the adventures of a vermont hooligan

More feelings toward trash-free eating

2011-09-08T17:05:00.004-04:00

All and all, this diet is going just as well today as it was when I started. I'm happily chowing down on fresh fruits and veggies and I even made some cloth bags to get bulk produce in. My trips tot he store have to be far more calculated than ever before (especially now since many of the roads to my favorite co-ops have been damaged by the hurricane), but my everyday needs are easily met by the farmer's market and the local health food store.

We had a pot luck at work today, so last night I made some yummy peanut butter oatmeal cookies (nom nom nom). The food was mostly crappy stuff I would never touch, but OH MY GOD SOMEONE BROUGHT TRISCUITS! My immediate reaction was something along the lines of "come to me my precious, salty, crunchy, heaven-in-a-box treat!" I proceeded to eat a few more than I probably should have, but I would like to see your self-control when paired with a stack of Triscuits after abstaining from any form of packaged food for months on end. Those crackers won't stand a chance.

Baby spinach was also on the pot-luck menu. I took a few bites because I thought I should have some greens with lunch, if available. Mistake. Another side effect of only eating fresh unpackaged foods, is that packaged produce tastes terrible. Like eating leafy cardboard. I dumped some homemade salsa on it (made with tomatoes, peppers, onions and cilantro right from the garden) and that improved it considerably.

Then I ate a few more Triscuits.

Reflections on month three

2011-08-15T10:07:00.002-04:00

OK. I figured out the hardest part of the no-trash diet. It's this blog. My spare time is down to almost nothing right now, so when I have it, I don't usually want to spend it writing in the blog. I have books to write about and recipes to post and a few stories about food trash. I went to SolarFest and NYC and thought about food waste and thing to put in this blog the whole time, but sitting down to write... eh. So I'm sorry. Kind of. But I did conquer the mountain of dishes in the sink and I plan to make a blueberry pie today, so maybe I'll snap some pictures and do a post when I finally crash-land on the couch. Cross your fingers.

Just know that even though my dedication to blogging is not so much, I'm still 100% on my year of no food waste.

Zucchini Salad

2011-07-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

2-3 green onions
1 Large green zucchini
1 Large yellow zucchini (summer squash)
1 Large any other kind of in season squash (globe, pattypan, scallopini, etc)
1 Large cucumber
2 Large carrots , or 3-4 small ones
2 T Olive oil (not extra virgin) or veggie oil if you prefer
Salt
½ t Garam Masala
AC vinegar
Sugar

Chop up green onion and dice squashes into bite-sized cubes. Heat oil in a large pan, add garam masala and turn heat to med-low. Add onion and toss until coated, then add squashes. Salt to taste. While the squash is cooking, chop the cucumber into bite sized chunks and set aside. Continue cooking squash and turning in pan until it's cooked and a bit soft, but still has a bit of crunch. This should only take a few minutes.

Remove from heat and transfer into a large glass food storage container. Allow it to cool to room temperature, then add cucumbers, mix and put in fridge. Store until cool.

Grate carrots into a small bowl and add some AC vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar. Serve shredded carrot on top of squash salad.

Chocolate Mint Rice Milk

2011-07-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

½ recipe of rice milk found here. This will make extra, but cutting the recipe down even further seems silly. I added a handful of raw cashews to each blender batch.
2 T cocoa powder
2 T Raw sugar
3-4 fresh mint leaves, bruised a bit to draw out flavor

Fill blender with rice milk, add cocoa, sugar and mint. Blend. Taste and adjust. Strain into small mason jars for single serving travel cups. Shake well before serving.

I actually didn't strain mine because I don't mind the mint particles, but some people might. You'll also want to make this as close to the time you're going to use it a possible, because in my experience, this rice milk does not keep very long.

White Bean Hummus

2011-07-25T12:27:00.000-04:00

2 cups cooked white beans
1 large clove garlic (or about 4 scapes, depending on size and season)
4T olive oil
2T tahini
2T AC vinegar or lemon juice
Salt to taste
Water

Throw everything but the water into a food processor and process until smooth. Add a little water at a time until you reach the consistency you are looking for. Hummus is a completely personal experience, and rather hard to ruin. Adjust flavors to suit your palate. You can use more olive oil and less water to get a richer flavor, but water works if you're on tight budget or running low on oil.

Paper plate picnics are for parasites

2011-07-07T07:00:00.004-04:00

I was reading this silly thing on the internet about famous picnics in literature and I suddenly got an unsurpressable urge to have a picnic. What better day than July 4th? My friend Gravy was coming to town that day to hang out, so I decided to drag him along. The weather has been hot and humid so I wanted something that would be cold and refreshing, but not too simplistic like macaroni salad and veggie burgers. At the farmer's market on Sunday the stalls seemed to be overflowing with zucchinis of all shapes and sizes, so I grabbed some greens and yellows and started a mental meal planner. Cold, seared zucchini with cucumbers, shredded carrots and white bean hummus. Perfect.

Monday finally came and I headed to the kitchen to start my plans when I realized that the perfect companion to this meal would be pita bread. Being on a no-trash diet means making everything from scratch, and I was out of yeast. The health food store in town pre-bags all of their bulk yeast, so I have to make special arrangements to fill up my own jar, which doesn't work for last-minute plans. I also realized that chocolate milk would be needed. Obviously. As usual, my quick projects turned into huge and frantic undertakings.

Rice milk takes about three hours to make and a big pot, which I didn't own. I decided to finally use that money the parents sent me as a house warming gift and bopped over to the local kitchen store to buy a nice stainless steel stewing pot. Then I scurried over to a friend's house to snag a few teaspoons of yeast. 1:30pm and I hadn't even started yet! The pita would need time to rise as well! At least the white beans were done though.

Gravy got to my place a little after 2pm and I put him to work shredding carrots while I cooked the zucchini. When the rice was done cooking I put him in charge of straining, and he promptly spilled a bunch of it all over my pristine kitchen. Taking deep breaths is the key to sharing a kitchen. Luckily he brought his dog who took care of anything that managed to make it to the ground. Hummus in the food processor, cocoa in the rice milk, zucchini in the fridge, pitas on the counter cooling and all at once the food was together in time for picnic supper. A July 4th miracle!

Everything got packed in reusable containers. I took two normal, totally breakable and oh-man-I-have-to-wash-these-when-we're-done plates and forgot the spoon for serving (good thing I remembered a cloth napkin when our fingers had to be used instead). Everything got carefully packed into two fabric bags along with a blanket and some hippy-dippy bug spray. Presto! Delicious trash-free picnic!

Along comes another multi-part post of recipes; White bean hummus, zucchini salad, and chocolate-mint rice milk. I won't be posting the pita recipe because it wasn't mine and it didn't turn out as I had planned. Mine were a semi-failure and Gravy laughed at my dismay. Jerk. If anyone has any good pita bread recipes to share, please do!

Reflections on month two

2011-06-30T07:00:00.003-04:00

I still can't get over the initial reaction that most people have to my no-trash diet, “Wow, that must be so hard!” I can't stress enough how easy it is. It's a little weird how we're predisposed to think that we need waste to live our lives. It's crazy how quickly we reach for a disposable item without thinking if we really need it, or if we can use something else.

I was at the grocery store with a friend the other day. I had brought my own bags for produce, but not enough. He hadn't brought any. I quietly got what I needed and when I ran out of bags, I simply loaded the rest of the produce (things that were large and not fragile, like potatoes and bananas) into my basket without bags. The checkout people don't care. We met up a few minutes later and he commented on my free-floating produce, “Oh, I hadn't thought of that.” I'm not judgmental. I know how automatic certain things are, because it's taken me effort to program myself to think “do I need this?” before I use anything. I told him I do this all the time, and when the checkout person showed no signs of interest in the lack of bag, he accepted this practice as something to use in the future.

The same thing happens when I take my container to the bagel place. It starts a lot of conversations. Even the ladies at the local health food store have said my containers have made them think about their own disposable habits. As with everything, I'm happy to answer questions that are asked of me, but I almost never bring the issue up unless I need to.

I must make a small confession though. That rule about not eating out twice a week... hasn't really been super accurate. I like to grab a bagel before work sometimes. Not more than once a week, but it happens. I also like to eat at the farmers market. And I like to go out to the bar with my friends after work. So sometimes I go out more often. However, I have my container in hand at the bagel place, don't order bottled cider at the bar, and the farmer's market, well, I don't think I need to explain that there's not really a lot of waste involved with anything there, as compared with a restaurant or grocery store. I don't feel guilty, I just think it was not a very useful rule.

The trek continues.

Fiesta Food! - Part 3 of 3

2011-06-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

Red Chile

1/4 Cup water
2 T oil (I use olive for better flavor,but you can go neutral)
1 T flour (your choice, I use whole wheat pastry because it's what I have and adds no flavor)
4 tablespoons (at least) red chile powder
pinch of cumin
salt to taste

In a small sauce pan, combine water, oil and chile. Heat and mix until everything is combined fully. Add flour and cumin, heat until thick and bubbly. Add Salt. Adjust spices (aka, add more chile). Heat a bit more to bring out the heat. It should be thick and red and amazing and unforgettable.

In terms of what is “traditional” or not, I don't really care. You can email me and tell me I'm doing this all wrong and that it's not really traditional red chile unless you make it standing on one leg with a gila monster stuck to your head, but honestly, I don't care. If it's vegan and it tastes good, I'm eating it. That being said, you can make this sauce with any red chile powder, but if you really want something amazing, you'll make it with red chiles grown in NM. Specifically Hatch, NM.

Shit. I misplaced my gila monster again.

Fiesta Food! - Part 2 of 3

2011-06-28T07:04:00.002-04:00

This isn't exactly fiesta food, but since I used it for tacos, it's fiesta food today.

Seitan

1 cup vital wheat gluten
3/4 cup veggie broth or water (you might need more or less, so add slowly)
2 T soy sauce
Spices of choice (stick with powders and nothing chunky)

Mix up your dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour water in and mix by hand. Mix in soy sauce. Knead. And knead. And Knead for about 5 minutes. You MUST do this by hand. Let it sit for a few minutes, then knead again. Break up your glutenous ball of yum into three or four pieces and stretch them out as flat as you can. These will expand when cooking, so the thinner you get it now, the better. Bring a large pot of water or vegetable broth to a boil and drop these bad boys in. Simmer for about an hour. They're going to expand, so make sure the pot is pretty huge.

You can store seitan really well in the freezer. Just be sure to cut it up before freezing, which will make it easier to work with later.

Next post: Red Chile

Fiesta Food! - Part 1 of 3

2011-06-27T07:00:00.002-04:00

I talk a lot about my job at the bookstore, but the truth is, that's a part-time job. The job that pays my bills is an office job I have for a non-profit. Things that I love about it include: schedule flexibility, no dress code, and we will accept any excuse to have a party at work. This month we lose our Urchin co-worker, Sarah. To see her off properly she would need a rockin fiesta. Sarah is my vegan partner in crime at the office, so I was ever so excited to make awesome seitan tacos for her.

I'm not going to post the recipe for the tacos, because it came from Terry Hope-Romero's cookbook Viva Vegan. It's an excellent book and you should all buy it. Also, I (not so) secretly want to be her. What I am going to post are three staples in my home that can be made with (little or) no waste: seitan, corn tortillas and red chile.

The only tricky parts about making this 100% waste free is the masa harina, a kind of corn meal that's treated with lime and is used to make corn tortillas, and wax paper. I can't find masa herna in bulk around here, but luckily I had a huge bag in my kitchen. If I run out before the year is up I guess I just cry. I also use wax paper with my tortilla press (instructions online always recommend plastic wrap, but that's just silly and wax paper can be reused much more easily). I use the same two bits of paper until they are totally ruined and I really can't get away with it anymore. I've had the same roll of wax paper for over a year and I'm only half way through it, so I can attest to the usefulness of wax paper.

All of these things are easy to make, and significantly cheaper and healthier than what you'll buy in the store.

