Crunchy Momma Takeover and Why We Use Cloth Diapers

In the months since I last posted, life has changed rather dramatically. A new tenant has taken a room at the Townhouse Homestead. Now six months old, she shares a name with a famous First Lady. Our own First Lady, Abigail,is now six months old.

We've always tried to live a green life, and we have found that our goal has become even more important to us now that Abby is in the picture. (And such a cute picture it is, taken by Melissa Keys of Keys Photography).

The biggest step we have taken is using cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers. At first, it seemed really intimidating. I was stunned to find out the changes that have been made since I wore cloth diapers as a baby. Pins have been replaced by something magical called a Snappi and that's if the diaper even uses pins at all! There are all kinds of newfangled diaper gadgets, which I will get into later.

So, why use cloth diapers?

1. For us, we started looking into cloth as an earth-friendly option. A child will go through about 6,000 diapers before being potty trained. That's a lot of waste to sit in a landfill.

2. Cost was another huge factor. Remember those 6,000 diapers from a moment ago? That can add up to $1,500 thrown in that landfill.

After we had already decided on cloth diapers, I learned that there were many other reasons: fewer occurrences of diaper rash, fewer blowouts, and earlier potty learning, just to name a few. Plus, many of them are super cute.

At this point in Abby's life, we have just about broken even on our up front investment* (as in what we have saved by not using disposables). And, as cloth diapers have great resale value, I have even sold two diapers for 80% or more of what I paid for them brand new. We also have the satisfaction of knowing that there will be very little cost to diapering subsequent children. Try that with disposables!


Tune in for our next entry to learn about how we cloth diapered our newborn.
*As for those who will argue that we would have an increase in our utility bills, there has not been a noticeable difference.

In Defense of Dads

I just went on a rant on my Facebook, and realized that I had a lot more to say than I could put into one status.

DH is not a daddy yet--he's still got about one month to go. However, I'm already feeling defensive on his behalf.  There is a war in America right now: a war on dads.  I've heard it mentioned that it's because they are the last "safe" group to mock.  You've seen it: the idiot dad in commercials on TV or the condescending baby gear. Yesterday, I was picking up a few last minute things at Buy Buy Baby, and saw a onesie that was labeled as "Daddy Proof" with arrows indicated which hole was for which body part, and that the bottom should be snapped.  It probably will not come as a surprise to you that DH dresses himself every day with no assistance from me, and in fact, he is not confused when his clothing fastens with snaps.  Yet, I saw a graphic on Pinterest with the caption: "Marriage is just a fancy word for adopting an overgrown manchild who can't take care of himself."

I stopped.

I stared.

Now, I like a good joke. Even cynical jokes with enough truth in them that they make you wince a little even while you're laughing.  But I stared at that graphic and wondered if there were people that found that truthful enough to laugh it.  There is nothing about DH that makes me think he can't take care of himself.  Perhaps he is a "manchild" because he likes Legos and playing video games.  But he also holds down a steady job to support our family, helped me make it through graduate school and the loss of my father, spends a great deal of time and energy on home improvements, and regularly dresses himself and feeds himself.

I've seen other blogs and videos that address the issue of the "Idiot Dad."  Heaven forbid we moms should leave our children alone with them.  They might not know how to change a diaper or they might buy an inferior product.  They don't know how to eat healthy (of course the wives always know how to eat healthy and satisfy their cravings for junk food by eating cereal or yogurt). Ok, I'll admit it.  DH does have a deep abiding love for Pizza Bites and Jalapeno Poppers.  But if I'm around, he has to be alert or they'll make their way onto my plate.  He also enjoys salads even more than I do.  It's also true that he has never changed a diaper.  He also has limited experience holding babies.  Yet, when our baby is born, I am 100% sure that he will know to hold the baby the right way up and support its head.  I also have complete faith that I will show him how to change a diaper one time and he will do it correctly. In fact, he is perfectly capable of figuring out that task on his own.  I would never hesitate to leave our child under his sole supervision because he is not an idiot.

My DH is no exception to the rule (although I do find him quite exceptional across the board).  My dad raised me nearly solo from when I was 3 until I was 9.  It's true that occasionally my sisters had to brush my hair, but that was more because he was an absent-minded professor. He wasn't an idiot, he just had more important things to think about than personal appearance.  He fed me extremely wholesome, home-cooked meals, comforted me when I had nightmares, took me shopping for clothes, and made sure that I always felt safe and loved.

