The New Green

Have a wonderful holiday. See you in the New Year.

Last year in preparation for a very sad event, I bought a package of cloth hankies. Since then they have become a staple with me as my nose runs from October through May. I like how soft they are on my beleaguered nose, I like that I’m not cutting down trees to wipe my nose, and I like saying hankie way better than facial tissue. Seriously, what focus group came up with that name? It sounds as ridiculous as “ladies lounge”.

Here are some pictures of adorable vintage cloth hankies. They are easily found in almost any vintage clothing shop for very low prices. Why not try and save a few trees (actually 163,000 if every household used one less box of virgin fiber tissues) and smile when you blow your nose into a hankie that says “Thank you”? These hankies are from an online shop called Betsy Vintage. They are pricey, but so cute!

Just a couple of weeks ago I was commenting on how unseasonably warm it was. Since then we’ve gotten colder with most nights below freezing and the ground feels hard under my feet. Neil wrapped the chicken’s run with plastic to protect them from the cold wind and they are spending a lot of time in their little hoop house instead of the larger (un-wrapped) enclosure.

I had many green cherry tomatoes left on the vine, which I didn’t want to go to waste. I did some searching online and found a few pickle recipes. I decided to make a recipe that didn’t use water-bath canning techniques, which just means that I need to eat them up sooner.

Adapted from John Kessler’s Pickled Green Cherry Tomatoes (or tomolives)

1 quart green cherry tomatoes or quartered large green tomatoes

1/2 bunch of dill (about 6-8 stems)

1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

2 t salt

1 t freshly cracked pepper

5 large cloves of garlic, peeled and thickly sliced

Optional: 1-2 hot peppers. I chose not to put them in because of my daughter, but I think it really would help the flavor.

Pierce the tomatoes all the way through with a skewer and then place in a clean quart-sized Mason jar. Add the dill sprigs and pepper.

Bring 1 1/2 c. water to boil with the remaining ingredients. Pour liquid into the jars and cover the tomatoes. Stir the dill and garlic into the tomatoes. Cover and bring to room temperature. Let the tomatoes absorb the flavor overnight in the fridge.

What I would do differently: The original recipe just said to pierce the tomatoes in the stem end. This made 1/2 of the tomato taste pickled and 1/2 taste like a sour un-ripe tomato. After piercing them all the way through, I let them sit another day. I think the longer they sit, the better. These aren’t “officially” canned, so they will go bad. Don’t let them sit around too long. I also thought they could use a little more flavor, so will experiment with the hot pepper next time. I thought they were interesting and definitely a good use for what would have just gone to waste. There are also recipes for friend green cherry tomatoes (cut in 1/2, dip them in some sort of flour or corn meal and then fry), but it seemed as though the breading just wanted to slip off the smooth tomato skins.

Actually I’m really getting jazzed to learn about canning, pickling and fermenting, so I think I’ll try some different pickling techniques next time.

Here’s a great video of Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, showing how easy it is to build a raised bed garden and hoop house. She doesn’t get into it in depth, but she keeps chickens and rabbits in cages over the gardens to help fertilize the soil.

In our house we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah. That is a whole lot of gift giving, which can mean a whole lot of gift wrapping. It bums me out each year to see the clear garbage bags filled with holiday wrapping paper. This year I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of paper we use to wrap gifts. For Chanukah, we give one or two gifts a night. I’ve been putting them unwrapped inside a pretty gift bag. Lindsay doesn’t seem to notice or care that they aren’t wrapped. She’s just interested in what’s inside the bag. In fact she saw the bag today and asked why there was nothing in the Chanukah bag (her comforter wouldn’t fit in it).

Neil asked what I planned to do with the presents for Christmas. The gift bag obviously won’t work, so I’ve been looking at ideas online for gift wrap alternatives. Here’s what I found so far. Please feel free to add suggestions.

1. Use fabric to wrap the gifts. I’ve gotten some fabric bags over the years when I’ve purchased something at a fancy shop. I always hang onto them because it just seems a waste to throw them out. (I’m convinced that I have a form of mental illness when it comes to throwing things out, but that’s a whole other post). I think putting some of the gifts in these bags would be pretty. If I had more time, I would even consider sewing a few bags from all the bits of fabric I have.
2. Use the funny papers to wrap kids presents. If your paper has a comic section, this can be a nice option.
3. Old calendars can be cut up and used to wrap smaller gifts.
4. Wallpaper
5. Old maps. NYC subway maps are free
6. Kid’s artwork. If you don’t want to use their drawings, have them decorate paper grocery bags with stickers, drawings, glitter, etc.
7. Pillow cases from mis-matched sets of sheets

Here are some factoids that might give you some more incentive. I pulled them off the California government website.

Check out this segment on CNN about the meat that is served in our children’s school lunches. They refer to the chicken as “spent hens” that even the fast food chains consider sub-par. It’s inexcusable that for what many children is their only meal of the day is such low quality.

