Outbreak! small farms popping up left and right
According to a USDA farm census taken every five years, the number of US farms grew significatly between 2002 and 2007, and most of that growth was due to the rampant outbreak of small farms. That’s right, our agriculture system has begun to revert to the old-style small farm system, with lots of smaller-size farms growing a variety of different foods and selling them to local eaters.
Compared to the big farm model that has dominated the US food system for the past fifty years or so, the small farm model is a really good thing. Big farms tend to grow one crop, like corn, soy, beef, chicken, etc, whereas small farms grow a little bit of each. This is better for the soil, which means small farms don’t require as much fertilizer, and it’s better for the eater, because it means we can access unique foods grown nearby in an environmentally-friendly manner.
And importantly, small farms are good for farmers. Big farms don’t really have “farmers” – they have managers and they have workers – and the farms are owned by big companies that don’t take very good care of the people who work for them. Small farms tend to be family operations where farmers have a stake and a say in their farm, their land, and the products that they sell.
So, yay! The growth of small farms in the US is a really good thing. We should celebrate. And if one of these new little farms has sprung up near you, go ahead and buy food from it – it’s a win-win situation.
Smokey’s New Look
Have you seen Smokey the Bear lately? He had a CGI makeover. The US Forest Service has a new ad campaign to educate people about preventing forest fires (sorry, the call them “wild fires” now), and instead of bringing out the traditional, fatherly, cuddly Smokey, they made a whole new cyber Smokey, with a sexy new look, deeper voice, a snazzy website (SmokeyBear.com), and even a tag line: “Get Your Smokey On.” A far cry from the quaint, hand-painted PSA ranger bear that we know and love.
The whole thing makes me feel a little uncomfortable, but I guess it’s all well-intentioned. The campaign aims to reduce the incidence of wild fires, the large majority of which are caused by humans, and it’s definitely a worthwhile cause, considering much of southern California has been on fire for years now and several other regions of the US have experienced record droughts within the past decade. Smokey’s website offers all sorts of info on preventing fires, plus it has a nifty feature on its home page that tracks how many acres of land have burned so far in the US this year (about a half million last time I checked), and a map that shows everywhere there’s a wildfire burning today. Kind of scary, but really quite cool.
The best part of the campaign, of course, are the TV ads featuring our new and improved sexy CGI Smokey. You can see them on the home page of SmokeyBear.com. And just in case you miss the old Smokey, there’s a section on his new website called Smokey’s Vault that offers lots of history and classic images from the 60-year Smokey the Bear campaign.
Read This
I got this book as a christmas gift and it’s turned out to be the best present I ever received. It’s called The Urban Homestead, and it was written by an LA couple -Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen – who have a real knack for sustainable living in the urban environment. They cover all sorts of things, from making your own homegrown booze to city bike travel, but my favorite parts of the book are the sections on growing food. These guys have a full-fledged food forest in their back yard, and have also cultivated all sorts of crops on the road median out in front of their house. The book offers a slew of tips on mulching, container gardening, irrigation, and is a great place to start if you’re interested in growing some food but don’t have tons of experience. It’s been a pleasure to read this time of year, while I make decisions about what seeds to buy and daydream about digging in the dirt.
The authors also have a blog, which I recommend checking out, too – the web ads a layer of interactivity and accessibility to the authors that I can really appreciate. These guys are real pros – and they can write, which is always a plus. And they have chickens, which I’m kind of jealous about (for some reason I’m finding myself increasingly draw to animal husbandry – unfortunately I think my cats would torture and perhaps even kill a chicken if given the chance).
Big props to Kelly and Erik – you’re an inspiration! And if you ever find yourself in Brooklyn, you’re welcome to stay at my house and help me make my yard into an urban oasis.
Elbow Grease
Allow me to introduce you to my fabulously understated tea kettle. Boyfriend and I use this every day to boil water for his coffee and my tea, and after over three years of use and abuse, our poor, chickenesque kitchen implement developed a thick coating of greasy stuff that a normal dish washing could not penetrate. Many of us would merely toss out an old pot or kettle once it reaches this point of stuck-on greasiness, or else turn to some harsh grease-dissolving chemical cleanser or magically toxic eraser. Neither of these options is very green, but applying a little elbow grease to the problem is always an eco-friendly option, and it’s cheap too.
The key to cleaning up my nasty old kettle was the age-old practice of scrubbing. Using the scratchy-side of a normal dish sponge, plus a dollop of dish soap (I’m using this brand these days), I was able to rid my kettle of all that goo in about 15 to 20 minutes (I forgot to check the clock before I started). Pointer: don’t run the water while you’re cleaning like this (you shouldn’t run it when you’re doing dishes anyway). Water will wash away the soap and make it way harder than it should be, so just wet the sponge, add the soap, and keep the water turned off till you’re ready to rinse.
I won’t deny that my little exercise in scrubbery took a toll – I warmed up pretty fast and had to take off my sweater in order to avoid sweating – but overall it was pretty quick and painless. For the final bits of really tough stains I sprinkled about a teaspoon of baking powder on to give it a little extra abrasiveness, and pretty soon the whole thing was as shiny as the day I bought it (except for the chipped enamel and burnt plastic that I couldn’t change if I wanted to, and I wouldn’t change because they give the kettle character).
So if you’re considering trashing, replacing or chemically-treating your kitchen tools, think again! A little elbow grease can go a long way.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Sir.
Today’s a big day for you, President Bush. Tomorrow you’re moving out of the White House, which means today is packing day. I can imagine you’ve accumulated a lot over the past eight years – I hope you’ve got a big suitcase.