Oh-my-god-easy Corn Tortillas

½ cup Masa Harina
1/3 cup water
Pinch of salt

Mix masa harina and salt in a bowl. Make a well. Pour water into the well and mix by hand for 2 minutes. Adjust if the dough seems too sticky or too crumbly*. Make into 4 balls. Heat a pan that is just lightly brushed with cooking oil. Depending on your pan, you can do this dry. You know your cookware better than me (I hope). Line bottom of tortilla press with wax paper, place ball in center. Place a bit of wax paper on top. Press. Toss into pan. Cook. Flip. Cook. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Done. Store in plastic in the fridge.

*Use cation when adding water and only add a teaspoon at a time. Too much water will create dough that sticks to everything but itself, is difficult to work with, impossible to please, and may even put bubble gum in your favorite pair of shoes. So easy on the water.

Make 4 tortillas. Duh.

Next up: Seitan

Month one recap- Belated

2011-06-22T07:00:00.002-04:00

Several people have asked me what the hardest part of this challenge has been so far. At one month in there's only been one big setback and that is eating out. Restaurants always want to give you napkins, there are always unexpected wastes like toothpicks, chopsticks and wax paper, and then if you don't finish your food, there's take out containers.

I had lunch in Albany just after this challenge started and quickly realized that I would need to bring my own container for leftovers and also my own chopsticks. I have both of these items now ready to go, the tricky part will be remembering them when I go out.
Napkins, napkins, napkins. I've asked at least one person to omit my napkin, but in most places they are already on the table. Chances are, if you ask that they be removed they'll just end up in he trash anyway. I think I've also mentioned my extreme discomfort with drawing too much attention to myself, or being anything other than completely forgettable two minutes after I've left a person's presence. I could say it would be nice to get over my fears, but it wouldn't. I don't like people who draw extra attention to themselves and I like not being one of them. I don't have a problem asking people to leave the napkin out if I'm a regular, but I might just have to deal with a stray napkin or two when I eat somewhere new.

I'm open to suggestions though. Maybe only eat at places that use cloth napkins? Pass it off as a serious napkin phobia and say that I've brought my own? Right. Right.

Farewell My Subaru by Doug Fine

2011-06-21T07:25:00.005-04:00

I stumbled upon this book in one of Brattleboro's FIVE bookstores. It was on sale so I picked it up, thinking it looked like fun. Turns out you can judge a book by its cover, because fun it is. Doug Fine is a humorous writer and a great story teller. At 200 pages it's a quick and enjoyable read but still full of insight.

Fine moves to the New Mexican desert with the goal of kicking his fossil fuel habit and getting off the grid. He has no experience whatsoever with ranching, farming, or any of the things people need to be self-sufficient. To top it off, he's a Wal-Mart addict. But, he kicks his addiction early in the book and makes no secret of the fact that he asks for help whenever he can. He also buys two goats to help him get his other habit off-grid: ice cream.

A few solar panels, and one veggie oil run monster truck later and Fine is well on his way to reaching his goals. He plants a garden (several times, due to many crop-decimating hail storms), installs a solar hot water heater and gets himself some chickens. He almost makes the task seem simple (given the right friends and enough money, of course). He certainly makes it seem fun, especially with all of the humorous and well-placed recipes (rattlesnake stew when he discovers a rattlesnake near his home, although in this case the rattlesnake escapes unharmed).

The part that I found most interesting was his veggie oil car. I had all but forgotten about these little miracles with my secret (ok, not so secret) obsession with buying an electric car and powering it with solar panels. Of course a much cheaper option is to get an old diesel car and convert it to veggie oil. It's a great deal all around because normally restaurants have to pay someone to pick up their used oil and normally drivers have to pay higher and higher prices for their gas. The image of a massive fuel-guzzling truck roaring around town spurting out chinese food-scented emissions is almost too good to pas up!

My only criticism of this book is the lack of sources. Throughout the story Fine drops a few facts and figures having to do with energy and resource consumption, typical statistics to find in a book on environmentalism, but he sites no sources. Where did this information come from? There is no bibliography, no where to go for further reading. If he picked these facts up from the internet, what are the websites? Who did the studies? Who collected this data? I've never come across a book with facts that lacked sources and I found the whole thing confusing.

All in all, it was a great book and although it's not in my section at the bookstore now, it will soon.

Buy it Indie!

Moving!

2011-05-25T18:09:00.002-04:00

Oh hello again. I'm just here to tell you that I'm moving right now. First my office, then myself. Posting really isn't going to happen for a little while, but I'm still cooking and still shunning waste, so never fear! The no trash blog is coming back soon.

Hello potatoes!

2011-05-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Here are a few quick things you can do with potatoes which don't involve waste, or more than a few minutes of your time and attention. I'm in love with potatoes, so I make these things often. They're so easy that I feel stupid for posting them.

No waste baked potatoes

Take a potato, poke some holes in it with a fork, rub some olive oil into it, throw it in the oven directly on the rack and bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. Viola. Potato. Who says you need aluminum foil to bake a potato?

(Charles, you can even do this in a toaster oven. It will take a bit longer.)

Potato chips

Take a potato, slice it into chips (very, very thin, if you can), place slices on a baking sheet, brush slices with oil, sprinkle on some salt, bake at 350 until crispy and amazing. Goodbye bagged potato chips. Hello saving money and resources!

Mashed purple potatoes

Take several purple potatoes, quarter them, boil them until soft, transfer to a bowl, add a bit of rice milk, salt, pepper, olive oil, a tiny dab of coconut cream (trust me. Dooo it), minced garlic and then mash. Mash some more. Mash a little bit more....... now STOP! ACK! YOU'VE OVER-MASHED IT!!!! No I'm kidding, it's ready, just eat. Side note: Isn't it super cool how the boiling water turns blue??!

French fries (but baked)

Take a few potatoes, slice into wedges, put into glass bake tray, coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil, add salt and pepper and garlic, bake at 350 until done. No need to flip. Seriously. You'll need ketchup and mustard for these. Spicy ketchup...mmm.

Fiddleheads!!!

2011-05-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

After several unsuccessful attempts to find fiddleheads I was getting ready to call up a few friends and ask them where they find theirs. Then one morning I was taking my compost out to the woods behind my house and nearly stepped right on a patch of fiddleheads! I gathered some up and tossed them in the fridge before heading to work.

I rode my bike that morning and as I coasted down the office driveway I peeked into the garden and what did I see? FIDDLEHEADS! The whole garden at my office is overrun. I gathered a bunch of them and had a wonderful fiddlehead stir fry dinner. I even left one on a co-workers desk as a present.

There is some mixed information out there about fiddleheads and how safe they are. Some websites and books will tell you that you need to cook them before they are safe. There doesn't seem to be much evidence of that. What is more probable is that the people who got sick had eaten a different variety of fern than the ostrich fiddlehead. Having compared the two kinds side by side, it's really quite easy to tell the difference between the different varieties and I'm not worried about eating the wrong kind. The key thing is that edible fiddleheads are smooth and shiny and have a very deep groove along the inside of the stems. When they are uncurled, they stick straight up and don't lay close to the ground.

I like to throw my fiddleheads into my stir fry and cook them just a little. They add a great, clean crunch and some healthy, early greens to dinner. Bon appetit!

Macaroni Salad

2011-05-19T07:00:00.003-04:00

As it gets warmer I always start to crave macaroni salad. Delicious, cold macaroni on a warm day is a good indication that winter really is over and the next 6 months are going to be lovely. I almost never make it though because it means buying a jar of vegan mayo and I don't really use it for anything but macaroni and potato salads, which means it would just go bad. Buying a jar is out of the question anyway because of the no trash thing, so I did a quick google search for homemade vegan mayo and came up the modified concoction below.

I forgot to take a picture of my food, so here's a random one from the internet. Don't worry, it's vegan too.

Half a block of tofu
2 T water
2 T olive oil
½ t apple cider vinegar
pinch of salt
½ t sugar or other sweetener (I used agave syrup)

Put all of this into a blender and blend until smooth. You may want to add things a little at a time and taste as you go. The wonderful thing about making your own mayo is that you can make it as strong as you want. You can go sour or sweet. You can use veggie oil instead of olive oil for a more neutral taste.

I combined this with some pasta, chopped onion, sugar, mustard, salt, pepper, celery and PRESTO, macaroni salad for my spring celebration.

Meh. Sorry.

2011-05-18T10:56:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing readers should know about me, it's that I never post as often as I say I will. Never fear, I have some posts written and more are coming soon.

Recipe: Veggie stir fry with coconut rice

2011-05-04T07:00:00.002-04:00

As with all cooking, I encourage people to adjust things to taste. This is a concoction that I really enjoy, but you can just as easily skip the wild rice and go with all brown (though you'd be a fool). I used a lot more hot sauce than I indicated below and more mustard and chile, but not everyone likes spicy food like I do. But so help me, if you defile this recipe with a green bell pepper... I will find you in your home and rip that freaking pepper out of your hand. And then compost it.

For the rice:
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup wild rice (soaked overnight if you have time)
1/2 cup short grain brown rice (soaked overnight if you have time)

For the stir fry:
1 Small yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic- minced
1 Yellow or red bell pepper, chopped
A big bunch of swiss chard, chopped (probably about 6 cups, once chopped)
2 medium carrots, chopped
A little olive oil for frying
1/2 t Chile powder
1/2 t favorite hot sauce
1/2 t mustard powder
1/2 t ginger powder
Salt to taste
Sesame oil to taste
A touch of maple syrup (optional)

For rice:
Put water and coconut milk into a saucepan and add wild rice. Cover. Bring to boil, and simmer for 5 minutes, then add brown rice and continue simmering until done. Don't stir! When rice is done, remove from heat, but allow it to sit covered in the pot for about 10 minutes to steam. Fluff with a fork to bring wild rice to the top.

For the stir fry:
Heat olive oil on medium heat in large frying pan with spices and hot sauce. When it's hot enough, add the onions and some salt. Cook until soft then add garlic, bell pepper, chard and carrots. The chard will cook down, so don't worry if the pan overflows and you can't add it all at once. Adjust salt and continue to stir fry until chard is cooked down and veggies are extra-tasty. If the chard is a little more bitter than you'd like, add a touch of maple syrup (don't go overboard). Remove from heat and add a little sesame oil.

Serve veggies over rice. Oranges make a great dessert after this yum-fest.

Serves: 2

Foraging

2011-05-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

On Easter Sunday, with no other plans to speak of, I decided to go for a hike and try and locate some fiddleheads, a much adored spring treat. I took my field guide to edible plants book with me, just in case I saw something else that might be snack-worthy. I'm 100% new to this in every way, so I really didn't expect to find anything. I walked over to Benson's hole and proceeded upstream. I imagine a lot of the area is private property, but I didn't encounter any fences or signs, so I just went along my merry way.

As expected, I found nothing. May have been a bit early for fiddleheads anyway. I'll be trying again as much as possible over the next few days. Fiddleheads should be popping up at any time. Wild asparagus too. I decided to proceed to town and forage the fridge at the non-profit office. I found half a bottle of champagne from a celebration we had had the week prior. Still fizzy, I took it home.

This made me think that maybe dumpster diving counts as no-trash food. It's already in the trash, at least I'd be putting some of it to good use and reducing some of the trash, without adding to it. It's a thought. Though the idea of creeping around the Price Chopper dumpsters at night really isn't at all appealing. If only we had a Trader Joe's. I've been told they have the best dumpster food. I tip my hat to Food Not Bombs on this one.

So it begins

2011-05-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

The last round of trash this month. Yikes. I'm looking forward to giving up Woodchuck; I spend way too much of my money on it. I've been thinking of giving up most of my alcohol drinking anyway because of my money situation. It's just empty calories anyway. Sorry folks, gonna go drown my sorrows in a cup of tea.

I am going to miss Liz Lovely though. Best freaking vegan cookies ever, and my favorite gluten free brand as well. Still, not buying junk food for a year (home made potato chips, anyone?) will be healthy for me and my budget.

To top this all off, the idea of making paper out of my receipts and produce stickers was offered to me and I love it! I just need to find a few supplies and I can start grinding all that crap up into my own brand of paper. Who has a few pieces of scrap wood and screen for me?

