Holy garden plan, batman!

           Lycan-Fry Garden Plan 2010!!!

As you see, the main theme in planting this year is "TOMATOES!". I want to have enough to eat fresh (love love love fresh tomatoes), and a lot left over to can as well- I'm going to get Romas, and some type of cherry I think. Also some zucchini, strawberries, onions, potatoes, lettuce, garlic, and carrots, along with some herbs for an herb garden as well! Let's just ignore the fact that right now, these raised-bed gardens are not yet built.. :)

I'm looking into buying all my starter plants from Destiny Farms in Brighton, MI. I called and spoke with Mike there today- they seem to have pretty good deals on flats of 18 3" container plants, but I don't know.. maybe I could get a better deal on a flat of starters? At any rate- very excited! If you garden in lower MI, check them out- they have some deals if you get your order in before Feb 15th!. Also they build chicken coops and raise chicks that you can buy for nesting or for eventual eating. When Mike let's me take over the yard and turn it into a farm, I will be getting chickens... whenever that might be. I'm going to take a trip up to Destiny Farms this weekend to check things out- I'll report back once I see it for myself!

Adventures in bread-making!

Today I was struck with the sudden urge to make bread. I guess this just stemmed from the fact that I love bread, and I also got inspired while reading, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". In Barbara Kingsolver's family, her partner Steven Hopp makes all the bread that the family comsumes. I think it would be really rewarding to make all of the bread that you eat- it's such a staple in the American diet- sandwiches, on the side with soup or salad.. and it's also delicious!

I began my bread adventures with King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour. We have local flour at the Co-op but I wanted to use King Arthur because it had a bread recipe on the back, which I needed, since I was doing some impulse baking! I also got some dry active yeast (yeast is intimidating if you've never baked bread before!), some of Kroger's organic milk, and I had all the rest of the stuff at home. Here's the original recipe I followed:

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread (from King Arthur Flour)
Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 cup milk
2 Tlbs butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 cup rolled oats
1 packet dry active yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups King Arthur Bread Flour
 
 

mmm... yeasty.

 
Manual Method: In a large mixing bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients, mixing to form a shaggy dough. Knead the dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (5 minutes) till it's smooth. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, and allow it to rest for 1 hour; it'll become quite puffy, though it may not double in bulk.

    

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and shape it into a log. Place the dough in a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan, cover the pan (with an acrylic dough cover, or with lightly greased plastic wrap), and allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, till it's crested 1 to 2 inches over the rim of the pan.

Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190°F. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it with aluminum foil for the final 10 minutes of baking. Yield: 1 loaf.

Bread!!!!

Overall, I think my first loaf turned out surprisingly well! It didn't burn, it wasn't under done, and it had a perfect, quinticential bread shape. Mike even commented,  "I'm impressed that you let the bread rise for all that time, instead of sticking it in the oven after 20 minutes. Good job!" I'm glad that following the directions is an impressive feat for me. :)

I decided to make a second loaf and freeze it, since I was on a bread making kick, and I was eating the whole first loaf immediatlety haha. I used the same recipe as above, but with a little twist of my own-

Olive Oil and Rosemary Bread

Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cup milk
3 Tlbs Olive Oil
4 Tlbs Rosemary
4 Tlbs McCormick Italian Spice grinder (or any Italian spice blend)
3 tablespoons honey
1 packet dry active yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups King Arthur Bread Flour

Obviously, this is a very similar bread, but it was a vague attempt at Olive Oil and Rosemary. It also turned out pretty good! I would have added a bit more olive oil and a bit more Rosemary next time, but it was pretty delish. I froze this second loaf because I didn't want to each 8 servings of bread in one day. Well.. I did want to, actually, but I shouldn't.
 
My mom had offered to give me her Bread Machine, but I don't think I really need it- making bread by hand took a bit of time, but it was rewarding, and not at all as tough as I thought it would be.
 
Another Homesteading skill= accomplished!

Success!!

Next Saturday, I will be the proud consumer of locally-grown meat! 2 lbs. of turkey breast, 6 pork chops, and a dozen eggs. A small, humble order but it feels good. I got a hold of Karl Baer, a local farmer (from Adrian, MI) and he was really friendly and informative.

He walked me through the order, haha, because I am incompetent- when you buy meat from the supermarket, you get it all chopped up where you can't even really tell it was ever alive, and you don't have to mess with technicality. I didn't even know how to go about ordering from him. The conversation went something like this:

Arika- "Hey... can I have some turkey?"

Karl- "Sure, what type? We have smoked turkey breast by the pound, fresh turkey breast by the pound, turkey sausage, spicy turkey sausage, turkey burger, turkey wings, turkey thighs, turkey carcasses etc. etc. etc..."

Arika- "Hey... can I have some turkey?"

Anyway, he was understanding and chatty, which I appreciated. He's at the Ypsi FM every other Saturday, including next Saturday, which is when I will be picking up my first order! He also had whole roaster chickens, but I don't think I can handle that. I did make chicken noodle soup last year from the Moosewood cookbook, with a whole chicken that cooked over-night. Maybe I will have a soup making party and do that soon. Anyone up for an all-night chicken-cooking sleepover?

