'Maters 'n Mowin'

Did you see what I did in the title with the apostrophes? (or as my stupid undergrad students would have written: apostrophe's')

Anywho, I HAVE TOMATOES...see photo














That's my finger for size. Remember, I have giant man hands so it's pretty big. There are actually three tiny tomatoes on this potted one and one more on another.

Well, after the previous update, I went and checked the garden and it seems I boiled the tomato and pepper starts I'd planted by forgetting to vent the plastic cover on a 70 degree day. The OTHER plants/seeds loved it but the tomatoes and peppers looked bedraggled. And then they looked dead. So, I got more because I'd already planted the other starts in pots.

After pulling out countless squash starts from the vermicompost (last year I was just putting in the squash guts, seeds and all, now I sort out the seeds and toast them for snacks and Hammy treats and salad toppings. very nice) I realized that since that is what WANTS to grow in the garden perhaps I should stop fighting it. I've let one go. I don't know what kind of squash. Could be butternut, kobocha, delicata, acorn, or any one of the inadvertent hybrids they were selling cheap at the co-op. We'll see if it works out. What the hell.

I replanted peas and they've come up. The starts croaked either from the heat or because they don't like to be transplanted.

Of course once I got all the tomatoes and peppers in pots and things, it got cold. There has been a caravan of plants coming in and out of my trailer for the past week. Last few nights I've left them out and they are doing fine. When Jeanne and Elizabeth visited (HI!) they got to help. And we planted some flower pots just for fun. Jeanne even picked up some raspberry starts at our local plant hut in Plummer.

I added 2 buckets of potatoes. I'd like to plant two or three more potatoes but I'm short on buckets. I may have to sacrifice a rubber tub but since I'm not going to buy any more rubber tubs I'm leery of cutting holes in the ones I own. I'm working on acquiring no new plastic. It's a slow process but a rubber tub is a pretty big obvious and easy thing not to get. Also in pots are onions. We'll see. I had extra sets so I'm giving it a shot. More will go into pots tomorrow. The strawberries and mint in pots looks pretty good. The mint is a "chocolate mint" plant and smells most excellent.

That's about it for the garden update.

As for the "mowin'" portion of the title. It's been RAINING and RAINING and DRIZZLING. Since I have a reel mower like your great great grand father had, I can't mow wet grass unless I want to have a solid block of rust rather than a mower. AND I don't want to hire the lawn done. It's spendy and there is a system to me letting some grass get tall. I'm leaving a ring of tall grass between me and the roadways on three sides (two streets and an alley) and on the fence row with the neighbors. I want the seeds to blow around the yard and cover up some bare spots AND I want a bit of a filter to any run off coming my way. It can't hurt. It's already catching quite a bit of blowing detritus from the street. Not as many plastic bags in the lawn as usual, though there was a Mike's Hard Lemonade bottle on the street side, I don't think that blew in. Probably a walker from Bobbie's bar chucked it. I threw it out in the street. Oh well.

AND each time I see the lawn I mowed myself I think "There's 50$ still in the bank" and you know how I like to save money.

Anyway, ALSO 2 sets of plum pits I buried last fall are coming up quite nicely. I should probably thin them as there appear to be about 12 stems in each bunch. Very cool though. I don't expect to get much crop this year, but someday someone will have a lovely plum patch in that yard.

Other than that...the hummingbird battles are going full force around the feeder AND I'm seeing actual bees flying around this year. Very happy to have the pollinators back.

Quick Update

OK, Just a quick update on what's going on with the garden.

On Saturday I overdid the plan purchasing because they plants were CHEAP (and I ignored the sprouts that I meant to turn into starts so instead they turned into little moldy seeds in plastic bags...oops). ANYWAY, so I many peppers and tomatoes...a few more than planned but when you're getting a sturdy, already harden-off organic plant for a DOLLAR it's hard to stop.