April 20: Liz Lovely cookie wrappings
April 21: Eggplant sticker
April 22: Napkin, empty woodchuck bottle
April 23: Potato chip bag, avocado sticker
April 24: None
April 25: empty woodchuck bottle
April 26: Paper bagel wrapper, empty woodchuck bottle
April 27: Napkin, wax paper, empty woodchuck bottle, straw and straw wrapper
April 28: A bit of parchment paper
April 29: None
April 30: Foil wrapper

Dressing!

2011-04-28T07:00:00.007-04:00

When I first started living on the farm a few years ago we ate salad all the time. Bonnie and Oliver never buy dressing, instead they just made it themselves right before the meal. I never really considered this before living with them. Salad dressing is just one of those things I took for granted as something that needed to be purchased pre-made. I had no idea how to make it.

Oliver seemed to think it was a silly to buy it from the store; a complete waste of money. He's right. I've been making my own dressing ever since then. I even wrote down the ingredients to my favorite store-bought dressing so I can make it at home whenever I want. This is not that recipe. Maybe later.

I was reading some cooking magazine the other night while it was slow at work and I came across a salad dressing recipe that used avocado. I instantly forgot what was in the magazine recipe (it was probably boring anyway). However, it did inspire me to create the one below the other night. I thought it was amazing and I threw it on shredded red cabbage. Instant treat!

Creamy Avocado Dressing
½ an avocado
1 small garlic clove
½ cup olive oil
2 T tahini
¼ cup water
Salt to taste
Chives or green onion to taste

Throw everything except the chives/green onions into a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add green onion a little at a time, tasting as you go. Depending on how strong they are, it can easily overpower the subtle avocado. Adjust other ingredients as necessary. Enjoy.

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz

2011-04-25T07:00:00.002-04:00

I loved this book so much that the whole time I was reading it, I just wanted to find Mr. Katz and shake his hand. And then invite him over for dinner.

The bookstore had this book sitting on the shelf for about a year and no one had purchased it. Our book buyer wanted me to pull this lovely treasure from the shelf and return it to the publishers to make room for books that might sell better. I couldn't do it. Even though I had not yet read the book, I knew that with a title like this one, it had to be good. So I promised to read the book, write a review and attempt to hand-sell the crap out of it. And although my hand-selling skills are limited, I will certainly talk to anyone willing to listen about the reasons this book deserves a spot on the shelves.

This book mixes the some of the good bits of Pollan, Kingsolver, Bittman, even a bit of McKibben. The point is, you can pick up this book anywhere along your journey to food knowledge and activism. It can be a beginning, or it can be the next book in a long series of food system information. Katz touches on environmentalism, heath, the overcomplicated food system, and even throws in some recipes.

What's even better is that Katz doesn't stop short after bringing up all of the problems, he gives examples of what others are doing to solve these problems. He cites specific organizations and people who fight the system and how they are doing it. Each chapter has several pages of resources for more information on the problems and solutions. The bibliography alone is enough reason to buy this book. Getting through it will probably keep me occupied for years.

Buy it indie!

Eggplant steaks

2011-04-21T07:00:00.007-04:00

This isn't really a recipe, so much as instructions, but I made some eggplant a few weeks ago and forced an eggplant hater to try it. Turns out it got a vote of approval and now she's asking for the recipe. Here is an attempt at one.

2 medium sized eggplants
½ cup olive oil (more or less depending on the vessel you use to marinate)
salt to taste
chile powder to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
balsamic vinegar to taste
2 T maple syrup
2 T BBQ sauce

Slice the eggplant lengthwise into 4 “steaks.” Fill a large bowl with warm, salted water and soak the eggplant sliced in it for about 15 minutes. I weigh them down with another bowl of water on top. Don't skip this step, it will cut a lot of the bitterness associated with eggplant.

I mix everything in the baking pan (not a baking sheet, think large brownie pan), this works fine with glass because it's easy to clean later. Taste the marinade and adjust spices and ingredients as you see fit. It should be slightly sweet to counter any possible bitterness, but you're not making eggplant candy (wait... mmmm).

Make some slits lengthwise in the eggplant to help it absorb the marinade. Place all of the slices in the pan and try not to put any on top of any others. I realize you could put everything into a ziplock bag and not have an issue, but I never do this, 1. because I don't have ziplock bags, 2. because this is a no trash diet, and 3. because plastic leaches nastiness into food.

Marinate for 15-20 minutes, then flip and marinate some more. I kind of shake the mixture around to coat the tops as well as soaking the bottoms.

Throw the whole thing in the oven and bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it. When the eggplants are nice and soft, but not mushy, they're done.

I like to serve it with brown rice.

Serves 4

Round two of trash confessions

2011-04-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

I don't have much to say about all this, other than I ate out a lot more than usual this week. The local sandwich place charges a fortune for these really yummy sandwiches. I think it might be to cover the cost of the half roll of saran wrap they use to pack up your sandwich. Sheesh. I'm tempted to ask them about bringing my own container, but in this case, I think my wallet will thank me if I just abstain from this place all year.

April 15: Straw and wrapper, napkin, empty potato chip bag
April 16: Paper wrapping from bagel, empty potato chip bag
April 17: Styrofoam bowl, plastic fork and spoon, paper plate, tiny paper cup, paper ice cream cup
April 18: Plastic wrap, paper bag
April 19: Foil wrapping, napkin

Coming soon: Recipes! I'm working on these tonight. Really. I am.

VegFest!!!

2011-04-19T07:32:00.003-04:00

On Sunday I packed up two vegan friends and one cyber hitchhiker and drove us all to VegFest in Worcester, MA. Why on earth would I travel three hours for a festival? Perhaps for the community? Perhaps for the free samples? Perhaps for the abundance of vegan food? Perhaps the plethora of information on veganism? Kind of. A little. I know that's why the three others in my car were excited, but I had another motivating factor: the chance to meet an author.

For months I have been jittery with excitement over Will Potter's book, Green is the New Red. How could I possibly pass up the chance to meet him and tell him in person what an inspiration his book and his blog have been? How could I miss the chance to hear him give a little talk in person? I couldn't! So I told him all of these things and shook his hand. (Yes, yes, I've washed my hands since then. Grudgingly.)

The festival itself was fantastic. I sampled some really amazing soy-free ice cream, got a cup of vegan soft-serve ice cream, watched Terry Hope-Romero make some seitan tacos (yummmmm), ate a ton of spring rolls, “egg” rolls, and other asian treats, and got a few business cards and pamphlets of foods and organizations that were interesting. Oh yeah and did I mention I met Will Potter?

I'm glad the food waste challenge doesn't officially start until May 1st, because all of those yummy samples came on disposable plates and cups and such. We did our best to reduce this by grabbing a bowl at the beginning and having the samples put into our bowls instead of using new ones. Lunch and ice cream didn't really conform to this, but I think we did an ok job. Strange that three environmentalist vegans didn't even think to bring our own utensils to this thing. Duh. Well, it's on my radar for next time.

This time, I just enjoyed being in vegan heaven.

A Snag

2011-04-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

There are going to be a few unavoidable bits of trash during the year. So far the two examples I've though of are produce stickers and receipts. I will surely buy produce from the supermarket during my year of no food trash. All Grocery stores put those little stickers on fresh produce. There's not much I can do about this. The store I shop at for produce always prints receipts and a few coupons (oh coupons, how I have always had a secret hatred for you). I'll certainly ask them if they can refrain from doing this, but it seems unlikely. Another opportunity for me to bring up my endeavors to complete strangers and report back I guess.

My friend Rayon K. thinks I should use all of the unavoidable food trash to create art, that way it's not a complete waste. His other idea was to save it all and send it back, an idea that made me laugh. I'd love to save all of my receipts for a year and then bring them all back, but I think it would have very little effect. Maybe a few odd looks. At the very least I can recycle these receipts. If anyone can think of a use for produce stickers, let me know. No, I'm not going to eat them, a suggestion made by both Rayon K. and my mother.

The list of trash so far

2011-04-14T09:36:00.000-04:00

Time to 'fess up I guess. As promised, I've been keeping track of all of my food waste. So far the list goes something like this:

April 1: An empty bag of frozen broccoli
April 2: Paper wrapping from a bagel I picked up for breakfast, THREE stickers on an avocado (apparently one wasn't enough?), Empty bag of frozen mixed veggies.
April 3: none
April 4: Empty can of chili, 2 stickers from eggplants, a teabag
April 5: Tea bag wrapper, a pair of chopsticks, 2 empty soy sauce packets, sushi take-out box, empty can of diced tomatoes, empty wine bottle
April 6: none
April 7: Empty Tortilla chip bag (in my defense, I didn't buy these, I found an almost empty bag at work and finished them off)
April 8: Hard cider bottle
April 9: Tissue paper wrapper from bulk carob bar
April 10: Empty tempeh package, empty bag of frozen broccoli
April 11: None
April 12: None
April 13: Straw and wrapper, napkin
April 14: Empty tempeh package

I imagine there will be a few things during my year of no food trash. I have decided that I'm going to keep using what I already have, even if it is packaged. I don't want to waste the food along with the packaging by letting it go bad. The product has already been purchased, so it's getting used. The point is not just to remove the trash from my life, but to remove myself from the entire trash-making system as a whole. In the case of what's already in my kitchen, I've cast my monetary vote and it's too late to undo it now. So the packaged food in my fridge stays. And there's not much of it.

Here's the fun part though: for every packaged food I consume because it's already in my kitchen, I will try to find a way to make it or get it without a package. Apparently I'm crazy for thinking about making miso.

May 1st, I'm getting ready for you.

Dish Soap

2011-04-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

Does the packaging involved with dish soap count as food waste? I think it might. The soap is associated with my dishes, which is of course for my food. What to do?

The soap I have is Seventh Generation, a Vermont company that makes phosphate-free soaps along with other household products that are easier on the environment than what is normally found in people's homes. I don't think I can get this soap in bulk, so I thought I'd take a peek at the ingredients to see exactly what is in it, because maybe I could concoct something close.

I was shocked to find sodium lauryl sulfate as the second ingredient. Much like I had with Tom's of Maine, I took for granted that a company that prides itself on being all-natural, earth-friendly and vegan, would not be hazardous to my own health. Oops. No more Seventh Generation soap for me. My dishes don't need cleanliness with a side of poison. I clearly need to find a new source for my dish suds.

Along comes a possible solution. I have this awesome, teeny book called Nontoxic Housecleaning. I'll write more about it later, but it's the book I consult for all of my cleaning needs. I opened it up to see what it said about dish soap and apparently any unscented castile soap can be used for dishes. Dr. Bronner's is castile soap and I can get it in bulk. Problem solved? I'll experiment with it a little and get back to you on that.

Bagels!

2011-04-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

There's a local bagel place I really, really love. The bagels there are excellent and the people are are nice too. I never allow myself more than one bagel a week, because I consider bagels to be a bit of a junk food (vegan cream cheese? Totally unhealthy and delicious crap). I would like to continue my occasional bagel indulgences during my year of no trash, so I realized that I needed to address the issue of the bagel being wrapped up in paper.

I normally don't talk about my oddities. I don't mind mentioning them online, but face to face I try not to bring up all of my green habits at home, or my diet. Plenty of people don't know I'm vegan until we eat together, or someone else tells them. My choices are personal, they have nothing to do with anyone else and I don't judge others based on the choices they make for themselves. If people are curious about why I do the things I do, or live the way I live, I'm more than happy to explain, but I'm not the kind of person to just throw this information in people's faces. At least with my blog people can chose if they want to read all of these ramblings.

Speaking of which, I've rambled off track. Bagels. I went to Bagleworks over the weekend and I realized I would have to open my mouth and admit to my less-than-mainstream behavior if I wanted to keep my bagel habit. So I explained my upcoming project a little and asked if I could bring my own container for bagels. They didn't see the problem. And that's what's awesome about being a regular customer (I'm telling myself that to further justify my bagel habit). I would never have made that request while I was living in NYC. Never. Bagel problem solved.