I have five sisters, all of whom are married to intelligent, capable men.  When one of them became a dad at 28 years old, he took to it immediately.  He adores his two daughters and has an extremely close relationship with them. It's Daddy that puts them to bed each night while Mommy does the dishes. My brother also has two daughters as well as a son.  He's gentle but strict with them, and he and his wife share parenting duties.

In fact, as I write, I keep trying to think of anyone in my life who fits the "idiot dad" stereotype. I can't think of a single one.  That's not to say that all the dads I've ever met are perfect. All people are flawed, and some dads aren't good dads.  But you know what? Some moms aren't good moms. And usually it's not because these people are idiots. There are other character flaws that make them less than ideal parents and spouses.

But let's hear it for the good dads, the capable dads, the loving and involved dads.  Because I know quite a few.

Grilled Salmon Salad

I love to eat out.  Part of it is the food, part of it is that I love being waited on and not having to do dishes.  I also love getting ideas for my own kitchen, particularly salads.  I love a really good salad, but always feel like mine are a little lacking in creativity.  Great American Restaurants, however, make a salad that I love so much that I hardly order anything else.  Coastal Flats, Silverado's, Artie's, and all the others all have a variation of this salad.  It's the Short Smoked Salmon Salad. Obviously salmon is the key component: a nice fillet right on top of a bed of field greens. I also always opt for the fried goat cheese for an additional $1. This brings the salad to about $17.  Last night, I decided that it was time to create my own version.

I went to Wegman's and picked up salmon. Since we don't have a smoker, I decided to grill instead (or rather, have DH grill for me).  I picked up french cut green beans and pee-wee potatoes.  Our salad greens came from the farmers' market (we buy a big bag each week).

It was beautiful.

It was also delicious.  Depending on which restaurant, sometimes it comes with asparagus, sometimes it comes with green beans.  I made the decision based on what looked freshest.  Sometimes it also has tomatoes or grilled onions. I kept it pretty simple, to let the salmon and goat cheese shine.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
4 salmon fillets

She's Back!

It's been quite awhile since I posted in this blog, but a lot's been going on around the Homestead.

Most importantly, DH and I are expecting our first child at the end of August.  Although we're planning on delivering in a hospital, we're going for an unmedicated, natural birth. We were surprised to find out that under 5% of the births in our area are unmedicated.  Then again, with the number of people telling me to "take the drugs," maybe I'm not so surprised.

Because I'm currently seven months pregnant, and knew I would be limited in my stooping abilities and desire to work out in the heat and humidity this summer, we've scaled back the garden.  We're still growing tomatoes, five plants total. There are three sad looking butternut squash plants, a cucumber plant in a hanging pot, lots of herbs, hot and sweet peppers, and strawberries that I started from seed last year.  We're also taking full advantage of the farmers' market for good greens and fresh fruit.

I love the first day of the farmers' market because it's the first day that I can get strawberries. I know that I can get them at the grocery store, but after getting them straight from the source, Safeway's just can't satisfy me.  We buy quarts and quarts of strawberries.  Some are just for eating, some are for desserts, some go in salads, and some end up in jam.

Here is a strawberry almond tart:

This came from a recipe I pinned on Pinterest.  Here's a link to the original. We made this for Mother's Day and it was a big hit.  Just behind, you can see homemade whipped cream.  

So go ahead, enjoy that fresh produce!

Gourmet Dinner

The Husband and I started a gourmet dinner group back during the winter, and we take turns hosting each other for dinner and inviting extra guests along for the ride. Last night, it was my turn. Although we don't always have a theme, I'm a sucker for themes, so I decided to go local. I wanted all of my main ingredients to be local ingredients.

Here is the menu:

Local chevre and Grayson cheese

Tomato Mozzarella Tarts with Garlic Basil Crust

Trio of Soups: Cucumber, Peanut, Crab

Roasted Corn Salad

French Potato Salad

Lamb Kebabs with Mint Pesto

Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce

Trio of Herb Ice Creams: Lavender, Basil, Mint

The Ingredients:

The Cheese

The chevre and Grayson came from Whole Foods. Gotta love that they label what's local. The Mozzarella came from the farmers' market across the street from our house.

Dairy

Our Whole Foods sells dairy products from a local creamery that I love. We always buy their creamline milk, and I was happy to branch out and use their buttermilk (for the cucumber soup) and heavy cream (for the soups and ice cream).