Don’t forget your golf clubs – I hear the new guy plays a different sport so he won’t be needing them. And be sure to take your golf buddies, too, and all the other miserly schemers that you surround yourself with. Make room in the trunk for all those new coal plants that have gone up under your watch, and the inefficient cars and trucks that have been built. Take your framed, unsigned copy of the Kyoto agreement, and those two scientists that still don’t believe in global warming. Pack up those drilling rights that you’ve issued, and please return the ice and polar bears that have gone missing. Hold on to all your other paperwork, too – you never know what you’ll need when you get indicted.
Bring your bad speech, your ignorant world outlook, your apathy toward those of us who don’t happen to be older, white, wealthy and male. Try and make room for all the regression and missed opportunities that you’ve created – I know it’s a lot, but you really deserve them more than anyone else. And take your corporate bedfellows, your disregard for environmental and human consequences, and your wars. I don’t care what you do with Cheney, but make sure he’s emptied all the dirt from his desk and leaves his keys.
Pack it all up, and get it out of here. It’s really not fair to leave your mess for the next tennant, and we, the people, have no need for your crappy legacy.
Seed Season
This nice piece in Alternet today reminded me of something important: just because it’s cold and miserable out doesn’t mean that it’s too soon to start planning my garden. And planning is half the fun. Or, almost half -say forty percent.
I’m getting my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, as usual, but I’m also going to try out this place called Seeds of Change, because I’ve got a gift certificate. There’s also a handful of seeds that I saved from last year (and the year before), including some flowers that were in my yard this summer in Alaska, and some squash seeds that I dug out of my dinner before cooking it. But I still need to get seeds for most of the plants that I plan to grow in my new garden, so I’ve started a list and in a few days I’m going to hit the seed sites and order a bunch before they run out of the good stuff (and they do run out – a few years ago I just couldn’t get arugula and it was really upsetting).
Here’s my seed list so far:
-Herbs-
Dill
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Thyme
Cilantro
Lemon verbena
Lavender
Parsley
-Veggies-
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Pickling cucumbers
Carrots
Turnips/parsnips?
Hot peppers
Bell peppers
Lettuce
Arugula
Squash/pumpkin
String beans
Broccoli
Onion?
Green onion/chives
Potatoes
-Fruit-
Strawberries
-Flowers-
Sunflowers
Bulbs? Daffodils?
Mulchfest 2009
New York City has this great tradition, where the Sanitation and Parks Departments pick up all the tossed-out Christmas trees, bring them down to the park and grind them up into mulch. I had the great pleasure of volunteering at one of the parks where the mulching was taking place last week, and it was really something. As you can see in the photo below, they had this big industrial-strength chipper and within a few hours had turned well over a hundred trees into a huge, piney pile of mulch. I had the foresight to bring my car with me (cars are bad bad bad), and filled it up with bags of mulch that now exist in the form of a large, decomposing lump in my back yard. Come spring time (or as soon as the snow melts and it’s not unbearably cold outside) I’ll use the piney stuff to make paths between my garden plots – this year it’s too fresh to use on the plants themselves. Yay for mulch! And more on my garden coming soon…
Shamwow!
If you haven’t seen the ads for Shamwow, it means you probably haven’t been watching as much TV as I have over the past month. But it also means you should go to their website and be amazed. Watch the video of Vince (who’s an exceptional salesman and housekeeper) using this magnificent, German-made device. It soaks up wine and other spilled beverages in mere seconds, and even pulls liquid up through carpeting. Truly amazing.
But what’s even better is that the ad for Shamwow is telling people to stop using paper towels. Any advertisement that encourages Americans to use fewer disposable goods is a friend of mine (yes, I have friends who are actually commercials), and even though I don’t intend to buy the Shamwow, I am a huge fan (but if you’re reading this, Shamwow people, feel free to send me a free sample and I’ll give it a try). And if you don’t have a drawer in your kitchen that’s full of dish cloths, you might as well drop the $20 and try it out. It will save you bundles in paper towel costs.
Shamwow!
Clean Slate
The holidays. They’re over now (phew), but I’m still feeling the aftershocks. It’s time for a confession.
Christmas is about gifts, and this year I bought a lot of them, made a couple (too few), and received even more. There might be a recession on, and Americans might have experienced a leaner holiday this year, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the mountain of loot that I brought home on December 26th. It’s worth noting that a few of the consumer goods I received were fairly green – I got a compost bin, some gardening tools, and a gift certificate to buy vegetable seeds from Seeds of Change. I also wrapped the presents that I gave in the paper that I saved last year. But for the most part, this Christmas was a nauseating display of consumption and waste.
And there was also food. Too much of it. And lots of alcohol to wash it down. I ate until my stomach hurt on more than one occasion, and threw a New Years party which resulted in a morning-after recycling bag full of bottles and cans whose girth rivaled that of my 1995 volvo sedan. Even a couple of days ago I caught myself eating and drinking to the point of gluttony, excusing my behavior with the pathetic phrase, “it’s the holidays, right?” No, it wasn’t the holidays. It was January.
And it still is January, which means that I’ve still got an opportunity to repent for my holiday season sins (more…)
Overview: Washington’s New Green Team
President Elect Barack Obama – who seems to have already done more work to improve our country in 6 weeks than Bush has in 8 years – has announced the names of the folks who will comprise his administration’s environmental team. And they rock. Here’s a brief overview:
Running the energy department will be Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist with real knowledge about climate and energy. Now, I know it’s hard to imagine a real scientist at work in the White House – just be brave and we’ll all get through this together. (more…)