Pass the tofu cream cheese.

No Impact Man by Colin Beaven

2011-04-05T07:03:00.002-04:00

I knew the moment I saw this book that I would love it. And I do. Beavan spends a lot of energy judging people and governments for the state of the environment, but does little to examine his own life, or even make the simplest changes. After watching Anne Leonard's video, The Story of Stuff, he realizes it's time to make a change. He devises a one year project called No Impact Man that will rid himself and his family of all possible environmental impact.

I'm a strong believer in doing all of it, or none of it, which made me really appreciate Beavan's amazing commitment. I found a lot to be inspire by in this book, even though I consider my own footprint to be fairly light. His complete refusal to create any waste really made me think about how much I waste, that I really don't need to.

The best thing about this book was that Beavan creates a more fulfilling life for himself and his family by simplifying. Instead of rushing around, they make more time for each other. Instead of take-out, they cook their own food and sit down with each other. Instead of taking a cab, they enjoy the city by waling or biking. Instead of watching TV, they play games. On top of the improvement in their health and quality of life, they saved a ton of money by not shopping, using no electricity, cutting out disposable products, making their own cleaners, and not paying train and cab fairs. Not to mention what they will probably save long-term for medical bills by taking better care of themselves.

Beavan doesn't just write about what he did, he writes about why he did it. He writes about what he got out of it. His reflections about our way of life are so simple and logical, yet we hardly ever stop and really think about the fact that we can change if we want to. He discovers that there is no reason for him to rush around when all he really wants to do is spend time with his family. There is no reason to order take out when he can make the time to cook. There is no reason to wrap his baby girl in toxic plastic diapers if they can take a few extra minutes to wash some fabric ones, which she prefers by the way.

The motivation behind every choice he makes is backed by statistics and very clear research. The facts he uses throughout the book really drive his point home. The need to get involved becomes emotional. It's not some far-off problem we'll deal with when it happens, it's something we have to address now. The fact that stuck with me most, which I have pondered every day since reading it, is this: 80% of everything manufactured on this planet today is created to be used only once. We live on a planet of finite resources. People all over the world die for oil, entire ecosystems are ruined for it, and we are throwing away 80% of everything we make with it after the first use? Why?!?!

It's no wonder his book inspired me to change my own habits. I'm not sure how anyone could read it and not be driven to change, even just a little.

Taking a trash inventory

2011-04-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

In the month leading up to the start date of this project I'll be keeping a record of all the food trash I generate. I'd like to see just how much trash I produce in one month, that is strictly related to my food. I won't go so far as to weigh it all, but there might be some photographs and certainly a list.

I'm going to conduct myself as usual and not try to plan ahead too much for my year of no trash. I have set aside a bunch of containers for bulk food buying, but I won't be going out of my way to stock up on items I can't get without packaging (ketchup, mustard, alcohol, etc.). That's certainly cheating. I will, however, be making an order of bulk food from the buying club I'm part of, which produces some trash. It will be my last order before the year starts and I would have done it anyway. I've actually crossed a few things off that list to buy from the bulk bins locally.

The No Trash Diet

2011-04-01T08:00:00.004-04:00

Now starts the reinstatement of a certain hooligan's blog. At least for now. I'm starting a project and, in true pop-culture style, it will need to be blogged about. Consider it a matter of public record.

I recently finished reading Colin Beavan's No Impact Man and became inspired to go on my own year-long no impact journey. I won't be turning off electricity or not using my car (though with the spring creeping and winter finally heading out, I will be using it much, much less). I've decided to go on a no trash diet. The reasoning is this: The only trash can in my apartment is a 5 gallon bucket. I empty that bucket every 2-3 months. That's very little trash, but trash is trash. I think 90% of it probably comes from food scraps and packaging. So! Starting May 1st I will be cutting out all food associated garbage. No packaging whatsoever.

All good challenges need rules, so here they are:

1. All food scraps will be composted, fed to chickens, or thrown in the woods
2. I will bring all of my own containers to the farmer's market and the co-op
3. If I have a choice between local and non-local, I always go with local
4. Eating food prepared not in my own kitchen will be limited to twice a week, unless I am out of town.
5. This challenge does not apply to friends who cook for me
6. Any prepared food I buy from restaurants or delis must not come in any packaging
7. My cat gets a free pass, though I will talk to local farmers to see if I can find a source of pet food straight from the farm (I don't have the stomach to make it myself).

Some of the challenges I foresee are things like tofu, tempeh, vegan butter, and rice milk. If I can't make it myself or find it in bulk, I will just have to do without. I think figuring most of this stuff out will be pretty fun and I've already gotten offers of help.

I'm hoping to keep this blog as a record of the challenges and the solutions. I also want to start reviewing books again, though I will keep them relevant to the challenge. Some days you might get recipes, some days book reviews, some days cost comparisons, some days bouts of frustration, some days might bring great thankfulness and joy (do I do that? I'm sure I must). For the days leading up to this challenge I'll be posting about my preparations and, of course, a bit about what I'm reading.

Stay tuned!

We interrupt this normally scheduled blog silence to bring you an important update

2010-08-21T07:12:00.008-04:00

I said I was taking a break to make more time in my life. That's still true, though admittedly, I miss my little blog outlet. I especially missed it this morning and, since I have some extra time, I thought I'd share a small rant that's been bouncing around in my head.

My workplace has recently acquired a ridiculous contraption called a K-cup coffee maker. It's such an expensive and grossly wasteful purchase I can't even fathom how it made it into our break room. Recently one of the staff members sent out an email with some information about all of the ways Green Mountain Coffee, the makers of the individually packaged, single-serve coffee grounds, is an environmentally friendly company. Next to the coffee maker, we also have disposable cups and lids. I suppressed the urge to reply to that email with this:

The notion that our new coffee maker is in any way environmentally friendly is ludicrous. The machine is one of the most environmentally unfriendly purchases this establishment could have made, and to say that "it's not as bad is it could be" equates to sustainable is just misguided.

I would like to take a moment to point out that one fifth of Pakistan in now underwater after seeing the worst downpours on record, Russia burns during the longest drought on record, and it United States is blowing up mountain tops, looking for coal, rather than trying to curb energy use. All the while, we sip single cup coffee from wax-coated cardboard cups, topped with plastic lids, and call ourselves environmentally responsible for at least using the Green Mountain brand.

Also, can I direct you attention to this machine, which brews a single cup of coffee, the only waste being coffee grounds and a bio-degradable coffee filter. My grandmother, who watches so much Fox News she probably thinks of the climate crisis as a political farce, has one of these. She's greener than my "forward-thinking" workplace. Way to go people. I guess having to replace a filter, spoon out some coffee grounds and clean your own mug is just waaaaaay too much effort. We could have been composting those grounds.

Oh Dear, how embarassing

2010-06-12T09:36:00.002-04:00

It's been a while. A long while. But I have a great excuse. Last week I finished moving into my own place. As much as I loved the Ice House and was looking forward to spending my summer there, I really really needed my own space. My stress levels have been out of control. This new place is awesome. It's quiet and it's low maintenance, and it's closer to my jobs. As soon as it stops raining 24/7 I fully plan to start biking to work at least three days a week.

The other reason for no posting is my lack of internet. I've decided not to get internet at my apartment. It forces me to get off the computer and read, or cook a nice meal, or do the dishes; all that shit I put off when I can get online. So I won't be updating this blog much for the moment. I rally want to focus my energy on taking good care of myself. I hope I'll have time to write up a quick post about all of the new green ideas I've been having, but I'm not going to stress about getting three posts up a week. We'll see.

So ta ta for now lovely blog. I'm sure we'll meet again sometime soon.

On relaxing

2010-05-10T07:24:00.002-04:00

My level of stress recently has been off the chart. I have so much I want to do, but ultimately I have very little time for them. There have been some really crazy things happening in my life and yesterday, my day off, I finally had to really stop myself from going insane. I thought about all the of things that needed to get done, and put off all the the things I had simply been wanting to get done.

So I took my bike in for a tune-up, I bought dish soap and laundry detergent. I did not bake cookies or bread. I did not look up or concoct any home-made soaps. I did not write a book review for the amazing book I just finished. I took it easy and read a little. I played with Kava and the Frenchman. I relaxed. It was so amazing. Even though it rained, and kind of even snowed yesterday and I didn't get to soak up sun, it was still one of my better days off.

So, yes I'm doing better at staying organized, but I'm not getting it all done in one day. And I'm no longer going to try. I've been driving myself mad trying to take care of too many things and too many people all at once. I need more time to myself to relax. I need more time to read. I need more time to just breath and let my shoulders drop. Even just for a few minutes a day.

Afternoons in the Ice House

2010-05-09T18:14:00.002-04:00

Everyone, meet Kava:

The Ice House is for summers.

2010-04-25T15:15:00.005-04:00

Spring spring spring! I went outside this morning and looked at our back yard, horrified to see a huge patch of sand. What the hell happened to all the grass? It has not been so warm or dry that the yard would just dry up.

Suddenly I realized I wasn't looking at sand, I was looking at a huge patch of very tiny, very light purple flowers. Our yard is covered in teeny little flowers! From far away they look like the color of sand.

It was sunny and warm all morning, despite predictions of rain. It's just starting to look cloudy now. It's been a perfect day for planting the High Mowing seeds I got for free courtesy of Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved. He came to the bookstore to talk about his book and gave out some free seeds. I only got to watch the first half of his talk, but I can't wait to read the book. I also did not miss the opportunity to talk to him and make a fool of myself. I have such respect for anyone good at talking to people they have just met. I am always an utter failure.

Spring also means it's tag sale season around here. In the past few days I've scored a rolling pin, a black glass bowl (Designated Popcorn Bowl), a spice shaker, two pairs of pants, 3 hand towels, 2 shirts, and a Teflon-free frying pan (finally!!). I celebrated by making rice flour pancakes this morning, which promptly stuck to the frying pan and made a big mess. But they were tasty, and not full of icky chemicals. I also started the process of prepping the cast iron frying pans that have been in the trunk of my car for a million and a half years. I guess that extra half year finally drove me over the edge, because I can't wait to use them.

To add to this wonderful day of good news and happy blogging, we found out we could stay in our Ice House until September!! That means I get to live all summer with a stream in my backyard and Frenchman growing veggies all season!! Plus, the cheap rent means more of my hard earned money can go straight to my student loans, which is both depressing and uplifting.

Another tag sale this Friday in Manchester! Woo! Wish me luck finding a food processor.

That's Why We Don't Eat Animals by Ruby Roth

2010-04-16T07:04:00.008-04:00

Kids ask so many freaking questions! I have found myself in so many awkward situations because I wasn't exactly sure of the most appropriate way to explain certain things to a child. My veganism is one of those tricky subjects. I think kids should know where food comes from and that some of it may have come from an animal, but I don't think it's ok to scare kids into vegetarianism, and it's inappropriate to step on another parent's toes. However, kids ask questions because they need to understand their world and the different kids of people that they share it with, vegans and meat-eaters alike.

This book is one great way to tackle that scary question, "What's a vegan?" It's a wonderful book about vegetarianism for kids. It's a very gentle and un-scary way to explain what vegetarianism is and why some people don't eat animals. The illustrations are very sweet, depicting happy animals in natural settings and sad animals in factory farms. I also have to say that, as an adult, I still enjoyed this book for myself and managed to learn a few things from it. Did you know that a heard of cows will all moo together until a missing member finds its way home? I didn't.

Now, don't even ask me where to begin when a kid wants to know where babies come from. Go ask your mother.

Winter to Spring, in pictures

2010-04-08T08:41:00.002-04:00

Now's a great time to share some pictures from winter and remain hopeful of the coming spring.

The importance of storm windows. See that little etching on the lower side of the right window? That was done from the inside. All that ice was on the inside. The other window has a storm window on the outside, so it obviously stayed warmer.

The igloo ramp! The Frenchman used the top for snowboarding and Kava used the bottom for an igloo.

The snow is starting to melt around our tepee.

There's a stream in our backyard where Kava likes to play.

The bridge in our backyard.

Mini-lagoon.