I ended up spending about 6 hours Saturday afternoon planting and planting and planting. There were two empty squares left in the 4x9 square foot garden and then tons of pots with plants in them. So far only two plants have died. I sort of felt the roots give way when I was putting them in the ground and knew it wasn't going to be good. Still, it's just 2 tomatoes. I have time to replace those in the next few weeks. I may miss the farmer's market saturday...or I make make some effort and run up to it. I'll be dog sitting in Lewiston but must have priorities with the plants.

Each tomato plant also got a bit of crushed eggshell in the bottom of the hole. I'd heard this extra calcium will prevent blossom end rot. I'll let you know.

I am having to buy ever more dirt. There just is no dirt in my yard. I hate the pile of plastic bags this generates so some lucky soul may receive a lovely braided rug made of plastic garden dirt bags.

The potatoes in a bucket are looking great. All planted buckets (there are more potatoes...see above noted lack of dirt), have leaves and one is ready to have dirt piled up on the leaves. Woohoo! Hope they are making little tubers too. These are noted "heavy feeders" so have quite a bit of worm compost in them. The worm compost has quite a few squash and melon seeds in it. Many of these are sprouting! I thought they'd all sprouted and been re-killed while in the composter but I guess not. Fortunately they look nothing like potato leaves and are easy to sort out. There is quite a bit of worm compost in the garden as well so may have to sort them out of there too.

I put in 3 squares of onions and am again trying the chard which went to seed so fast last year I didn't get much out of it.

The pots so far have tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and chocolate mint. All seem to be doing well.

The pea plants I put in too early either dehydrated or over hydrated. At anyrate, they appear mostly dead so I planted new peas.

Also in the garden are:
Beans Parsley Calendula Radishes Kale
Spinach and much much more.

I keep meaning to get the carrots going in buckets but with the lack of dirt they aren't started yet. Must get on that.
That's all for now.

Houston...We Have Potatoes

Well, not "potatoes" so much as evidence of potato plants being alive.
Maybe the title should be "IT'S ALIIIIIVE!"

I was checking out the garden after work today. Two of the potato buckets (one of which is a plant pot but that doesn't have the same ring as "bucket") have evidence of something growing in them. Leaves are coming up. Pretty exciting.

The peas I transplanted into the garden are not doing fabulous. One or two might live of the pack of 4 I got for $1.99. The parsley plant is doing OK and the parsley seed I planted with it seems to have taken. We'll see if it lives.

The two tomato plants and pepper plant I got a week or two ago are doing OK in the house. I'm planning on planting them outside tomorrow if it looks like the weather will hold. I don't want to over do the planting sine I need to be out of town next weekend, but still, I'm going to plant almost everything if I can get the plants to do it, and then work on a little greenhouse arrangement with the plastic and the wire fencing from last year. Here's hoping it will be OK.

If I can get a picture of the potato plants I'll post it. Today it would have just looked like areas of slightly different dark stuff in the dirt.

Now for a relaxing evening with Hedwig and the Angry Inch. A lovely film.

Kitchenware follow-up

OK, Given the great response to my previous post...one comment and one email...to me that is pretty heavy traffic, I'm following up with my own analysis of what it takes to start a kitchen, assuming you have the appliances.

One of the biggest errors in the folks proposing the low low price of 220$ for kitchen essentials was not knowing the difference between a "need" and a "want"...you need some sort of "knife". You may "want" a good chef's knife but I've cooked the majority of my own meals for 25 years and only gotten a good chef's knife last christmas (which I promptly used to nearly remove the tip of one finger...but those potatoes and onions were well chopped).

You need a knife. I've gotten by at various times with a steak knife or serrated "ginsu" type knife. These are reasonably versatile. Small enough to peel a potato (though I no longer peel potatoes...too wasteful) and cut out the eyes (I still do that) and big enough to cut up a decent sized squash or onion. You can dice anything from a clove of garlic up to a jicama.
One knife at the goodwill in Moscow Idaho will set you back 50cents to one dollar.
If you're feeling rich, also get a paring knife. It's nice to have a little knife for small jobs and to take in the cooler (though again, the steak knife or "ginsu" will fit in there too).. That might be another 50cents.