The Vegetables

The tomatoes came from three places: my garden, my friend Crystal's garden, and Mount Vernon's extremely prolific cherry tomato plants. The cucumbers also came from my garden. They were huge! They were as long as my forearm! The peanuts were purchased at Total Wine, but they are Virginia peanuts from the Peanut Shoppe in Williamsburg, VA. The roasted corn salad had corn, of course, as well as yellow squash, red onion, bell peppers, and tomatoes. All of those veggies except for the tomatoes came from the farmers' market. The onions and peppers for the kebabs were also from the market. The potatoes were grown at Mount Vernon. The peaches were from the farmers' market.

The Herbs

The herbs came almost exclusively from my garden. I'm throwing garlic in this category, and that came from the farmers' market.

The Rest

The crabs are from the Chesapeake Bay, and I bought them at Slavin's Fish Market in Arlington, VA. There was honey in the peanut butter that I made for the peanut soup, and that came from a local farmers' market, although I can't remember which one. The flour was ground at Mount Vernon's Grist Mill, and was probably grown in Lancaster, PA. All of the beer and wine we served was from Virginia.

If I can brag for a moment, I think dinner was a hit. We served the soups in shot glasses with demitasse spoons, and that presentation went over very well. I think people were surprised at how much you could do shopping locally, which was the point of the dinner aside from just eating good food.

Grow, Baby, Grow

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I haven't been able to get much in the ground yet. This past weekend, I finally came home to the frame for a raised bed, but haven't been able to get the soil for it yet. I did plant a lemon thyme border around the patio today, planted a bay laurel in a very large pot, and sowed three types of beans, Japanese climbing cucumbers, rainbow swiss chard, and lettuce (yes, I know it's late, but I didn't have the bed until today and it is heat resistant lettuce).

In other news, I learned how to wash wool this weekend, as well as watching a sheep shearing, at my new place of employment, Mount Vernon. So now I'm up on the processes of wool...processing...from washing, to carding/combing, to spinning, to weaving. I skipped dying, but we'll do that in a couple of weeks.

I'm very in tune with all of the fields at Mount Vernon, even the ones that I didn't have a hand in. I was happy to see the potatoes finally poking their topknots out of the soil after a great deal of delay, and the flax and the buckwheat are certainly flourishing. A few plants even made it home with me: horehound, feverfew, and caraway. I'm hoping to score a few tobacco plants just for decorative purposes as well.

New Job and the Garden

I was a history major in college, and have always been semi-obsessed with history. It's partially how I ended up so interested in homesteading, along with wanting a more sustainable way of life. And so, I ended up with a summer job at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home.

I'm now a week into the job, and I have turned two massive piles of compost, planted a wheat field, made fish nets, filled a raised bed, and cooked with wild chives that I picked on the estate. Quite the skill set, I must say. We have four acres that we're working on, as well as a gristmill about three miles down the road, and we do every step of the process. Come July, we'll harvest the wheat and start treading it in the barn, then take it over to the mill (the mill cheats a little bit and supplements with purchased grain). We're also growing potatoes, corn, oats, buckwheat (which will just be plowed under as green manure), cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, herbs for different uses, and also cotton and tobacco (mostly for demo purposes). Right now, everything that needs to be in the ground is already planted, without much need for maintenance, so we're making fish nets. We'll hopefully be going fishing in the next couple of weeks, wading in the Potomac. We may or may not just do catch and release.

Next month, we'll be shearing the sheep, then washing, combing, dyeing, and spinning. I think the weaving comes in September. I'm pretty excited, and hoping I can score some of the reddish brown wool from some of the Hog Island sheep. I made friends with one of the rams yesterday. They may be dumb, but they are cute. They're just so wooly this time of year! (This hasn't diminished my taste for lamb one bit).

In my own garden, things are starting to happen. I have lots of small seedlings that I'm hoping will survive: Arkansas Traveller tomatoes, Old Virginia tomatoes, Rutgers tomatoes (all heirlooms, and the first two are supposed to do well in heat and be split-resistant, a big problem here); red and white cabbage; marigolds, nasturtiums, and tansy. I also had a great big shipment of plants come yesterday, a bunch of culinary herbs and creeping thymes for a border, as well as kale and leeks. I'm pretty excited for the bounty of the harvest both here and at work!

I'm Dreaming of a Green Garden

I've mentioned my garden a couple of times. This is my third year attempting gardening as an adult.

Year One:

• Jalapeno pepper plant in a pot on the front doorstep flourished and we ended up using the dehydrator we got as a wedding gift to dry many of them, which we used powdered in recipes.
• Tomatoes in the backyard were underwatered and understaked. We got a few, but most rotted on the vine due to neglect, as we never went in the backyard.
• Herbs in pots in the house did alright for awhile, but died due to over and underwatering.
• I was unsuccessful in starting anything from seed since I had no idea what I was doing.