Our house, from the bridge.

Spring tepee.

Signs of spring.

I can't believe we have to move out of this house in June.

Book Review - Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

2010-04-06T08:55:00.002-04:00

I've always been captivated by stories of New York in the 70's and 80's, back when it was still a dangerous and trashy city, when Times Square was all smut and crime, without the Disney musicals. Let the Great World Spin takes place in that era. It has all the dirt and grime, but it is a story about people, so it also has their hope. The stories move between the South Bronx, the Upper East Side and the Financial District (the southern tip of Manhattan).

The book takes the stories of many different people, from all parts of life, and weaves them together slowly and delicately. Most of them do not even know they are connected; they may sense it, but they will never fully understand it. An Irish priest and his brother, living in the South Bronx, one to find the underworld, the other trying to get out of it, become entangled in the lives of a group of prostitutes. A rich mother loses her only son in Vietnam and tries to find other mothers to connect with. A lost artist gets into a car accident that will change the course of all of their lives and set the story fully in motion.

The stories are all fictional, but they have something very important, and completely true, in common. In 1974 Phillipe Petit strung a wire between the Twin Towers and by walking across it he created an instant network of people, all connected by the same miraculous moment. Petit created one more piece of web to connect all of these stories. At the very height of their stories, the climactic turning point, they all experience the man dancing on the wire between the Twin Towers. His 140 foot length of cable, somehow crossed over the entire city at once, From the South Bronx, to the Upper East Side and back to the Financial District.

I loved this book. It's definitely a must-read for any fiction lovers.

Shopping bags

2010-04-04T09:26:00.009-04:00

This post is dedicated to a little item that frustrates me endlessly: "disposable" shopping bags.

No one needs disposable bags. Chances are you've got at least ten plastic bags floating around your house. I know I do and I don't even use them. I have no idea where they come from. They litter our streets, clog up streams, and they don't even biodegrade. They'll be on this planet even after your unborn great-grandkids are gone and you don't even need them. Oh, you use paper? That's not much better. Paper comes from trees and all that wood needs to be cut down, processed, made into bags and then shipped to you. You're paper bags may have been cut from trees in South America, shipped to china to be made into bags, then shipped to California to a distributor, before being shipped all over the country.

I can't even begin to share with you my frustration with people who come into the bookstore, buy one little book and say they need a bag. It's just one little paper bag. It doesn't even have handles! I resist the urge to tell them, "Carrying that book in a paper sleeve is no different than just carrying it in your hand." So if you refuse to re-use bags for shopping, at least don't ask for one when you've made a purchase small enough to be carried, or thrown into your freakishly large purse. You carried that item to the register, I'm sure you can make it to your car.

To help you understand the seriousness of the situation, here are some insane facts:

Consumption rate is now estimated at well over 500,000,000,000 (that's 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.
Americans use over 380 billion plastic bags per year
Americans throw away approximately 100 billion plastic bags per year (what they do with the other 280 billion is beyond me)
It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down
Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
Worldwide, an estimated 4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year. Tied end to end that’s enough to circle the earth 63 times. In case you didn't get that the first time, we can circle the planet with plastic bags 63 times EVERY YEAR
For more numbers and general information, go here, here, or even here.

Think paper bags are the solution? Think again!

Paper bags are made from wood, a renewable material, but more energy goes into producing them than plastic bags.
Paper bags are biodegradable, but many still end up sealed away in landfills and will not biodegrade. This is true of most waste in landfills due to lack of water, oxygen and sunlight.
Paper bags generate 70 percent more air and 50 percent more water pollutants than plastic bags.
But if that makes you think plastic bags are better than paper bags then let me remind you, we can circle the planet with plastic bags 63 times EVERY YEAR
More on paper bags here andhere.

Please, please, please think about these numbers next time you go to the grocery store. It's so easy to have reusable bags in your car at all times. Many grocery stores even give you a discount for bringing your own bags, so they'll eventually pay for themselves. And for one more interesting thought, my co-worker Sarah told me that if she ever forgets her reusable bags in the car or at home, she just piles her groceries back into her cart and brings the whole thing out to the car. Then she'll beg them up to take them inside. That's dedication!

For a great look at where bags come from, check out this article

Book Review - Eaarth by Bill McKibbon

2010-03-14T17:37:00.000-04:00

If it were up to me I'd make this book required reading for everyone on the planet. It's one of the most important books ever written about climate change. In fact, the only reason it's not the most important book, is because books written in the 70's and 80's predicting climate change were far more important, though mostly ignored. If we had only listened then, we would need a book like Eaarth now.

The book starts strong. It caught my attention quickly, citing specific examples of climate change and it's results on both massive and small scales. I thought the reason the United States didn't take much interest in climate change was because those hardest hit by changes in the weather lived in other parts of the world, but the truth is, we've been hit too. The major difference is that American people, supported by the US government, have the money to import food, crank up the AC and even pack up and move if we want. However, at the rate we're going, we're going to reach a point where all the money in the world won't be able to buy you food that just won't grow, or remove the pollution from your water, or save your life when a hurricane crashes into your town.

But the book isn't all doom and gloom. McKibben simply wants to make sure you're listening. He wants you to know that you're not saving your children or your grandchildren anymore, you're saving yourself. He wants you to you fully understand that the planet has been fundamentally changed and it's not ever going to change back. The most we can do is stop things from getting worse. It's a really hard piece of information to swallow.

The second part of the book is more hopeful. McKibben doesn't have all of the answers to survival, but the ideas he has are really good ones. His points are valid. I really liked his idea of communities providing for themselves and looking out for each other. Why buy your electricity from a power plant when you can generate it yourself? There's real security in being able to take care of yourself. When oil starts to dwindle and the prices skyrocket why not power your electric car and your house at the same time with solar and wind power from your own yard? His point is that we can't wait for big government to save us and provide for us, we have to show them what we want. With the world in the state is in right now, bigger is not going to be better. We have to scale down, start taking back the power to care for ourselves.

McKibbon isn't attacking the government. He praises large scale projects like highways and general infrastructure. This country grew and grew and because of that, American people enjoy a fairly high standard of living. It's time to stop growing though. It's time to adapt to the world we created. No book I've yet read makes that more abundantly clear than Eaarth.

It ends on a good note. The kind of ending that makes it easier to recommend this book. He uses Vermont as a model for sustainability, but he talks about larger-scale projects as well; things that are working. He also points out the importance of the internet. The internet, this crazy tool that can connect anyone, anywhere. For example, I'm writing this review while sitting on a bus to NYC. The wireless internet connects me to millions of people, the biggest forum ever known. Any idea I'll ever have can instantly be shared with he world. There is no need for us all to be isolated, we can figure out solutions and move forward as a group. I can instantly find information about powering my own home, growing my own food, and converting my car to run on veggie oil by just getting online. The limitless connections of the internet are a gift when most of us don't even know our own neighbors. It's a hope, in a world where hope fades more and more the longer we live the way we do.

I have more to say about this book, and a few excellent quotes and stories to share from it, however I did not bring the book with me on the bus. I'm going to save those bits and pieces for a few weeks from now, after the book is available to buy. Check back mid-April for more on this title!

And, in the interest of saving paper, I will gladly loan you my copy.

A scattered and belated post

2010-03-13T12:38:00.006-05:00

These past few weeks have been crazy. Never a dull moment around here between cars, jobs, family members. At least it's warmed up and it's finally starting to look like spring. I also could have sworn I wrote a book review for Eaarth. Now I'll actually have to think about it. That'll come this week.

I'm going to NYC tomorrow for about a week to work on Keen Company's next show, I never Sang for My Father. That should be fun. I've shortened my time there, so I'll be back on Friday, just in time to work at the bookstore. This means I miss the Sustainable Vermont talk this month, where Oliver will be talking about CSAs and sustainable and local food. I hear one of the WWOOFers is going to make a killer power point presentation for him. Ah well.

So while I go work on that book review, you should ponder this little green tip:
Reusable water bottles. Yes, we've all heard of them, but for some reason people still drink bottled water. Odd. Mine is a glass Nantucket Nectars iced tea bottle. People are sometimes a little weird about carrying glass bottles, but I've done it for years and never broken one. I did have a cool metal water bottle, but oddly enough I dropped it and the top broke. Go figure. Anyway, I highly recommend looking into a reusable, non-plastic, water bottle. As is the case with mine, they don't need to be pricey or fancy. If I do lose mine, which has happened once or twice, I just treat myself to an iced tea, rinse the bottle out and presto, a reusable bottle.

When you think about bottled water, it makes no sense. A large-scale company takes the most abundant resource on the planet, puts it into a chemical-leaching, plastic bottle and ships it hundreds or thousands of miles so you can take a few sips and then throw it away. Then, after all that needless effort, to add insult to injury, the plastic will last longer on this planet than you or anyone you know. All for water, something readily available and usually free. Don't like tap water? Look into filters!

For further filter research, check out this blog post.

2010-03-06T18:38:00.002-05:00

Nights like these the desert starts to creep in. Memories of driving aimlessly all night through Santa Fe mountains; laying on the warm hood of my car to stare at endless Santa Fe stars. The sky met the mountains and the trees, but never touched the city, so far out of sight even the glow of it can't be seen. Nights like these I miss the desert. I miss pressing the gas pedal to the ground just to see how fast the car could go down those endless hills, deep into canyons. Somehow towns up here are so much harder to escape from. Every exit leads somewhere. The sky doesn't seem so endless and there is no Nowhere to drive to. There is no sandy pull-off, or highway to Mexico. No unlit roads to dark solitude. Even in this small town, the lights are always on. I have to be inside to find the darkness of night time. I have to crouch in front of the woodstove to find a hopeful glow reminiscent of a desert sunrise.

All highways are the same though, and I know that if I just drive long enough I'll find that unpaved road that leads up purple mountains. And yet, somehow, this place feels like so much more of a home to me than those ghostly southwestern towns. Something keeps me here, even on nights like these.

Adventure in my pants: Part 2

2010-02-24T12:00:00.002-05:00

It's been two anxiety-filled days of waiting for the amazing conclusion.

Five days to test four different feminine hygiene products and figure out if full-time sustainability is practical enough for a period.

Day 1: Diva Cup

I figured I'd better start serious and break out the Diva Cup. Getting it in is a little tricky, and even though the instructions tell you to only use this product when you're on your period, I'm going to recommend you practice getting it in and out before your cycle starts. You'll be glad you did. Figuring out the logistics of my body while on my period was annoying, to say the least.
Anyway I did finally get it. It was quite comfortable. I had to trim the stem a little, but apparently that's normal.

The packaging says that the Diva Cup does not leak and only needs to be emptied every 12 hours. This wasn't exactly the case for me and I needed to empty it several times in the first 24 hours and I went through two liners. Luckily it was my day off, so it wasn't an issue. I'd like to give this product another test run next month before I give my full recommendation.

Day 2: Tampons and Liners
I paired up the tampons with the liners, just to be safe. I had already used two of the liners on day one, which was stupid of me, so I was a little worried. When my period finally started I was so excited to use my new stuff that I didn't really plan ahead at all. I was so used to having boxes upon boxes of pads and tampons that I just went ahead and used whatever, without thinking.

This made me especially nervous because I didn't know how well the tampons would work. I packed an extra liner and all the tampons into my wet bag and also shoved a few disposable tampons into my backpack, just in case. I knew that using them would mean that I failed my own sustainable challenge, but I didn't want any embarrassing issues at work.

The day was a success. The reusable tampons worked just as well as my disposable, organic ones, if not better. They're easy to roll up and put in and I had no leak problems that one little pantiliner couldn't handle. The bonus to the reusable method that I didn't foresee was that because there was no packaging, there wasn't any of the embarrassing noises associated with ripping open tampon packages in the bathroom. I don't mind blogging about my period, but I'm not about to broadcast news of my cycle at work.

Day 3: Tampons and Liners
Much the same as day 2.

