace.

In honor of their work, Michael Pollan, bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (The Penguin Press, 2006) and In Defense of Food (The Penguin Press, 2008), and Barbara Kowalcyk, co-founder of the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention, are among those being  awarded the 2010 Lennon Ono Grant for Peace.

Yoko Ono established the biannual award in 2002 to honor John Lennon’s dedication to peace and human rights. Ono will present the awards along with $50,000 grants in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Oct. 9, 2010—the date that would have marked Lennon’s 70th birthday.

Pollan is best known as a passionate food activist who has explored topics such as genetic engineering and factory farming in his books and essays. His most recent book, Food Rules (The Penguin Press, 2009), offers a framework for a healthy diet and promotes the mantra, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Kowalcyk appeared alongside Pollan in the documentary Food, Inc. (2008). She became an advocate for food safety after her son, Kevin, died from an E. coli O157:H7 infection in 2001. She co-founded CFI, a nonprofit that works to identify solutions to help protect public health and meet the food challenges of the 21st century. Kowalcyk also travels across the nation to speak out about food-safety issues.

Barbara Kowalcyk

Courtesy Joseph A. Dial

Barbara Kowalcyk, a 2010 recipient of the Lennon Ono Grant for Peace, co-founded a nonprofit to tackle food-safety issues.

In a press release issued by CFI, Kowalcyk says, “I am deeply honored that my work in food safety is being recognized by Yoko Ono. More importantly, this award focuses international attention on the fundamental importance of food safety to a healthy civil society in the United States and globally.”

In the past, only two recipients received the award in a given year. This year, in honor of Lennon’s milestone birthday, Ono will be presenting the award to four recipients who were chosen for their commitment to peace, truth and human rights.

Other recipients of the 2010 Lennon Ono Grant for Peace are Josh Fox, filmmaker and producer of Gasland (2010), a documentary that examines the impact of natural-gas drilling on local communities, and writer and activist Alice Walker, who is best known for her bestselling book The Color Purple (Simon and Schuster Inc.). Walker is receiving the award after traveling to Gaza with members of the anti-war group Code Pink in 2009 to oppose violence in the region. She documented her experiences in the book, Overcoming Speechlessness (Seven Stories Press, 2010).

In an email newsletter sent out by Pollan, he noted the significance of choosing two food activists to receive awards and recognition in 2010. He writes, “The fact that two of the recipients are closely identified with the food movement indicates, I think, a growing recognition of its importance.” 

Following the awards ceremonies in Iceland, Ono will take the stage to perform with the Plastic Ono Band, and there will be a celebratory lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower Memorial, which will remain lit until Dec. 8, 2010, the anniversary of Lennon’s death.

According to Pollan’s newsletter, the grants, totaling $50,000, will be donated to nonprofits.

Categories
Urban Farming

A Hard Lesson

Foxy the urban barn cat

Photo by Audrey Pavia

Foxy loved her life as an urban barn cat.

Everyone who has a barn cat knows the risks. Outdoor cats are susceptible to all kinds of dangers, and tend to have a shorter life span than their indoor counterparts.

I know this and believe it. Yet I took a chance by having an urban barn cat. I tried my best to keep her safe, but I knew the day might come when I would lose her to the dangers of the outdoors. 

I previously wrote about how Foxy had spent her entire life in small New York City apartments until she came to live with my husband and me two-plus years ago. We tried to keep her confined to the garage, but she would have none of it. She wanted to be outside. 

To minimize the risks to her wellbeing, we developed a routine. For more than two years, it worked. I would let her out in the morning after feeding the horses, when I knew the coyotes were going back to their dens. Foxy would hang around our backyard farm all day, lounging in the sun and chasing critters across the patio. Just before sunset, Randy would feed her dinner in the garage and latch the cat door so Foxy was in for the night. 

Foxy didn’t like this routine. She wanted to be outside at night, probably because she could hear rodents scampering around, just asking to be caught. The world is different at night, and she wanted desperately to explore it. But the dangers of speeding cars and prowling coyotes compelled me to keep her confined at night. She would make attempts to dash out the door, but Randy and I got good at stopping her short.