You need silverware to eat off of. If you live alone, one set will do. One set per person is plenty. Just do the dishes. A set of silverware for 4 goes for $1.99 at the Value Village in Spokane Valley. At 10cents per item in Moscow Goodwill or the other Moscow thrift store, you could get a set for 4 people for $1.20.

Dishes. You'll need a plate and bowl for each person OR a sort of stew plate for each person. The Classy Rack in Spokane Valley sells dishware for 25cents each. The stew plates are hard to find so splurge and get a plate and bowl per person at 50cents per person. Don't bother with plastic dishware items, they get ruined and leave plastic bits in your food. Get corel (remember with the flowers around the edge?), some sort of china or pottery, pyrex type glass, or enameled metal. The plates can double as cutting boards in a pinch so try to get plates without a major lip or edge to them.

Cups are good. Currently cups and glasses are going for around 25cents each at most local thrift shops. I'd start with a coffee cup or mug for each person. It's easier to drink cold water out of a mug than hot coffee out of a glass.

You'll need pans and bowls to cook in.
The fancy "three in one" steamer pan recommended in the video with pasta insert is cute. I've had a few over the years. The pasta insert mostly made the pasta boil over and I never once steamed vegetables or anything over cooking broth or pasta. If you're making broth, you put the vegetables in it and call it soup. ALSO, neither the insert nor the steamer make a decent colander which you WILL want if you eat fruit or pasta or cook dry beans (all very frugal items). So skip that three-in-one item.

You need one big pan, 4 or 6 quarts, to boil pasta, make big batches of beans, chili, soup, stew, and so on. It's best if it has a lid, but a plate will usually fit on it (this is another good reason NOT got get plastic dishes). If not, use a bit of tinfoil doubled up and KEEP the tinfoil for reuse until you get something permanent. When the foil is too beat up to use as a pan lid, you can use it around the edges of your pies.
That big pan will set you back anywhere from $3-10 depending on quality. If possible, get stainless steel or enameled steel or enameled iron. I've used aluminum as well though this reacts with acidic foods and is probably not ideal. Still, better to get an aluminum pan for a couple of bucks and use it until you find something better, then sell it or re-donate it, than to buy something for full price. The THIN enamelware pans are workable for a while, but will tend to scorch things. If you get these, set them inside the skillet (see below) to help distribute heat when cooking fragile things.

A smaller sauce pan. As much as I've tried over the years, it is hard to cook 4 cups of something in a 6 quart pot. It gets too thin and overheats too quickly and doesn't fit on the small burner well so you end up wasting food (burnt) and energy (by using the big burner). A 1 to 2 quart sauce pan, same materials warnings as above, is good. These are currently running $3-5 at Moscow thrift stores. If you find a double boiler, get it because you get two sauce pans often for the price of one.

You'll need a skillet (fry pan) as well. Unless you never fry anything. Eggs, homemade pancakes, fried potatoes, and mixed leftover veggie hash are very frugal meals so get one anyway. I have a nice cast iron frying pan with a lid. This is ideal, but honestly, skip the new iron stuff. It is so hard to season. I have a griddle I got years ago that still rusts a couple of times a year. If you cook with a wood stove or have some other constant source of heat to really drive the moisture out of the pores in the metal every day, then you may be able to season a new one without monstrous effort. BUT, you don't "need" the cast iron version.
These are hard to find at thrift stores. Try yard sales. I just paid 25$ or so to replace the pan not including the lid with another antique after busting the original (still mad about that).
A decent stainless steel frying pan can be had at area thrift stores for about $8. A pan about 10" is best. A lid is nice, but again, you can use a plate or foil or pizza pan (25cents at the thrift store). DO NOT GET ANYTHING WITH A PLASTIC OR WOODEN HANDLE! You'll want to use this in the oven. Avoid the non-stick, especially low-cost nonstick, fry pans (for that matter, I don't like any non-stick pans) if you want to avoid toxic gases and having to throw the pans out when the non-stick portion comes off and starts leaving bits in your food...gross. More oil will do less harm to your body. Also, don't scrub your cast iron or steel frying pans out with harsh soaps (e.g. dish soap). Just hot water and a good scrubby will do the trick. Then dry thoroughly and heat a little on a low burner for a few minutes.