Day 4: Reusable Pad
Well, here's where I panic a bit. I was out of liners and tampons. I had to suck it up and use one of the full sized pads, which I had only been using for evenings (in case you were wondering what I did at night). When I removed the inserts the pad was undetectable with slightly baggy pants. Really, these pads are great, it's just that they are longer than I need and they make me paranoid. Still, the day was fine. I pulled the pad forward a little and I don't think it ever became visible from behind. Phew.

Days 5 and 6: Pad Insert
There is maybe a bit of spotting by day 5 and 6, but as I said, I was out of liners. I decided to use an insert from the pads, even though they don't have wings and snaps to keep them in place. Amazingly I discovered that you don't really need the wings and snaps to keep pads in place. They just stay. No shifting at all, even after walking around all night at the bookstore.

Care and cleaning:
After using pads or tampons I rinsed them and tossed them into a small bucket of cold water with a lid sitting under my bathroom sink. I changed the water daily, and on my heaviest day I put a little detergent in there. If you change the water daily, it won't smell. By the last day the water will be clear. I dump the water and throw everything into the wash with my clothes. In the months since I started using the cloth pads overnight, this is what I have always done. I have never gotten a stain on my clothes and there aren't even stains on the pads themselves. Don't believe me? All of the pictures in the previous post were taken the day I wrote this, meaning they had all been used at least once and washed with my clothes using all natural powder detergent.

Tampons: Rinse them as soon as you can after use. They store just fine in the wet bag, but I really don't think you'll want them sitting in there for any longer than necessary.

Pads: Can usually be thrown right into the bucket without rinsing. Use your judgment.

Diva Cup: Follow the directions that come with it. They are detailed and easy. I used Dr. Bronner's unscented body wash instead of the Diva Wash, because I don't need to order yet another overpriced product from the internet.

Wet bag: Wipe it out daily and wash it with everything else at the end of your cycle.

Conclusion:
Even though I carried disposable tampons around in my pocket all 6 days of my period, I never used them. Not one.

I splurged on my period, but I'm happy I did. I can honestly say I'm not going to be buying reusable pads or tampons any time soon and it'll save me so much money. The convenience of always having them here, ready for use is enough to sell me, but the environmental and safety issues are the greatest bonuses.

Adventure in my pants: Part 1

2010-02-22T10:00:00.010-05:00

I'm going to start this post with a Disclaimer. This post is about periods. Yep, it's about that perfectly normal thing that most women on this planet deal with every month. Before all of you boys run off, I'm going to ask you to -try- and be mature about this. While you're obviously not my target audience, if you're eco-minded, or just plain thrifty, it's good information to have. Plus, it's about time men got over the whole fear of periods thing. And any ladies out there who are squeamish about their monthly cycles... suck it up and hear what I have to say. Maybe you'll learn something that will make your monthly visits a little easier to deal with. No, there won't be any gross pictures. What the hell kind of blogger do you take me for? Ok, now that we've lost all the big babies out there, let's get started!

A few years ago, while I was still in college, a friend of mine made a passing comment that kind of stuck with me. She was annoyed that women have to spend so much money on their damn periods. Everyone needs food and water and those subsidized by the government. Systems for getting these things to people have been put into place so that the things we need most are available to us for a pretty low cost. But what about women? We have periods every month and we need to buy products to help us deal with them so we can leave our houses and function as though we're not completely inconvenienced and feeling like shit. That stuff is expensive and wasteful and actually quite bad for us.

I'm going to start with a quick list of facts you might find interesting about disposable pads and tampons:

Tampons and pads are made of bleached cotton and rayon and contain dioxin, a chemical linked to infertility, immune system suppression and hormone abnormalities. Do you really want to put those inside your body?

The average woman will use 12,000 tampons or pads in her life. That doesn't take into account the applicators and the packaging. This is basically a mountain of bloody waste per woman. That's quite a lifetime achievement!

Tampons and pads are not sterile. Yes they are individually wrapped (more waste), but they are not sterile.

For more scary statistics and sources click here and here.

When I first learned about dioxins a few years ago I made the obvious switch to organic. The organic brands out there offer pads and tampons made of unbleached cotton, with little to no plastic packaging. I also ditched applicators, because they are so unnecessary. You should be washing your hands before and after dealing with tampons anyway.

Last year I discovered Heather. At the time she was still Holistically Heather, but has since branched out and created a new Etsy shop called Aunt Flos Pads, dedicated to offering women a sustainable solution to their monthly cycles. Her blog post about reusable pads really got me thinking and I decided to try it out. Heather's pads come with two inserts: one for light days, one for medium and then you can pair them up for heavier days. I've found that the pads work so well that I never need more than one insert at a time at night. Sometimes I wear them without the insert at all. A disclaimer: Heather's usual pads are far more attractive than the ones I asked her to make for me. These were the first reusable pads I had ever seen or purchased and I was really worried about staining. I'm stupid.

I'll admit that I didn't embrace it fully at first. The reusable pads are a bit bulky for me and can't be worn under just anything. However, her pads promptly replaced all of my nighttime and sitting-on-my-butt-at-home pads. The purchase of just these three pads has saved me a bundle of money and there hasn't been a leak to speak of.

Last month I realized I needed to get a little more serious about it. I have less and less time to go shopping these days because I work all the time, and I was constantly running out of tampons and liners and not being able to go to the store. I also had a lot of eco-guilt associated with all of the waste. However, I didn't want to give up tampons. They're so damn convenient I can't even deal with it. In a moment of desperation, I turned once again to Etsy. I did a quick search and found the answer to all of my problems.

For liners I found Brittany, who was willing to deal with all of my picky requests. Brittany agreed to make me a shorter liner than usual, leave out any stitching down the center of the pads (I've heard that can cause leaks) and line it with PUL, a waterproof liner that blocks leaks. I made sure my pads were cute this time. The pads also fold up and snap for easy storage, as you can see above.

I then found Barb. How unexpected. It seemed to good to be true! A reusable tampon? I was worried, so I sent her a message asking her if she really used these things. How does she deal with changing them when she's out? Do they really come clean? Do they smell? All of her answers were satisfactory and her prices were even better. So I told her what kind I wanted, what the wet bag should look like and I made my purchase.

There was just one more thing. As I was reading Sleeping Naked is Green, I rediscovered The Diva Cup. My friends and I used to make fun of The Diva Cup. I mean, the title alone is ridiculous enough, but come on, a cup? In your vagina? Not so sure about that. But Vanessa loved it, and she talked about other women who loved it. That got me reading blogs about the serious love of Diva Cups. Women swear by them. After checking out their website I decided to give it a shot and I ordered one.

I figured I'd better make something of all this crazy spending and write up a nice blog post about it. The thing that sold me the most on all of these products was hearing about them from another woman, even if I didn't know her. The kind ladies I purchased from on Etsy use their own products and the bloggers who wrote about Diva Cup are not paid for it, so it added a very human touch. In an attempt to add yet another human touch, I tested all of these products the best way I could think of, on myself.

This ends part 1. For the results of the Sustainable Period challenge, check out part 2!

A post about Stuff

2010-02-20T12:16:00.008-05:00

I know you are all waiting on the edges of your seats for the extra special post I promised for this weekend, but this is not it. The extra special post involves some things that are currently wet and I would like to have them dry before I take pictures. You'll have to wait until Monday, which is when I've scheduled it to appear (magic!).

Right now I would like to take some time to talk a little about Stuff. We all have it, lots and lots of it. Even those of us who do our best to keep it minimal have more stuff than we actually need. I get endlessly annoyed with all of the Stuff out there in the world, begging to be purchased. All of these things that are supposed to make our lives better, easier, more complete. I talk to some of my co-workers about this and they tend to agree. But then, booksellers are a thousand times smarter than everyone else and have no faults whatsoever. Ahem.

The product that always jumps first into my mind and annoys me more than any other product out there is The Swiffer. Can a product possibly get any more needless than a Swiffer? You replace a broom and a mop (perfectly sustainable and long-lasting, cheap tools) with something plastic, disposable, and expensive. Yeah, ok, the refills are cheap (I'm guessing here, I've never bought any), but holy crap! you don't need it! And you have to keep buying them. Over and over and over again.

I recently saw some products on Etsy for reusable Swiffer heads. A step in the right direction? I almost bought some for my mother. Maybe I will.

So basically, when people talk to me about the problems with American Culture, the first thing I think of is a Swiffer. I know there are worse things, but this a pretty good metaphor for what's wrong with the developed world.

This brings me to an important point. The point, actually, of this post. I'm going to be writing a few posts about the wasteful everyday items we use, well, everyday. The Logger was complaining about the lack of paper towels in this house the other day when I reminded him that I don't use anything disposable (except toilet paper), so we don't have any. Sorry. You'll have to use those cleaning rags after all. And to kick off this little series of posts, I'll start with the Super, Extra-Special, Weekend post I promised you. Monday is the new Sunday, so look or it then!

I end this little post with my favorite green tip:
Not all modern inventions are bad. Washing machines are awesome (cold water people, cold water). But seriously, who needs a dryer when you live in the most beautiful, green place all summer...

and you've got a rockin wood stove all winter.

PS- I started a new book! Check it out in the left hand column!

Wicked Plants - Amy Stewart

2010-02-19T09:45:00.001-05:00

What a charming and interesting book. I had no idea that so many common plants were so freaking bad for me and might possibly be able to kill me or my cat (this is imagining that I have a cat of course). For instance, did you know that tulip bulbs can cause blisters on the hands of people who package them because they are slightly poisonous? I mean, I always knew that tulips could inspire murder and ruin economies, but blisters? Now that's crazy!

The book isn't all poison though. It also highlights plants that are destructive, and illegal, intoxicating, unpleasant, and dangerous. Apparently Stewart's opinion is that tobacco is the most dangerous plant of all. I'd have to say I agree with her on that one, though the Australian Stinging Tree sounds excruciating.

There were so many little tid bits about the plants I see every day or even keep in my house. The book isn't set up in a way that is meant to be shocking or scary; it's interesting and fun. The author includes fun little facts and stories about most of the plants, which makes it more fun to read. It's also such a nice size and comes with a ribbons attached to use as a book mark. Why don't all hardcover book come with ribbons damn it?

I had mixed feelings about the art in the book. The etchings, done by Briony Morrow-Cribbs, were very well done and interesting. They were beautiful and eerie at the same time, very much in the spirit of the book as a whole. They also remind me of the art my friend Lisa does, which helps. However, the little illustrations, done by Jonathon Rosen, were so poor that they actually annoyed me. They look like hasty doodles. I actually checked out his website because his bio in the book had some impressive commissions. His work varies from the doodly things seen in this book, to some impressive illustrations for newspapers and magazines. Go figure.

Basically, when I was done reading this book, I wished there was a poison garden somewhere around here to visit. I have such a new appreciation for the scary power of the plant world. I always knew dangerous plants existed, but I guess I didn't realize just how common they were, and just how dangerous they could be.

I live in a Dorset horror flick

2010-02-17T21:13:00.004-05:00

Driving home at night from the bookstore is a little freaky. The roads are dark and twisty and trees crowd in from both sides. They're the kind of roads where, if my life were cheap thriller movie, a ghost would suddenly appear in front of my car, or an ax murderer would pop out of the backseat (I guess it doesn't help that I never lock my car), or some psycho would start stalking me with his car and flashing his brights and maybe even run into me. Have I mentioned there's no police station in Dorset and no 24 hour businesses and basically no one around by the time I get home?

These are the kinds of things I was thinking about tonight while some asshole with NY plates insisted on tailgating me all the way through town all because I'm not going to speed. Sorry. Even if the roads weren't slippery, I probably wouldn't be speeding. What I don't need is a ticket, a deer plastered to the front of my car, or to slide off the road. And come to think of it, I bet that guy didn't any of those things either. Thus, I am a cautious driver. I also hate tailgating so much it's reason enough for me to just stop driving.

So I slowed down. He didn't get it. I brake checked him like nobody's business. No effect. If he had been any closer he would have been in the back seat of my car. Finally he passed me as we got into Dorset, 30mph speed limit, double yellow line. Good riddance.

The point of this post? Public service announcement. DON'T TAILGATE. It's annoying and dangerous and it will make people who don't even know you, hate you.