But recently, Randy was away for the weekend. I fed Foxy her dinner, but forgot to latch the cat door. I had a lot on my mind that night and I made a mistake. Apparently, it was a fatal one.

The next morning when I went out to give Foxy her breakfast, she wasn’t in the garage. I realized my mistake and walked all around the property, calling her. She didn’t come. I spent the next three days looking for her all around the neighborhood. I left the cat door unlatched and her food in the garage, in case she came home. But she didn’t.

Foxy never strayed far beyond on our property. There’s no way she wandered off to someone else’s house and made herself at home there. She was happy here and loved her life. There is only thing that could have happened to her: a coyote.

I cry every day when I see her litter box and empty bed in the garage. I still leave them, holding onto the hope that one day she will come back. I leave the cat door unlatched just in case. 

I have a lot of guilt and a tremendous sadness. It’s my fault she is gone. I should have remembered to latch that door.

My sister, Heidi, tried to console me by saying that the last two years of Foxy’s life were the most wonderful years she ever had. I know that is supposed to make me feel better, and it does in a small way. Yet I still miss seeing that fluffy fur ball whenever I go into the garage. I suspect I always will.

Read more of City Stock »

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News

Twin Foals Celebrate 4 Months

Twin foals and mare
Courtesy Randell Book
The birth of twin foals is a rare occurance, but Docs Cheyenne West and Docs Cimarron West, twin fillies born in May, celebrated a healthy four-month birthday.

On May 26, 2010, a Rockwall, Texas, Quarter Horse mare named Lil Mis Bit Of West (aka Gypsy) gave birth to healthy twin foals. The birth of live twins is rare in horses, because one twin usually dies well before foaling.

This month, shortly after celebrating their four-month birthday, the twins are doing well.

“They are in excellent health and are growing up fast,” says Randell Book, who owns the horses with his wife, Kathy.

Both dun fillies, the foals were named Docs Cheyenne West and Docs Cimarron West. Their sire, a Quarter Horse stallion named Docs Peppy Benz, owned by Kenneth and Janice Campbell of Sanger, Texas, was euthanized shortly after the breeding 10 months earlier, due to an injury sustained during an accident. This was the second breeding between Lil Mis Bit Of West and Docs Peppy Benz. The first resulted in a single foal.
  
Having two foals has meant double the effort in raising them, according to Randell.
 
“You have to buy milk supplement and feed each one,” he says, referring to the fact that mares with twins often can’t produce enough milk for both babies. “You also need to give the mare extra food and supplements to help her produce milk and stay in good shape.”
 
Just like human twins, the twin fillies are similar in some ways and very different in others, Randell observes.
 
“They are alike and different at the same time,” he says. “They want to eat together but try to push each other away. If you work with one, the other gets one jealous. If one gets hurt the other one stays by her side as protection.”
 
Randell said the fillies play together a lot, and when they want to be alone, they stay where they can still see each other.
 
“If one filly gets out of sight, the other filly starts calling and looking for her,” he says.
 
Live twin foals are rare because mares abort one or both of the twins 70 percent of the time. Permanent damage to the mare’s reproductive tract may occur in some cases. Twins can be detected early in a pregnancy with the help of ultrasound, and mare owners can elect to have one or both embryos removed to avoid potential complications.
 
In Gypsy’s case, no ultrasound was performed, so the Books were unaware of the twin pregnancy until the day of the foaling.

“When I realized Gypsy was going to have the second foal, I was scared and excited, Randell says. “Gypsy was very tired, so I had to [help] deliver the second twin.”

The twin fillies are part of the Books’ small Foundation Quarter Horse breeding program.
 
“We have a small place right now but want to get bigger and breed the all-around horse,” Randell says.

The fillies carry the bloodlines of the program’s well-known horses, including Mercedes Benz, Leo, Poco Lena, Lighting Bar, Three Bars, Midway, Old DJ, Way Out West, King and others.