Aside: Sometimes you'll get lucky. While shopping for pots and pans to use for my summers in Idaho back when I was living in Iowa, I came across an old (1950s?) set of camping pans that all nested together: 6 quart pan, 2 quart pan and 1 quart pan all with lids, a 10 inch frying pan and a 6 inch frying pan with an interchangable (and removable for oven use) handle). The WHOLE SET was $2! I'm still using all of them and it's been 13 years or so. They are aluminum so shouldn't use them with reactive items but these and my iron frying pan and one baking sheet were all the pans I brought to Spokane and used for 2 years and they got me through all my summers here and are still my main camping pans. The smallest has a hole due to cooking too much tomato sauce in it (reactive) and the middle sized is currently used to collect coffee grounds at work since it has a tight lid and a bale handle for carrying. The grounds go into one of my composters. So those who know me and know I have 3 or 4 kitchens worth of stuff, I can and do often just use the basics as outlined here.


So far we've spent, assuming the high prices for everything and a stainless steel fry pan:
.50 (knife)
.50 (paring knife...we're living it up)
1.99 (set of silverware for 4 people)
2.00 (bowl and plate for each of 4 people)
2.00 (cup or glass for each of 4 people)
10.00 (big pan)
5.00 (small pan)
8.00 (fry pan)
SUBTOTAL: $29.99

Now for a few other things that are NICE but not entirely necessary:

A big bowl to mix things in. Like cakes ...
(here's the world's best chocolate cake and it's cheap too:
1.5 cups of flour
1 cup sugar
3 T cocoa powder (NOT chocolate milk mix people)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
Mix that together. A fork works as well as anything.
Make 3 pits in these try ingredients.
Into each pit put one of these:
1 tsp vanilla
5 T oil (corn, canola, whatever...olive oil isn't the best but a light olive can be used)
1 T vinegar (I've used white, rice, apple cider and all were good...probably avoid balsamic)

Over all put 1 cup cold water and pretty well.

Pour in greased and floured pan...your skillet will work just fine as long as you avoided the plastic handle)
Bake at 350 for about a half hour. When a toothpick or your knife comes out clean, it's ready.
Let cool and enjoy. I don't bother with frosting.)

OK, anyway, you CAN mix up cakes and fruit salads and regular salads and etc in your two sauce pans or even the skillet.

You can bake brownies and casseroles in the small sauce pan and the skillet.
You can use the pans to store stuff in the fridge.

But if you want to get fancy, you'll want, not really "need," bowls to mix, save, and serve things in.
A nice big bowl to mix up bread (sour dough is very thrifty, easier to digest, and may contain healthy enzymes...also, delicious) is good to have. Mine is a 10 or 12 quart enamelware bowl. Again, avoid aluminum or any unknown metal as it will react with too many fruits, vinegars, juices, and etc. You'll end up with a blackened mass rather than a nice dough or salad. Glass and stainless steel are also good. Pottery works well.
I haven't seen a big bowl at thrift store lately other than cheap plastic. That was going for $1.
This bowl will also work for salad, popcorn (which you will be making in your big pan), or anything in large quantities.

A smaller bowl or two for serving vegetables and sauces at meals and/or storing things in the fridge. You can use soup/cereal bowls at 25cents each, or find slightly larger bowls. I recently bought one at thrift store (because it was very nice pottery and was made with Mt St. Helen's ash!) for 5$. This was a splurge. I would expect a similar sized, about 1.5 quarts, bowl to be 2-3$ if it were not a specialty item.

A cutting board is nice as well. You can use the plates, but you'll have more space on a cutting board. There are TONS of perfectly good wooden cutting boards at all the area thrift stores. An older board without too many deep cuts is best. If the board is made from mature wood, there are generally some naturally antimicrobial features to the wood. Clean them with lemon juice and salt in a mix. This is a strong acid and will kill anything gross. Then put a tiny bit of cooking oil on them and wipe it around. I have plastic boards right now which I enjoy for the light weight and ease of rinsing, but after 3 years they are wearing out and one has some sort of mildew living in the little holes where holders go. Ick. Back to wood. There are some nice glass ones out there too. The wooden ones are very common at thrift stores so are very cheap. Last week I saw a "butcher block" style board for $3.