I know, I know, this isn't even a real blog post. But worry not! I have something special in mind for the weekend. Also I started a new book so amazing I want to memorize it and start reciting it on the streets like those crazy people in NY that are always yelling about the bible while everyone rolls their eyes and tries to ignore them. Yep, someday that nutcase you cross the street to avoid will be me. My parents will be so proud.

Ta ta for now faithful readers!

That green tidbit I promised to keep up with: So this one is stolen directly from the book Sleeping Naked is Green. It's just such a damn good idea that I had to take it up. During my morning showers, I do not turn on the bathroom light. There's enough sunlight coming in the window to see with, plus I love the calm and quiet feeling associated with darkness. Somehow it makes my shower feel more hushed. Yeah, I've been spending too much time around lighting designers. Anyway it's just one more little thing that can be done to reduce energy consumption in a daily routine. If I actually showered daily that is.

The dark side of the farm

2010-02-13T14:21:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy and that lead to me being tired. Anyway I stumbled across this star wars parody and it's basically the bst thing ever. So just shut up and watch it.

Book Review - Generation A by Douglas Coupland

2010-02-01T11:04:00.002-05:00

Douglas Coupland's writing is a little Chuck Palahniuk, without trying as hard to be clever, and a little Kurt Vonnegut, though not so cynical. This book is not his first novel, but it almost reads like one. It doesn't make me interested to read his other books anytime soon, which is a bummer because I had high hopes for this book.

The story is about the foreseeable future when bees have gone extinct. No one has seen them for at least five years. Suddenly 5 different and seemingly unrelated people get stung. The book is told from their individual perspectives. Coupland does a good job of giving them all different personalities, though the writing style for each voice is basically identical. I found myself having trouble believing that the perceptive introvert was perceptive at all in certain chapters. At times he told his story like an ignorant fool.

I had bigger problem with the pacing. The story was all beginning and end, with no middle to speak of. We start out with the 5 people getting stung and they are whisked away to underground labs to be studied for a month, without explanation as to why. Then they go home, but before anything can happen there, they are whisked away yet again to a remote island where they find out why they were stung and what the results of being locked away underground were. Why even have them go home at all? Coupland seemed to be in a rush, but nothing gets me into a book like a writer who savors the story.

But I don't want to be misleading, it's a fun book and Coupland has a smart writing style. It was an easy read and an enjoyable one. It simply wasn't my favorite and I won't be rushing to re-read this book. I still stand by it being an interesting story idea, I just wish there could have been more to it. In a way that's a compliment. It's not like I didn't finish the book; I liked it enough to want more from it.

Rice Flour Pancakes

2010-01-31T10:25:00.002-05:00

I realized when I was posting yesterday that I have never actually put up my recipe for Rice Flour Pancakes. The link I had there was the inspiration for what I make, but not the way I actually make them. So here it is:

Amazing, tasty, who-even-cares-about-wheat-flour-anymore, gluten-free, banana pancakes

1 c rice flour (I use brown, it has a fuller flavor)
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1-2 T sugar (if you have maple syrup that's even tastier. I use raw sugar because refined sugar is... gross.)
1 t vanilla(or almond) extract
1 T veg oil
3/4 c alternative milk of choice (obviously you should not DEFILE my recipes with cow milk)
1 medium overripe banana

Mix all the dry ingredients. Mash the banana really well in a separate bowl, you want it to be about the consistency of beaten eggs. Then add in the milk, vanilla and oil. Add wet to dry. Stir well. A banana is an inexact measurement, so you may need to add more milk or flour. Make sure your cooking surface is adequately greased, because these puppies will stick like crazy and then crumble apart, though if this does happen, don't fret they still taste just as good. Cook as you would any other inferior pancake, dropping about 1/3 c at a time.

I put a little lemon oil into The Logger's pancakes yesterday morning and he LOVED them. I also once made these with a bit of jam swirled into the batter, which was amazing. Basically, it's a flexible recipe and a yummy one.

A mid-winter check in

2010-01-30T09:49:00.006-05:00

I recently posted about the mid-winter warmth we've been having in Vermont. All over town and even in my backyard I can see actually grass. Real grass. Not covered in snow. Or at least I could until two days ago. It was as though the sky finally looked at the ground and realized it was looking a little too much like spring and promptly dumped a few inches of snow on us. I really enjoyed the use of the word squall that happened on several occasions at work. At one point we looked outside and saw nothing but white. NOTHING BUT WHITE. OK, OK, I know this is Vermont, but it's not the arctic, this kind of stuff doesn't happen very often.

And now is as good a time as any to check in with those changes I told myself I'd be making in my life.

1. Step up my commitment to the environment. I'm doing a pretty good job of this. I've made a few changes recently that are small, but significant. One of those changes does not include driving less. It's endlessly annoying that I have two jobs and usually work at two locations everyday. This kind of kills any chance of carpooling, because I would need to orchestrate something between three different people who don't share my schedule. However, come spring I plan to bike more. Right now it's not feasible. Not because of the cold, but due to the danger of ice and snow banks in what would be the shoulder of a highway. No thanks.

But here's something fun! I'm going to try and include a fun environmental... something (who knows) at the bottom of my non-book review posts. Starting today.

2. Become a for real Vermont resident. I am officially a Vermont voter! And I have a PO Box! And I applied for health insurance. I don't have a Vermont ID yet, but that's because I don't have time to even think about driving to Bennington for such a trivial thing.

3. Get even more organized. Yeah... about that. I haven't done this.

4. Check!

5. Read more. There isn't enough time to read all of the books on my book list!!! But I'm trying.

6. Make new friends. Um. Well. I think I'm kind of trying. I mean, I've gone out to social events I would normally skip out on, but I also go to the movies alone every week and never even try to have company. Socializing is so much work! I just want to have friends without having to go through the stress of making them. (yes, I said stress. This might explain why change is so difficult for me)

7. Continue my efforts to eat whole, home-made, unprocessed food. I haven't had a single Soy Chai Latte since I wrote that change! I have had several bagels though. Clearly I need to go out and get me some rice cakes, because I'm all out and I'm substituting bagels. Still no blender. Gonna go make a new freecycle post about this.

So... yeah! I'd say I'm chugging along. But I'm gonna go chug along down to the kitchen and make me some rice flour pancakes.

A green idea: I get paid weekly at my internet job. Gordon leaves our paychecks in an envelope by our time sheets. There are 52 weeks in a year. That's 52 envelopes a year! I buy a box of 50 envelopes and it lasts me forever. I don't want my paychecks costing the earth a box of paper envelopes a year. So on Fridays I put my packcheck into my backpack and hand the envelope back to Gordon. He reuses it next week. My little envelope change inspired one of my coworkers as well, so that's a little over two boxes of envelopes a year we're saving for pretty much no effort whatsoever. Woo!

Lemon Amazing!

2010-01-23T19:19:00.004-05:00

One of the perks of working at a bookstore is that I can borrow books. If I'm really interested in reading a book, but I don't really want to commit to buying it, I can simply allocate a copy to myself and take it home for a few days. Of course I need to be insanely careful with it and not spill anything on it, or accidentally bend the cover. I NEVER dog ear pages, so that's no problem.

Getting to the point: Monday is The Loggers birthday. And if you are a devoted blog reader (AKA my mother), you'll remember the ridiculous lemon cake I made him last year. This year he said he wanted to be a little more low key and that he wanted cupcakes. Lemon cupcakes. There's been a major change in our lives since last year's cake, and that is veganism. The Logger isn't actually vegan (though he gets closer and closer every day), but since I am, and I do most of the cooking and all of the baking, that means vegan baked goods for birthdays.

I knew I would need to get the recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, but I didn't want to buy a copy. I was just going to email a recipe to myself while I was at work, but I completely forgot until about 5 seconds before we were shutting down the computers. Shit. So I quickly allocated a copy to myself. It was the last copy. So I'm sorry bookstore, I know I'm not supposed to take books home when there isn't another copy in the store, but I think I'm pretty much 100% of the Manchester vegan market, so I'm not too worried anyone is going to run into the store and demand a copy of the vegan cupcake book. Anyway there's a copy of the vegan cookie book, so whatever.

In order to be as careful as possible (and because I generally make a mess when baking) I copied the recipe onto another piece of paper before attempting to make anything. I transformed the basic vanilla cupcake into a lemon delight. The Logger loved them, and so did I, though I don't especially love lemons. Win.

Maybe I do need a vegan cupcake book after all...

Bees!!! and a canker sore

2010-01-21T21:03:00.005-05:00

I have this stupid canker sore. Not as bad as the one I had at the end of last winter though. At least I can eat and talk and be alive without thinking about this one. It really only annoys me when I brush my teeth. I feel like I'm making it worse. I'm not though. These things are all the same; they show up suddenly, stick around without changing for whatever period of time they seem fit, and they they disappear just as quickly as they came. They don't get worse or better, they are either there, or gone. This one is not gone. Maybe a few more days.

Whatever, that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the weather I think. There's a January thaw happening right now and it feels nice. The weather has been above freezing for most of the day and then everything gets icy again at night. The news man on the radio said that bees need a warm day or two every month to leave their hives and take a dump. I feel like my brain might need sunny days like that as well to take a spiritual dump. Whatever that means. I clearly need more sun.

I'm reading a book called Generation A (yeah, I put the plant book on hold and didn't update my website. Oh hush, you don't even care). It's all about the not-distant future where bees are extinct. No bees. None of those pollinators we've come to rely so heavily on. An exotic species in this country, but so are most of the crops we grow, so it makes sense. We've changed our eco system and it's working out. Except bees really aren't doing so well, so this book isn't so unbelievable. It's fiction by the way, not some kind of apocalyptic sustainability book.

Anyway this brings me to my next point: honey. I know, I know, honey is not vegan. I got it. But put the whining on hold for a second and let me point out my thoughts on my own personal honey consumption. I eat honey. I eat it rather frequently. I realize the issues with large-scale commercial honey farms (if you don't, then you might want to check this out). I agree with honey being an animal product that is collected in ways which I would consider cruel. I won't buy silk because I think silk production is cruel, so why include honey in my diet?

The reasons, which I have thought very hard about, are simple. I have terrible allergies in the spring. I can not function as a normal human being without medication. Medication is tested on animals in the cruelest ways possible. However! eating local honey in the winter can help your body become immune to pollen in the spring. It's like a delicious and sweet allergy shot to go with my morning oatmeal. If eating some honey in the winter, which I get from a beekeeping friend (who does not kill his bees, or clip their wings, or burn their hives) will mean that I won't need to purchase allergy medication, then I'm going to eat honey. I'm not buying honey from anyone else. I don't buy pre-packaged food which might contain honey and I pretty much cook all of my meals, so the honey thing doesn't come up often in my life. It would be awesome if, in a few seasons, I didn't need allergy medication or immune system building honey, but right now I'm certainly choosing the lesser of two evils.

I realize I'm probably going get a huge lecture on this at some point. The honey debate is a huge one in vegan communities and I would say that I agree with the non-honey eating vegans. I do agree with them. I also think that bees are important pollinators and if they do disappear (which they have been doing, though we don't really know why), we are pretty much fucked. So if my local friend (who worships his bees by the way), can raise a happy, healthy colony, then more power to him. He's an incredibly irresponsible guy and his hives will probably end up swarming and creating wild hives anyway.

Bzz

Book Review - Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres

2010-01-18T20:16:00.000-05:00

This book is a must have for any vegans, vegetarians, or people somewhere in between. It's kind of a how-to guide to surviving in a very non-vegan world, where you will probably be looked at as a freak.

It deals with the obvious question of "why vegan?" and also the less obvious question of "why vegan and NOT vegetarian?" It also deals with the parts of veganism that involve non-food items. I especially like the chapters about how to handle non-vegans, specifically family and friends.

I really identify with and needed something like this book. It explains the importance of having vegans friends and a vegan community. I live in a small town and I'm lucky to know even one other vegan. I spend a lot of time reading vegan blogs and I communicate with my vegan friends in NY whenever I feel like I need a vegan ally. Part of the reason I have this blog is for and outlet for my life and my veganism is part of that. It's frustrating to feel like you're the only person around who sees the very serious cruelty involved in the non-vegan ways of the people around us, especially the people we love.