Year Two:

• Jalapeno pepper plant moved in its pot to the backyard. Since I forgot to replace the soil, there weren't enough nutrients and the peppers were stunted. Still fairly successful.
• Bell pepper plan produced a few fruits, but not many.
• Leeks went ok, except for not enough soil and too close together in pots.
• Basil did great in its larger pot.
• I did better at watering, but the massive amounts of rain in the spring drowned a couple of things.
• We planted scallions and cut them all summer.
• Charles built a patio from used bricks and we spent much of the late summer on the patio, and all the plants got more attention than before.

Year Three:

• I'm getting a little ambitious. I've already started some seeds for houseplants as practice. Chamomile, basil, forget-me-nots (probably will go outside) and marjoram are all doing well. Parsley is poking its head out. These were all leftover seeds with varying viability. Some of them did not start, but I blame their age instead of my neglect. I'm using grow lights, watering them regularly but not overwatering, and generally being a good plant mommy.
• The garden is planned, but we might have a hitch in the replacement of the fence depending on the budget. We'll see what happens.
• Assuming all goes well, we'll have the following:
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Kale
• Leeks
• Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Dried Beans
• Rainbow Chard
• Onions
• Carrots?
• Strawberries
• Jalapenos
• Cabbage
• Cucumbers
• Lettuce

Now, we're not starting all of that from seed. Some are plants or cuttings. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at preserving, by pickling some of the cucumbers and making sauerkraut. And of course, dried beans. We'll also have a wide variety of herbs and edible flowers, if all goes well. I'll also dry/freeze some of the produce for the winter.

Our apples come from a local orchard where we go apple picking every fall. Apples store well in the fridge, although they get a bit wrinkly. We eat fresh apples for awhile, and when they get wrinkly, we switch to using them for cooking, applesauce, and apple butter. We also use honey from the same orchard's apiary.

I can't wait until we have enough space to have our own orchard and a few chickens. That's about all I want out of life, although Charles would also like a goat.

Garden

With two feet of snow outside, sometimes I despair of the day ever coming when I will actually have a garden. All the same, tomorrow marks eight weeks until the last frost date, so I am trying to keep up hope. Then again, this has been such a wacky winter that I am a bit worried that frosts will persist past that date.

The eight weeks mark means another thing though: it means that it's time to start seeds. I had already practiced a bit by starting seeds for herbs meant to be house plants to keep us going all year, and maybe give us some fresh herbs before spring is fully settled in. Back in January, I sowed German chamomile, sweet marjoram, oregano, chives, parsley, basil, rosemary, and forget-me-nots, which I just happened to have lying around. All of the seeds were from past years, so besides being practice, I wanted to know what was viable before I actually started seeds for the garden. The German chamomile sprouted very quickly, just as it was supposed to, and is growing quite well. The parsley had the longest germination period, but is finally poking its head out of the soil. Unfortunately, it seems that the oregano, chives, and rosemary were not viable. On the other hand, they are part of a plant package that I ordered, so I'm not too bummed about it.

Today, I started the first seeds that will be transplanted outside when the weather improves. We use a lot of tomatoes around here, so I started nine plants, all heirlooms. Four are Old Virginia, four are Arkansas Traveller, and one is Rutgers, which was a freebie from the seed company. I also planted Bullnose peppers, an intriguing variety that has sweet flesh but hot ribs. I started pot cilantro, vital for all the salsa that I plan on making this summer.

Using a heat propagation tray, I started Danish Ballhead cabbage and Red Danish cabbage. The Red will probably be pickled and served at the table, but I plan on using the Ballhead for sauerkraut, a superfood. Also in the tray, I started a different variety of basil, which hopefully will end up decorating our front yard. I also had ordered a seed set of edible flowers, consisting of: calendula, heartsease (AKA Johnny-Jump-Up), nasturtiums, borage, and citrus marigolds. In the non-edible category, I started French marigolds, which supposedly help repel nasty insects like mosquitos. Here's hoping, since we had a bit of a mosquito problem last year.

I'm impatiently awaiting the delivery of a few more seeds: a purple basil named Rosie, some wild bergamot destined for my teacup, and bell pepper seeds. Later on, after our last frost date, some plants will arrive: kale, leeks, and a big selection of herbs. We'll round out our garden with plants from our farmers' market when it opens in May.

That is, if this snow ever decides to melt.