If you want to get fancy with the mixing, get a wooden spoon. I just got a bamboo one in the original packaging at a thrift store for $1. Regular wooden spoons are going for 50cents.

Another very nice item to have is a colander. Good for washing greens, fruits, veg; draining beans, pasta, boiled potatoes (drain into the big bowl and use the water for the garden or the soup you are making); and much much more. A colander that fits reasonably well into the big pan will double as a steamer. Colanders and similar items are going for about $2 at the St. Vincent de Paul store in Coeur d'Alene.

If you're going to make your own bread, you'll need something to bake it on. The fry pan will work just fine. It also works for corn bread, cakes, fruit breads (double the recipe), and some casseroles. The small pan will work for other casseroles. If you want to get fancy and do bars and cookies, you CAN use the fry pan, but will have better luck with baking pans. My most useful baking pans are 2 9X13s with slide on metal lids which double as cookie sheets and I cook round loaf breads on them. You can't get those anymore. I got mine from Gramma. So, my next most used pans are just a basic 9x13, a pizza pan (for baking round breaks, cookies, etc) and an 8x8 pan for smaller recipe brownies and cakes.
At St. Vinny's these are all going for $1 each. St. Vincent's is a good thrift store for pots pans and dishes. Most of their donors appear to be older and church going so they donate nice cooking items and often very nice dishes in mass quantities. It's not great for clothes unless you need industrial strength polyester.
Anyway, a good starter set of pans is a 9X13, a cookie sheet or pizza pan and an 8X8.

A pancake turner, big metal spoon for serving soup (you've been using one of your mugs up until now), a slotted spoon for stirring and skimming soups and stews and beans, a big fork for testing meat or dealing with things on the grill and some tongs are all nice to have along with a rubber scraper for getting the last dough out of the bowl or peanut butter out of the jar. These sorts of utensils go for 50cents at the Moscow Goodwill.

1.oo Big plastic bowl
3.00 small glass/steel/china bowl
.50 2 soup bowls for serving
3.00 cutting board
1.00 wooden spoon
2.00 colander
3.00 3 baking pans
2.50 (big spoon, slotted spoon, pancake turner, big fork, rubber scraper)
SUBTOTAL: $16.00
TOTAL TOTAL: 29.99 + 16 = 45.99
That's WAY less than the 220$ proposed on the interwebs and I think it's a more useful kitchen set.

You can do better, cheaper, than this if you know ahead of time that you will need kitchenwares. Many older relatives will have kitchen supply buildup and be willing to donate a few items. Even if they are donating some odd things, thank them and take it. You can use a fancy china bowl to mix cake as well as a cheap one, just be careful. And if you have time to shop yard sales you can get whole boxes of items for super cheap.

Beyond this, we're all probably accumulating stuff for fun. No crime in that.

One item I got that saved enough labor and energy to justify its cost is a rice cooker. It was $6 at the Spokane Value Village. It's a smaller one and makes white rice in 20 minutes. Brown rice in 45. BUT it uses way less energy than the stove to do this and comes out consistently good. I usually make a full measure of rice (6 cups cooked) and take out whatever I need to go with the main dish for that meal and the left overs. Then, put some nut milk (usually almond but hazel nuts are nice as a milk too) along with the nut-remains in with some spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, anything good in a pie) and a bit of sweetner (agave syrup, honey or sugar depending on what I have) and some dried fruit (craisins, crystalized ginger, goji berries) and whatever else suits my fancy, and let it sit on the "warm" setting with the lid on until it becomes rice pudding-like. It's a good breakfast. The cooker has an insert with lid that come out so I only dirty the one pan for the two meals. You can also steam a few veggies on top of the rice during the last 15 minutes of cook time if you don't use the full measure of rice. This also avoids heating up the house by using the stove.