Who could resist that invitation?

I don't think a former vegetarian has ever been this excited about meat before. I'm missing my Master Gardener class tonight because I have a meeting, which is a little disapointing, but a fact of life. Sometimes, you have meetings. I'll have to shlep down to Monroe in 2 weeks to take the class I'll be missing at their MSU-Ex. office. Oh well- I'll get to see another MSU-Ex office and meet some new folks- that will be an adventure!

Here's to hoping it doesn't snow too much this weekend. My ground is frozen and I can't dig in to get my soil sample! Come on Mother Nature.. can you warm up just a teeny bit?

MEAT and lead poisioning (what a nice combo!)

So after my last post on food goals, I got some helpful info from several folks, including Chelsea, Ashes, Di, and Liz!

As far as locally-raised meat goes, Ashes mentioned that she buys from Karl Baer, who sells @ the Ypsi FM during the summer and evidently still sells out here every other weekend! I tracked down his phone number, and I'm going to call him and find out some more info! I also looked up some farms on Local Harvest (great site, by the way) and found a few more meat/animal product farmers. Haven't checked them out extensivley but I will be excited to:

Imagine Cattle Company- Belleville, MI

Mira's Egg Farm- Ann Arbor, MI

Firesign Farm- Whitmore Lake, MI

Casa Del Pollo Contento- Dexter, MI
 
Also, thanks Liz for the article about lead and Urban Gardening! I will definitely have my soil tested, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that you could still grow things in raised-bed gardens, if you line them with lanscaping fabic that helps block the lead from being absorbed. It also said you could treat your soil with lime, but I don't want to raise the pH any higher than it already is- that could affect the types of plants I'm able to grow successfully. Plus I think Michigan already has a pH of 7ish, which is supposed to mitigate lead absorption.
 
So while I still want to get our soil tested to make sure, it seems like I will be able to grow something, in some way, as long as I am up for pitching in a little extra bit of money-good to know :)
 
I was reading some interesting books I got from the library on vegetable gardening. One topic I am interested in learning more about is root cellars. I think my mudroom is cold enough that it could totally store some root vegetables for a few months- Ashes and Sara and I had apples in there for at least a month or two and they were totally good!
 
Hmm.. so many exciting things to think about! :) Thanks for all the input- it's great to be able to share information with fellow foodies and hippies.

Well, shit. My healthy eating plan to avoid the US mass-production food system

Thoughts I am thinking today, after watching Food Inc yesterday:

• I need to find a local farmer who grows meat in a humane way- I do not want to be buying into the Tyson-Perdue, etc. structure of cruelty to animals, farmers, and human workers at all
• If I do not find a local farmer and commit to eat meat of this standard, I need to just buck up and be a vegetarian again
• I want to continue to focus on eating seasonally and the methods that enable folks to do that, like freezing, preserving, storing, and drying food. Since I don't have a lot of storage from last year, I will focus on learning more and developing my strategy this season, and then I will really get into in on April 1st, like Barbara and her family did in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

I want to cut down shopping at chain grocery stores, such as Kroger, Meijer, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes. Part of this involves analyzing where my food is currently coming from.
Right now (in the winter) I would say this is where my food comes from:

50% Ypsilanti Food Co-op
20% Kroger/Whole Foods/TJs
30% Restaurants, (which means I don't know where the food comes from but I can assume it's most likely not from local growers and farmers)

In the summer, my food consumption looks more like this:

70% Farmer's Market/Ypsilanti Food Co-op
30% Restaurants

My overall goal is for my average food consumption to look like this:

15% home-grown
75% Ypsilanti Food Co-op/Farmer's Market/CSA
10% Restaurant


I'm not sure how much food I can actually grow for myself in my own yard. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to plant, etc. I need to get my soil tested @ the MSU Extension office before I plant anything because I could have led in my soil, etc. and a soil test will tell me what the pH is of my soil and a bit more about the composition.

Assuming I don't have poisionous lead-filled soil, how much food can grow in 500 sq feet?
250 of that is already devoted to raspberry & blueberry bushes that are small and will not produce a lot in the first several years.
Another 50 of that is devoted to the tall, skinny, deranged looking apple trees that we have. If we treat them with some pesticides this year, they might produce edible apples... (last year they were all wormy and chomped-up)
So that leaves me with about 200 sq feet of space left for veggies and herbs. What I can't seem to get a gauge on is how much food do I have the potential to grow, and how much of my total diet could that actually account for?

I'm doing research now on what I can plant and how much light it needs and when, etc. From all this reading and watching and learning, one thing is clear: Making healthy eating choices that are also healthy for your community and the earth is a lot of work, and it's definitely a concious choice you have to make and stick to.

I need to hop outside and get my soil sample together too, so I can get it back before I plant!! It looks nice outside- and I guess it IS nice outside, if you consider nice to be sunny and 15 degrees. :)

"Animal Vegetable Miracle" : my winter life-preserver!