Lent

My husband and I are not particularly religious people, although we both grew up going to church. I always participated in Lent, however, feeling that it was a good exercise in self-control while being easy to explain to people. No one questions your reasons if you tell them you gave something up for Lent.

This year we had talked about boycotting chain stores, but after much research and planning, found that it would be far too expensive for our humble budget, mostly in the food category. I can give up a lot of things, but not food. This morning, with Lent just around the corner, we made a new plan. We will give up the middle of the grocery store. Specifically, we will give up buying foods with unintelligible labels and stick to the sorts of things Michael Pollan would define as food. With no Sunday cheating. We had already given up high fructose corn syrup for our New Year's resolution, so this is really just taking that to a new level.

It would be a lot easier if our garden would be ready, but of course, with three feet of snow on the ground, we're stuck buying food. We'll just buy food that's good for us.

Yogurt

I've been wanting to make yogurt for awhile, but was a bit intimidated by the idea of having to maintain an exact temperature, or even go out and buy tools. A friend uses a heating pad to make hers, but I didn't really even want to buy that.

Then I read on No Impact Man's blog about making yogurt without worrying about an exact temperature. And yesterday, I tried it.

1. Heat a quart of milk until it starts to boil. Shut it off before it boils over.
2. Let it cool until you can leave your pinky in it for ten seconds without it burning. At least, those were the original instructions. I actually did use a thermometer for this part, and waited until it cooled to 116 degrees, the recommended temperature accorded to my dairy book.
3. In a small bowl, large enough to hold two cups and stir, add 2 tablespoons of yogurt with live cultures (you can also add a yogurt starter. Yogurt with live cultures is labeled). Whisk until smooth.
4. To the yogurt, add two cups of the milk and whisk until combined. This is now your starter.
5. Slowly pour the starter into the milk, whisking slowly.*
6. Pour into containers, seal, and put in a warm place covered by a towel overnight.

So, the warm place was the issue for me. We keep our house at 65 degrees, and it definitely has cooler spots. I'd been baking bread earlier, and I had monitored the cooling of the oven, opening it to let some of the hot air out and closing it to hold the rest in. I liked the idea of using heat that had already been generated and served a purpose. I put the yogurt in with the oven right about 116 degrees, turned off but with the light on, and covered it with a towel. I happened to leave the thermometer in until this morning, and it was still 70 degrees.

I didn't leave the yogurt overnight, but took it out after about 8 hours. My book had recommended at least 6. It looked like a good consistency when I took it out. Perhaps my experiment had worked!

This morning, I took it out of the fridge, and scooped some into a bowl to mix with some granola made from scratch at the bakery that I used to work at. The consistency was definitely perfectly creamy and thick. And it tastes great, although I definitely could have added a bit more vanilla. Goodbye, store-bought yogurt. I love mixing vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit or granola, so this is just about all I need. I can't wait to mix fresh fruit in this summer!

*I also added a teaspoon of vanilla at this step.

DIY Dry Erase Board and Shopping Bags

We've been working on planning the garden, and I've been trying to keep track of when things need to be planted, when they should germinate, etc. So, I really wanted a whiteboard to write all this one, so it was more visual than being written in a notebook, and all in one place. But, I didn't want to buy a whiteboard new. I looked on CL, and they all cost a bunch of money. So, I did a search for DIY dry erase board, and found out that you can use dry-erase markers on Plexiglass. Which we happen to have sitting in our basement. So, that's going to get screwed to some sort of frame and hung. Excellent.

In our hall closet, we have a ton of old plastic bags. We use some of them to pick up after Genny, but a large number of them have holes in them. I've heard of people knitting them into reusable totes, so that's what I'm going to try to do. I found a couple patterns to try out. My knitting is only so-so, so I'll see how that goes.

Keeping Up With The Joneses

Most of the time, I would not consider myself a materialistic person. It took a long time for me to start caring about clothes and makeup, and even now, I'm a pretty minimalist person. In the winter, you're most likely to find me wearing either a button-down, sweater, or sweatshirt. But, I feel a lot of social pressure to care more, and I feel self-conscious enough that sometimes I give in to fashion. I'd rather just braid my hair and have it out of the way and mess with a straightener, but I compromise by blow drying my hair from time to time. Aside from the fact that I really do love shoes, most of the time my wardrobe stresses come from what other people will think. I know it's silly, but I can't help it. I love the people that I work with, but there are quite a few who spend a lot of money and time on appearance, and I feel pressure to fit in with those ideals some times, and feel guilty sometimes that I don't spend enough time at the gym.