My george forman grill was a good deal because it was a gift. Also saves on energy and effort. I've taken it to hotels during extended stays to make delicious grilled veggies and burgers (buffalo or veggie) rather than spending my perdiem on overly fatty salted stuff. We get 45$ per diem per day for work travel and on one week long trip I spent maybe 5$ per day by bringing the g.f. grill to make suppers, and a hot pot to make thermos soup for lunch. A week's stay netted me a 200$ profit in per diem.

I have not become an avid toaster oven user like some, though I've tried. I don't usually cook in small enough quantities to fit in a toaster oven. If you can use one, it will save energy and avoid heating up the house.

I use many other items, some high-priced, but they really aren't necessities.

What the ....? People waste tons of money and it bugs me

SO, on this online "thrifty" thing there was an article about how to set up a kitchen for only 220$ on sale and have everything you need.
You can see the article and the video here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/economybites/top-10-essential-items-fo_b_553270.html
But don't bother.

SERIOUSLY! They recommend buying a set of 10 items for the low low price of 220$.
I was thinking "Yeah, you can get a fridge and stove for about 100 each and 90 for all the silverware dishes, and pots-n-pans sounds about right" but NO. That is just for a measuring cup, a couple of pans, a few bowls, a wooden spoon and the like. They assume you already have a kitchen full of appliances.

How in the hell could you spend 290$ AND think it was a deal? That's an average of 22$ per item.

Here's how to set up a kitchen for a truly frugal price:

Step 1: Figure out what you actually cook on a regular basis and what you need to do that (not "want"..."need").
Step 2: Figure out what you have that will help in you cook 90% of the time. For example when I got the current rental trailer it didn't come with appliances but the landlords decided to let me have their old beer fridge and a cheap stove. Most of the problem was solved (later, the fridge died and I got a smaller more efficient one at the scratch-n-dent room of an appliance store).

Step 3: Look at the list of needs again and cross off what you don't really need. (For example if you wrote "set of silverware for 8...if you live alone you really only NEED a fork, knife and spoon to get started).

Step 4: Check with older relatives who've had houses going for years. Take what they offer even if it isn't exactly what you need. And say thank you.

Step 5: Look at the list one more time. You can probably cross off most stuff. If you needed a cast iron frying pan but got a stainless steel one, call it good and cross that off. You can get a cast iron one some other day and then give away or sell the stainless steal one.

Step 6: Go to yardsales and thrift stores. You'll get most of what you need and often find out in the interim that you don't need other items.

Somewhere in those steps, also remember to ask for these items for holidays and birthdays.

Some tips:

For appliances, watch for people moving out of houses. They may be happy to get rid of a fridge rather than move it three states away (and they will have a truck sitting there).
Then try just asking around work if anyone is upgrading a kitchen.
Remember that you can get by with a toaster oven and an electric fry pan...or just the fry pan.
An electric hotpot can be used to make many things including steamed vegetables if you put a collander on the top.
Your neighbors have appliances and might let you borrow them for the occasional event (need to make cookies for an event and have no oven? Make one extra pan for the neighbor who let you use their stove). There is no reason everyone on the block needs a fondu pot. No one uses one of those every day. Just share.

You do not need the best stainless steel bowls and pyrex measuring cups. Any bowl will work and that set of 4 cups for 25cents at the yard sale will measure just as well.
You do not need a professional stew pot for making your own chicken stock because you have never cooked a whole chicken and had bones for stock anyway.

Who the hell would think "I'm poor so I better spend 290$ for 10 kitchen items"...
If you are that poor call me. I'll get you all the items they listed and more, pack them and ship them and you still won't be out 50$.

Perhaps I need to give up the internet as well as the TV. It seems to be making me angry.

Santa Fe and stuff

We had a very groovy time in Santa Fe! The house (which is for sale...) was a hoot. Not the decor I would pick, but lovely all the same. I especially liked the tiny kiva style fireplace in the kitchen. It was high enough that the kitchen table could be pushed up in front of it. It was also small enough that the fire burned out quickly. A fire over breakfast is now a priority for the house I'll build someday.