I know, I know- it's only January 28th! But I can't help looking forward to Spring. I am really not much of a winter person, although I do know that spring and summer would be a lot less appreciated if we didn't have some cold and snow. However, the sun is shining, the snow has melted a bit, and if I squint my eyes a whole lot, it could start to look like spring outside, right?

At least we gotten to the point in the year where it is not ridiculous to start planning what I will plant this coming season.

The Master Gardener program has been really inspiring so far. I am enjoying hearing a new speaker each week, who is an expert on the topic of the week. So far, we've covered basic plant science, and fruiting trees. I've learned a lot about plant life and plant cell structure, as well as how plants work. The fruiting tree class really provided some insight on how fruit trees are pollinated, and how many cannot cross-pollinate with a like cultivar (who knew? I guess tree experts knew, and I didn't)! Class tonight will be on Plant Soils. Woo!

The only tough part for me is that as a newbie to gardening, most of this knowledge is theory right now, until I can get to the ground and start digging and seeing some of these things for myself. I'm pretty good at retaining knowledge and storing it until I can use it- that was what I did for most of my Masters level social work classes in grad school too. I hadn't worked out in the "field" (of social work) yet so I just had to absorb the knowledge until I had a place to apply it.

I'm also re-reading Animal Vegetable Miracle- a Year of Food Life- by Barbara Kingsolver. I had started it last year but had never quite finished it for some reason- maybe because in my mind, it is also a bit theoretical until I have some plants in the ground. At any rate, AVM is a wonderful, funny, inspiring book, and if you haven't read it, I suggest you do! I love others of Barbara Kingsolver's books, including Animal Dreams, Pigs in Heaven and the Bean Trees, and Prodigal Summer, but I am enjoying AVM extra because it has been a personal motivator to continue the locavore lifestyle I am trying to cultivate for myself. It details Barbara and her family's move to a farm they own in Virgina and the one-year experiment they embark upon to obtain all their food from their community or as close to it as possible. The fact that they have an actual farm to do this on (although much of the group is hilly and not suitable for edible gardening) makes it a bit easier that the 600 square feet I have to use, but really, the whole book is really a fun read and makes you think about where your food comes from, who it comes from, how long it has traveled to get to you, and what kind of quality you might be sacrificing by eating food shipped from thousands of miles away.

So check it out! I actually found out that Barabara Kingsolver was my second cousin's Girl Scout leadera a counselor at the Girl Scout camp some of my relatives went to, which is pretty funny. All these years I'd been reading her books and talking her up and then I found out we're kind of connected!

Until I can plant, the MSU Extension office and Barbara Kingsolver are keeping me afloat, and I am thankful for that!

Don't stop me now...

Happy New Year!!!

I've started working out regularly again, because I need to, and I want to, and it feels good! Also I'm getting back on track to eat in a healthy way, a subject on which I kind of fell off the wagon. I have no more excuses- I know what is healthy and what is not, I know where to find local, seasonal and organic food, and I can afford to do it. I just have to DO IT.

So there's that. It's hard to eat local in the winter because I am pretty much a fruititarian and there is not a lot of fruit growing in Michigan in January :) But I manage, and I suppliment with the occasion grape or blueberry where needed!                                               

I got some great gardening books for Chanukkah/Christmas, including:

Michigan Gardener's Guide

The Michigan Gardener's Companion
                                                             
Of course I devoured them immediatley, and they were really informative. I would recommend them to anyone who is new-ish to gardening in Michigan. The Gardener's Companion is more reading whereas the Gardener's Guide is more pictures and specific plant descriptions, etc. Both great though! I also got a North American Bird guide, which I am excited to check out!

My Master Gardener classes start tomorrow @ the MSU Extension office in Ann Arbor- woo! I still need to finish reading my chapter on Plant Science which is a little baffleing and overwhelming. Now I remember why I tuned out science classes in high school... and college. But this science will apply to something I would actually like to do in life, which is gardening, so I think it will be easier for me to learn than it was the first and second time around!

I think some folks in the neighborhood are going to be meeting in a week or two to talk about sustainability in Ypsi and how to develop a community of folks interested in sustainabile living- I was invited as a result of meeting with Lisa, a neighbor who is a gardening and sustainability guru. I'm really looking forward to the get together!

Lisa told me about this idea that they were thinking about, which is to develop "pods" within our neighborhoods. I understood this to mean "folks who are interested in sharing food, rescources and skills with each other". Example: If my backyard turns out to be a tomato-producing machine (which I hope it will be), and Lisa garden can't grow tomatoes, I could exchange some of my tomatoes for some of her kale or lettuce or something! This could also work with tools, etc. My lawnmower is broken and terrible, so if I could borrow someone elses lawnmower as needed, then I don't have to buy another one, which is really not necesary anyway! It's kind of family-esque in a way, since I would be mooching off of my parents for all these things if they didn't leave three hours away :)

I hope to share cool bits of knowledge as I progress in my Master Gardener class, and hopefully I'll be a badass gardener soon haha. In reality, I know it will take years to develop a green thumb with any talent, but I am just a class person. If there is someone I would like to learn, I always prefer a classroom environment. Sign me up!