In my moments of sanity, I realize that's ridiculous. My favorite people at that job don't care what I look like, as long as its professional, and I hate the gym. Granted, I want to go on the elliptical to get in shape for a 5k I'm running with some students, without being too hard on my knees, but I'd rather be gardening, or going for a walk, or a hike, or a bike ride. After all, going to the gym isn't very green or efficient. You aren't actually accomplishing anything other than burning calories by running on a treadmill that's using up lots of electricity. Like I said, you'll probably see me on the elliptical before May, but that might just be to get exercise despite the snow that will probably be on the ground until then.

My plan to feel fashionable without breaking the bank is to head to a nice consignment shop and pick up a few more classic pieces. I also plan to shop there for upcoming weddings and high school reunions. Reuse and don't break the bank. Seems like a good plan to me!

No Impact Project

The No Impact Project is a weekly challenge, with each day being a step towards reducing your carbon footprint. It intrigued me when I read about it, because of course, it is impossible to live on this planet without having a carbon footprint, even if all you do is sit and breathe. But, reading about it, I thought that we could definitely do a week of this, and take elements from it all the time. The blogger who created the challenge actually did it for a whole year, and went a bit extreme, living without electricity for a year. I don't think I'm prepared to take my environmentalism quite that far.

Each day, a new step is introduced, to build on the previous day's step.

Here is my adapted schedule for the week of what I think we would do:
Sunday: Consumption
The basic idea: With the exception of food, buy nothing new. Make it yourself, borrow, or buy second-hand.
Here are the steps:

• Make your own beauty products. There are tons of resources online.
• Fix things that are broken instead of replacing them. This goes for clothing to: mend instead of replace.
• Make your own cleaning products. There are also tons of resources online for these.
• Shop in second-hand stores.
• If you have to buy new, look for green products and companies and things made from recycled materials.

Monday: Trash

The Basic Idea: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Here are the steps:

• Put together a no-trash travel kit. Food storage, beverage container for hot/cold, handkerchief or cloth napkin, utensils. All those things you usually would use and throw away while you're out.
• Use the bulk bins at the grocery store and bring your own containers and bags.
• Don't take a receipt or use it for scrap paper/lists.
• Don't buy things with a lot of packaging.
• Use rags instead of paper towels.
• Avoid printing or print double-sided.
• Recycle!
• Use scrap paper or dry erase boards to take notes instead of post-it notes.

Tuesday: Transportation

The Basic Idea: Give up your car.

Now this one is a big challenge for me. Charles already takes the train to work, and walks to and from the train station, so his impact is pretty small as far as commuting goes. But when I work and have class, the only way to get from one to the other in enough time is to drive. And in this snowstorm, we're having trouble walking anywhere. So here are our own steps. You should do your best to take it to the next level, or just do as much as you can. Anything is better than nothing. Plus, in addition to helping the environment, you get in better shape.

• Walk or ride your bike unless there is a legitimate time constraint. We have a Target across the street, and it is ridiculous that we ever drive there. Same for the shopping center a mile down the road.
• Take mass transit whenever possible, not just convenient.
• Carpool
• If you have to drive, take shortcuts and double up on errands. And keep your fuel efficiency up.

Wednesday: Food

The Basic Idea: Eat local, seasonal, and organic.

Clearly, this issue is the one closest to our hearts. We spend a lot of time talking about food and how to make it sustainable. It's why we're planting our whole yard in herbs and vegetables. It's a large part of why we want to eventually leave suburbia.

The steps:

• Decide what local means for you. Produced in this country, or within 100 miles?
• If you can't buy something local, like coffee, go for organic and fair trade options.
• Grow it yourself.
• Find farmers' markets, local butchers, and local farms to buy from.
• Limit your meat consumption. We aren't going to cut out our meat consumption entirely, but I do believe we should do our best to buy responsibly and cut out CAFO meat.
• Try substituting locally produced honey for sugar in recipes. Besides, there is some evidence that consuming local honey helps with seasonal allergies.
• Use locally produced butter instead of olive oil. You can even buy local wine in many places in the country.

Thursday: Energy

The Basic Idea: Eliminate or Mitigate

The Steps:

• Make a list of everything you have that uses energy. Figure out whether you are going to eliminate that item or mitigate its use.
• Turn things off and unplug them when you aren't using them.
• Turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer. Wear layers in the winter and take 30 second showers in the summer. Or go somewhere else with climate control, like a museum. Open your windows and let in some fresh air. (Not in the winter of course).
• Use natural light whenever possible.
• Try to time your day with the light. This is harder in the winter, but be sure to only use task lighting at night. Don't leave on lights in rooms that are empty. And of course, switch to CFLs.
• Spend less time online. Seriously. Write letters, get together, and spend less time messaging on Facebook. I'm guilty here.