Three bedrooms and two bathrooms worked out pretty well. Pam and I did not have an outside window which was sort of odd. The porch the window used to open onto had been enclosed so our window opened onto that room rather than actual out of doors.

The Iowa troop had plane issues on the way and ended up arriving late. Pam apparently fell directly into bed (we shared a room). In the morning I was already up and about before she came back to life. She apparently thought that there were TWO windows onto the sunroom so when I came through the one that is really a door she said "what the hell!" thinking I'd walked through a wall. That was funny.

We did several days in Santa Fe. A day at Marcie's in Cochiti Lake (Jerry regaled us with the funniest story anyone had heard in recent years) where we enjoyed a salad so good we had it 2 more times before we left.

A day in Taos was lovely with excellent food and shoppery. We also spotted the "Wagner Casita"! A holiday rental home. I checked it out on line and it is really 3 little houses in a compound. All are too small and too expensive for us. Oh well. It would have been amusing. Perhaps we'll see the "Brown House" or the "Sperry Arms" or, best of all "The Baskerville Inn" for the next reunion. Hilch thinks we should do it again in 2 years.


And, and update: I decided to take a week off from technology for "Earth Day" (it was the 40th anniversay of Earth Day). It was odd. I did well for 3 days and obviously couldn't avoid technology at work. It was nice to come home and not just turn on some distraction so I hope to keep taking a day off here and there on some regular basis. On Friday I added 20square feet to my garden for a total raised bed of 36 square feet (4X9). I used scrap wood that was lying around the yard and had roughly the right dimensions. I only had to cut one board. It doesn't look too bad considering it's free. I've got 2 pots and 2 buckets of potatoes going on the shabbier end to cover things up (though camouflaging a tatty garden edge with mismatched pots and 5gallon buckets is probably not the direction that most people would go). I did spend about 50$ for good organic container mix soil to fill the new part of the garden. If I want to get a whole parking space sized garden going this year I don't have nearly enough dirt. I'll need more for the containers too.

My attempt at sprouting and starting my own plants when no where since I forgot about the sprouts and they molded in their plastic bags. Oh well. I bought a parsley plant and 4 sweet pea plants today (yes...I know peas don't transplant well) which were on sale (yes, probably because they are crap) just to get something green going in the garden. I can't wait for tomatoes to be available. I'll probably get some radishes and greens and beets going this week. I think carrots can go in too.

The bad news...I can't find my garden notebook where I had a plan drawn. Oh well. I'll make one online or start a new notebook. Once it's too late to bother I'm sure I'll find the one I lost.

That is all.

Food on the Table Conference Redux

about 10 days ago I got to go to the "Food on the Table" conference/workshop in Moscow. It was quite lovely. VERY good cake and you know I like a bit of cake.

Anyway, it was about local food, food security, and how to help people produce their own (not all of it, but some). Quite interesting things were pointed out.
Like almost every county in Idaho and Washington in the 1940s had at least one dairy and at least one food cannery or other commercial food processing plant that dealt with locally or regionally produced food. Now, there are just a handful of dairies and canneries or food-processing factories in these states.

There used to be over 100 different fruits and vegetables produced for the market in Idaho. Now, just a few. Sometime between 1940 and now it became unsexy to produce food for people in the area. This is true pretty much across the country. There are a few producers who market directly but no more vegetable canneries working with that local produce. There's a dairy in Spokane. That's about it. They estimated that in Latah County (Moscow's area where the conference was) there could be 140+ permanent jobs if people spent just 25% of their food money on locally produced goods and that demand was met locally. It's not huge, but it's a start.

We had a local baker bring the bread. It was awesome. He uses locally produced flour. We also heard from one of the flour producers. It's actually odd that we no longer know the people who make our food. People used to. When did it change?
When did the farm and lawn gardens become rare?
Fred and Sher still have theirs but they are throwbacks or freaks or something. Most people don't grow food. I get a bit, not much.

In other news...there are some land plots for sale that are pretty promising! It would be nice to find the right one. There are two on a good road. A bit more expensive than I hoped for but I'm going to look at them a few more times before I give up.