It’s finally starting to get cold here and I wanted to save some edibles from my garden. On the left is lemon verbena and on the right is flat-leaf or Italian parsley. I washed all the leaves and they are on this wire rack to dry. I put the parsley in the freezer to use it in sauces. I dried the lemon verbena to use as tea. It makes a wonderful tea mixed with mint leaves. You can also chop up the leaves and put them into baked goods.

I just watched the movie Food, inc., which I recommend to everyone. If you haven’t had the time to read Omnivore’s Dilemma, it condenses the information well. If you already know about most of the issues, as I did, it renews your commitment to buying the most local and naturally raised food available.

I was talking about the movie with a friend the other day and we were specifically talking about organic and bio-dynamically raised meat. I have to admit that this is something that I haven’t incorporated into my diet as much as I could/should. We usually order Bell and Evans or Murray’s chickens from our butcher, but have had some suspicions about the veracity of the being the real deal. (other butcher’s we’ve gotten them from have had Murray’s tags on the chickens and our butcher’s doesn’t) I bought an Eberly chicken, which Neil roasted on the bbq last night. It was flavorful and delicious. They come shrink-wrapped, so it’s impossible to substitute some factory-farmed chicken for one of theirs.

My friend mentioned a local bio-dynamic angus farm called Grazin’ Angus Acres. I am lucky enough that they come to my local farmer’s market every sunday. Below I put a blurb from their website that gives some information on why to eat grass-fed beef over corn-fed beef.

Ultimately it’s healthiest for you, the animals and the planet not to eat meat, but if that isn’t an option for you, switching to grass-fed is a much healthier and humane option.

Health Benefits of Eating Grass-Fed Beef:

Safety:  Because humans are omnivores, our stomachs are highly acidic. Meanwhile, the pH of grass-fed cattle is normal.  If Grass-Fed Black Angus happen to be carrying bacteria in their normal pH environment, our highly acidic stomach bath offers real protection.  Contrast that with corn-fed cattle…  Corn turns what is typically a normal pH environment into a highly acidic one.  Consequently, corn-fed cattle often require antibiotics in the feed to keep them from being sick, which generates its own set of concerns for human health.  Further, if corn-fed cattle carry bacteria (e.g. E-Coli) that is thriving in their now acidic environment, the acids in our stomachs offer little, or no, protection against it.

Omegas: Grass-fed meat has been shown to have a 60% + increase in omega-3 content, as well as a more favorable omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.  Both fatty acids are essential and must be obtained from food.  It is important to maintain a balance of omega-3 and omega-6 in our diets, as these two substances work together to promote health.  That balance is adversely affected when cattle are fed grain. Specifically, a grass-fed diet produces a 2:1 omega 6:3 ratio.  “Why should I care?” you ask…

Consider that omega-6 promotes inflammation, blood clotting, and tumor growth while omega-3 does the opposite.  Dietary experts estimate that current eating habits in America lead to an omega 6:3 ratio of about 20:1.  Grass-fed beef is a huge step in the right direction.

ProVitamin A / beta-carotene:  Beta-carotene is a fat-soluble vitamin &  antioxidant that is a safe dietary source of vitamin A.  Vitamin A is important to normal vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division and cell differentiation.  Grass-fed beef has a 10-fold increase in beta-carotene levels vs. grain-fed.  Taking vitamin A supplements can be dangerously toxic – but, we can eat all the beta-carotene possible and the human body will only convert the amount needed to vitamin A.

Vitamin E / alpha-tocopherol:  Vitamin E is also a fat-soluble vitamin / antioxidant that protects cells from the effects of free radicals (which have been reported to contribute to cancer and cardiovascular disease development).  Grass-fed beef increases alpha-tocopherol levels three-fold vs. grain-fed beef.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA):  Numerous health benefits have been attributed to CLA including reduced carcinogenesis, atherosclerosis, onset of diabetes and body mass.  Grass-fed cattle have been shown to produce 2 to 3 times more CLA than grain-fed cattle.

IT’S NATURAL! Nature had it right all along.  The sun’s energy grows the grass that is harvested by the cattle that are harvested by us.  Grass-fed is how it was meant to be; it’s how our human construct was prepared to capture the nutritional value of meat.  The industrial machine – feeding cattle corn in confined areas - has destroyed what nature intended.

Begin to enjoy the benefits of local Grass-Fed Black Angus today!

Almost every year we can expect our first frost by the end of October and by the end of November the ground is pretty well frozen. It is now December and not only have we not had one single frost yet, it is over 60 degrees fahrenheit this morning. I am definitely not a fan of the cold, but this doesn’t seem right.

When I went out to let the chickens out this  morning, even the worms felt that spring was in the air. In case you’ve never seen it, here is some worm lovin’. Don’t you just love their lack of commitment as they keep their heads (?) in their respective holes?