Friday: Water

The Basic Idea: Use Less

The Steps:

• Run water gently. Turn it off when you aren't using it. Sponge bathe, especially on sticky summer evenings.
• Only use the dishwasher for full loads. Turn the faucet off while you're soaping.
• Use leftover cooking water for watering plants. If all you did was boil water, use it to wash things. You can also use grey water for flushing toilets.
• Reuse the same glass throughout the day.
• Take shorter, colder showers
• Only order water if you are going to drink it at restaurants. That said, it's the best choice.

Saturday: Give Back

The Basic Idea: Volunteer

Sunday: Eco-Sabbath

The Basic Idea: Turn it all off.

Go off the grid for the day and spend time with your family. And by off the grid, completely off the grid. At least, that's the suggestion. We'll probably still use our kitchen, because cooking is our family activity.

Philosophy

You know, this whole townhouse homesteading thing is becoming much more than just a hobby for me. It's really becoming a philosophy of the way that I live my life. Over the past few months, I've watched one movie and read several books that I've considered life-changing.

The movie was Food, Inc. This documentary about the food industry wasn't exactly anything new after the reading that I had done, but the images were especially powerful. I had seen a documentary about slaughterhouses before that made me temporarily vegetarian, but this went so much deeper. This was about the people, not about the animals, and that had a much greater impact on me. Because let's face it, to me, people are more important than animals. So, a system that exploits animals AND people has to be changed.

I read Michael Pollan's books The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. I also read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. All of these are incredible books for different reasons. Barbara Kingsolver helped me realize that I should do what I can, and not feel too guilty about what I can't do.

So, here is what I am doing:
-Planting as extensive an herb and vegetable garden as I can on our little plot of land
-Eating lots of vegetarian meals and fish.* We haven't given up meat entirely, or even meat "from the man." We're working on it.
-Planning on doing lots of shopping at the local farmers' markets.
-We've given up buying anything with high fructose corn syrup in it. We'll extend this list over time to get rid of things that came out of a lab as much as possible.
-I've stopped buying produce that comes from other countries, and fruits that are entirely tropical, such as bananas.

That's what we're doing. It's not perfect, and I still don't always recycle. But we're trying.

*Fish is another issue that I am not quite prepared to deal with. I'm rating my meat consumption a little bit on level of intelligence.

Gardening

So I've started a few seedlings, mostly for plants that are going to stay in the house. A second round of seeds will be started later for the outside garden. Right now, there are basil, marjoram, parsley, chives, chamomile, forget-me-not, and oregano seeds. The chamomile seeds are sprouting away and I will be thinning them out within the next day or two. The marjoram and forget-me-nots are beginning to pop their heads up as well.

The little green things are a highlight of my day, helping me through the next few weeks of winter.

Down on the Farm

Last weekend, I set aside years of aversion to what I thought was buttermilk. That is, I thought buttermilk was what you bought at the grocery store. In more recent months, I have learned that buttermilk sold at the store is actually a cultured sour milk.  My dad and a friend who grew up on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking had praised buttermilk as a beverage, and so, when I made butter last weekend, I took a sip. And another, and another, and another.  I could easily have consumed the two cups of buttermilk that were the result of making a pound of butter, only I shared the experience with friends.  

Since I discovered the joys of fresh butter, I have been finding all sorts of uses for buttermilk.  Pancakes, for example.  When our last box of Bisquick ran out, I vowed to not purchase anymore, instead putting together a homemade pancake mix that I have dubbed "Disquick." Using that with fresh buttermilk resulted in just about the best pancakes I have ever had.  

Today, I am about ready to make butter again, this time thinking I'm going to use some of the buttermilk to make cornbread with our home-grown jalapeno peppers.  They are the first produce to ripen in our yard, and much bigger than last year's peppers.  Soon to follow will be our sole bell pepper so far.  

Tonight's menu looks like the following:

Frittata with home-grown basil

Salad-home-grown lettuce and cherry tomatos with homemade dressing

Cornbread-locally grown and ground cornmeal, homemade butter and buttermilk, and home-grown jalapenos. 

I can't wait until the day we have chickens and can have fresh eggs!

Spinning and Butter

So I recently purchased a handmade pottery butter churn from the potter herself.  The old-fashioned kind, with a dasher. It's a 1/2 gallon churn, and works quite well for a quart of cream, which comes out to about a pound of butter and 2 cups of buttermilk.  I had made butter recently with a friend who has a similar churn, and found myself confident of being able to repeat the experience. The first time took place outside on a hot day with room temperature cream. With several people taking turns, it only took about ten minutes for cream to finish its magical transformation into smooth, creamy butter.  When I attempted it on my own, in the AC in front of an episode of the Tudors, it took nearly the whole episode.  But it was absolutely worth it, despite tired arms from the up-down motions.  The butter was extremely creamy, and of course, free of anything except cream.  It went delicious on homemade corn bread (the cornmeal came from a local historic mill that grinds with an 18th century water wheel, and the corn was local too!)  

My other new skill is spinning!  Yesterday, with a friend's drop spindle, I got a brief lesson in spinning.  A drop spindle is as if you took one piece off the spinning wheel (the part that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on, if you recall.) Instead of the wheel moving the spindle, you drop it and give it a flick, and the spinning of the spindle twists the wool into thread.  I started sewing about five years ago, and found this to be much easier to pick up, although of course I am no expert. It's extremely relaxing, and I will be making my own drop spindle, using a dowel and clay for weight.  

I am going to demonstrate both of these skills for my sixth-grade class this week as part of a lesson about how much daily life has changed from the time period that they studied in Social Studies this year (American History to 1877).  Ah the text messaging generation.

Foraging

As I've mentioned, I did a bit of foraging as a child. Berry-picking and chewing of sassafras roots, and so forth. My dad occasionally nibbled a blade of grass, more to make me giggle than for taste. My step-mother brought home puffball mushrooms from the woods once or twice. Seeing dandelions everywhere has made me think about possible uses for that supposed weed. Of course, one has to make sure they are not sprayed with pesticides (if only grocery store produce was guaranteed the same, without the organic pricetag).

The Fat of the Land is a blog after my own heart, all about urban foraging. He has recipes and hunting suggestions for fiddlehead ferns, dandelions, and mushrooms, as well as green weedy things I never knew the names of. I'm having visions of wild green salads, although the author recommends mixing wild greens with more familiar greens such as spinach for beginning foragers.

I'm also interested in making dandelion wine along with the fruit wines that I plan on making with the wild blackberries that grow on the side of the road near our little homestead. Dear Husband (DH) is somewhat dubious about this idea, preferring instead to brew his more familiar beers.

I learned about spring beauty on a field trip in elementary school. Not just a description, it is a little white flower with tubers similar to the potato, but smaller. I've been meaning to track some down for years, perhaps this is the year. The leaves are also edible, and were consumed by Native Americans.

Onion grass is one of those crazy weeds that takes over the yard. But is it edible? It certainly smells like the chives that it resembles.

Homemade Versus Store-Bought: Pasta Edition

Recession gardens.  Homemade food.  There is a lot of talk lately that going green is not only healthier and better for the environment, but also budget-friendly.  We're switching to a lot of homemade things in our diet around here, with the goal to eventually have a processed-food free pantry.  I've been making my own cookies for years, but it's time to take things a step further. I made marshmallows. Lately, I've been baking a lot of bread.  We've also started making our own pasta, and boy is it delicious!

We use American's Test Kitchen's recipe, which calls for 3 eggs and 2 cups of flour. You pulse the flour in a food processor and then add the eggs.  If the dough doesn't form a ball, you add a teaspoon of ice water at a time.  If it's too sticky, you add in a bit more flour. Then you let it sit for fifteen minutes before rolling it into sheets and then through the pasta cutter.  It doesn't get much easier than that.  Fresh pasta only needs to cook for about 3 minutes. We usually put the water on as soon as we start rolling the dough, and by the time the pasta is ready to go in the water, it's boiling. Pretty quick procedure. Takes maybe 3o minutes total. You can make a simple sauce while the pasta is resting. Take that, Rachel Ray!

So is it more budget friendly?

Let's compare to Safeway.

 1 lb. Safeway brand spaghetti: $1.25

We'll keep shopping at Safeway for our other ingredients, to keep things consistent.

Eggs: $1.99 per dozen

Flour:  $2.00 for 5 lbs. all-purpose flour

I think it's clear who is going to win this, but let's finish making our calculations, shall we?

Eggs come out to a total of about $0.50.  (1.99/12x3)

Flour comes out to about $0.40.  (2.00/1o cups x 2)

$0.90 for homemade spaghetti versus $1.25 for store brand spaghetti. Homemade wins!