The only major criticism I have about this book is the editing. In this case, it seems like the major part of the editing process was done by a spell checker and not much more. I found so many major grammatical errors in this book it drove me mad. Simply sending the book to anyone else and having them read it cover to cover would have solved so many of the editing issues. Oh my god I have never read a book with so many typos. Even my college papers had less problems than this book. Bob and Jenna, if you're reading this, I adore you guys, but please fix this stuff before the next printing. (For all you people out there who would argue that my own blog is full of errors, I'll remind you that I openly admit to not proofreading mot of this, it's not a published book, and I make absolutely no money from it. It's a hobby, not a job and is in no way professional.)

I don't want to make the book sound amateur, it's not. It's so clear that a lot of thought and research went into it. They include many other books to refer to for more information and help on any of the many topics they touch on in the book. It's a starting point, and an important one. So, if you're vegan, or thinking about it: go buy this book! Or borrow it, whatever.

No 'poo

2010-01-17T21:40:00.002-05:00

After reading Sleeping Naked Is Green, I felt inspired to start making my own small changes. I already do a lot of what was talked about in the book, but something I had been curious about and even managed some failed attempts at, was giving up shampoo. In truth, I don't think the author ever really did it, but I wanted to.

For as long as I can remember I've always had dandruff and buildup. Actually, I've had dandruff caused by buildup. No matter what shampoo I used or what kind of water I washed it with, I always had buildup. And my hair is super-italian-greasy and heavy. It gets pretty gross after a few days of not washing.

I figured I'd give this no shampoo thing a try, so I read up about it on the internet first. Turns out it's not just as simple as, stop washing your hair. Your hair gets stripped of it's natural oils when you use shampoo, so it over-compensates and starts producing massive amounts of oil to recuperate. When you initially stop using shampoo your hair will be extra-ultra greasy. It takes a while for your hair to balance out and stop over-producing oil.

I avoided this period pretty easily (or at least shortened it drastically) by only shampooing once a week for a long time. My hair was at least half way to balanced. I also mixed up a solution of 1 tablespoon baking soda and one cup of water. I keep it in an old Dr. Bronner's bottle in the shower. I massage it into my scalp when I "wash" my hair. The baking soda helps to break up excess dirt and grease in your hair. Another thing I did to help with the transition was to use shampoo only on the bottom part of my hair, where it didn't touch my head.

Baking soda will feel strange at first, mostly because it feels like almost nothing. It won't lather, it won't smell fruity, and it won't make your hair slippery and silky int he shower. Actually my hair feels kind of weird and stiff when it's still wet after I've scrubbed with baking soda. However, once it's dry it feels AMAZING. It's so light and soft. It's almost annoying how much lighter it is (in terms of weight), because before all of the grease was keeping my hair weighed down and out of my face, now it just kind of flows and moves easily, it falls in my face a lot more.

I also don't have gross buildup and my dandruff has gotten much much better. Better than it was when I was using shampoos made especially for dandruff. I still have a little bit of it and my scalp stills gets a bit itchy. I think that has to do with genetics (thanks dad for the oily hair and dry scalp you passed on to your only daughter) and a little do to with the baking soda itself.

One thing I read online is that the baking soda can cause a little irritation or dandruff because it is so basic. If that happens you can rinse with a solution of 1 tablespoon vinegar and a cup of water to neutralize the base. I used to use vinegar to wash my hair when I was swimming a lot. Yes, it smells bad in the shower (use apple cider vinegar for less of a smell), but it will not leave your hair smelling like vinegar. The smell is gone as soon as the vinegar dries.

As soon as the Logger finishes his current bottle of Dr. Bronners, I'm going to mix up a batch of vinegar solution and let you know how that goes. Yay for no more 'poo!

Book Review - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

2010-01-11T21:07:00.003-05:00

I can't review this book. How could I review this book? I feel like a fraud. What right do I have to write anything about this amazing story? It's a classic for a reason! It's so perfect and meticulous. Dumas created the most amazing and perfect characters and had no trouble whatsoever bringing them to life. There's not a speck of laziness in his writing. He takes no shortcuts, creates no miracles without explanation, and he runs the reader through every possible emotion throughout the story.

Edmond Dantes is wonderful. He's an honest and good person and he's perfect in so many ways. If he's slightly conceited, it is only because he is too young to know any better. When he becomes the Count of Monte Cristo he is conceited because he has learned to know better. He is the ultimate instrument of revenge and wrath. He is so perfect and adept at his revenge that at times it gets away from him, it takes on it's own life. He forgets that he is human and I found myself forgetting as well. However, Dumas reminds his readers before he reminds The Count. We see what is about to unfold just before Dantes and just after it is too late to stop any of it. The revenge is so perfectly plotted, no detail is left out. However, it is impossible to know the full extent of it, only because it impossible to know any person to the fullest extent. Who knows just how far any one character will go? No one but Dumas it seems.

The ending. Oh the ending. Of course I would never reveal the ending. But, oh is it perfect. Amazing. A believable fantasy, just like the rest of the book, but somehow even more so. And just like the rest of the book it is impossible to say just what happens after the last page. The story will never rest, because, like life, there are no tidy endings. Like life, you can never really know what path people will choose, or what tomorrow will bring.

This is a post in which I rant a little

2010-01-04T20:57:00.003-05:00

So some cattle rancher decided to follow me on twitter. How on earth did that guy even find me and why would he think it was a good idea? Was it the fact that my profile states that I'm vegan? This cattle rancher is an "animal welfare specialist" according to his profile. Right. What part of breeding and raising animals specifically to kill them for human pleasure is to be considered humane? Just because animals weren't raised on factory farms doesn't make it ok to kill and eat them. Listen, you don't NEED meat to live, and you don't need it to be healthy. Therefore, when you do eat meat, it is only for pleasure, and nothing more. That means that you raise and kill animals for pleasure. End of story. There's no animal welfare in that.

So I checked out his tweets and he put up this article about vegetarians who eat meat. Um... what? Sorry, vegetarians don't eat meat. Not to mention that the word flexitarian means absolutely zero to me. It means about the same thing as an animal welfare specialist cattle farmer. I'm so fucking sick of hearing about "happy meat" and how it's morally ok to eat it. How about I come over to your house and kill your dog and eat it. I mean, you gave it a happy life, so it's ok right? That makes it ok!

ugh.

Also, I read Michael Pollan's new book, Food Rules. Awful. It's just a (really)watered down version of In Defense of Food. Don't waste your time or your money on that one, especially if you already read his other books. It was kind of a sell-out thing to do; publish a book that takes exact passages from the last book he published, increase the font size, add a ton of blank pages and big pictures and then sell the thing for $11. Um... why? He should have just published an article in the NY Times magazine instead of a whole book. Why waste all that paper?

OK, I'm don't ranting now. On a lighter note, we may have found some roommates who want to rent the other rooms in our house but not actually live here. That is so awesome! What more could you possibly want in a roommate?

Book Review - Sleeping Naked is Green by Vanessa Farquharson

2010-01-03T18:25:00.004-05:00

Vanessa Farquharson is a movie critic for the Canadian newspaper National Post and doesn't care too much about the environment, until she sees "An Inconvenient Truth," and finally feels that she needs to do something. But what? She decides to take on a challenge of making one green change in her life every day for a year.

The book is divided into chapters by month and each month starts with a list of the changes she made each day. It starts out simply: Changing to recycled paper towels. But she soon starts to become desperate and shuts off her freezer, then her fridge. The order in which she makes her changes is... well, odd to say the least. For example, she turns off her fridge before putting a brick into her toilet tank. She gives up toilet paper before she gives up her vacuum. She also waits until day 198 to sign up for CSA.

She soon finds that being just a little green suddenly makes her want to be as green as possible. She wants to be the greenest in the green movement and often finds herself jealous and competitive of other environmentalists. At the same time she struggles with frustration over making certain changes and exhaustion from having to think new ones up. Some might be seen as a cop-out (writing only haiku poetry, signing up and then promptly taking down her profile on greensingles.com) but you have to give her credit and cut her some slack, she's making 366 (leap year) changes.

She whines endlessly about how hard it is to be an environmentalist, but when it comes time for her challenge to end, she keeps almost all of her green changes. This book is just further proof that anyone who is educated about the changes they can make and why they should make them (not to mention how easy it can often be), will make them. And they will start to care about it too. It's easy to claim ignorance about the environment and do nothing, but once you do know, it's harder to forget. She even manages to green her family a little, even though they were adamantly against environmentalism at the start.

This book is inspiring. And funny. And down to earth. Plus it's a great read. It's good information for environmentalists or just people curious at where to start. The green movement is often seen as either too extreme or just not enough, but Farquharson struggles to find a middle ground. Reading this book made it more apparent to me just how easy it could be to step up my own greening. It's nice to see all of her changes in a list in each chapter, because although she doesn't talk about each one, you still know what kinds of changes she is making.

Because Farquharson is a journalist, her writing is interesting and engaging. She talks about the changes and why she made them, but also what the result is on her life as a a whole. Not to mention she's hilarious. The book isn't just a list of changes that you can make, it's a story about making a difference. At the end Farquharson isn't a preachy environmentalist. She sticks with her own changes, because she sees no point in going back. But there's no denying that the story is an inspiration to those who read it. It's a story about how little changes can make a big difference, not just to the Earth, but to your entire life.

2010 - Happy New Year

2010-01-01T13:01:00.006-05:00

I don't make New Year's resolutions. It is my belief that if I really wanted to change something about myself I would start right away. If I put it off for days, weeks, months, waiting for the new year as an excuse to start, it probably isn't important enough for me to actually stick with it. I think this is true with most people which is why new year's resolutions seem to fail so often.

That being said, there are plans and decisions I have made recently, which I'll pass off as new years resolutions simply because it is that time of year.

1. Step up my commitment to the environment. I finished "Sleeping Naked is Green" and I really loved it. I was inspired by Farquharson's commitment to being more eco-friendly and the great lengths she went to. I won't elaborate on the book at this time because my review is forthcoming, but I will say that reading about her efforts made me realize just how minimal mine are, even if they are greater than most people (who don't seem to give a hoot about the planet they live on).

2. Become a for real Vermont resident. This has been in the works for a while now. I finally registered to vote yesterday and I'll be getting a PO box next week. Then I'll work on getting health insurance. I'll probably even schlep myself over to the DMV and get a state ID, though I'm resistant to give up my AZ driver's license for the mere fact that it doesn't expire until I am 60. SIXTY!

3. Get even more organized. Is it possible? Sadly it is. I keep all of my tax, employment, health, and criminal records in clearly labeled envelopes by year. I keep all of these in a cardboard box piled with who knows what kinds of other crap. What I really need is an accordion file thing of some kind or a really nice big binder with dividers. This seems like an easy task and I should have gotten it done by now, but alas! this is a small town and options are few. Anyway I'm going to get it together. Maybe I'll even go crazy and get myself a safety deposit box at a real bank and put my birth certificate in there as well. (note to my mother: Don't worry, the criminal record thing was a joke. I don't organize those by year.)

4. ~~Learn to drive stick.~~ This has been on my list forever and I'm glad to cross it off. Well now I've got this stick thing down, and though I still hate it, I can at least do it without a problem. I don't even stall on big hills anymore, or drive way out of my way to avoid them. Last night I drove an automatic for the first time in months and though I rejoiced in not having to hassle over shifting and hitting the clutch, I still felt like I was forgetting something when my left foot and right hand took a well-earned break from driving.

5. Read more. Gone are the times when I would sometimes be reading the same book for months. It's my job to read now and form an opinion on it. I'm being paid to have those opinions. In addition to just reading more, I need to remember what I've read and why I did or didn't like it. This is why I'm writing full-fledged, longer-than-you-have-patience-for, and more-than-anyone-cared-to-know book reviews. You can skip them if you like. Or, you can specifically look for them in brand new link section on the left. Bookworms unite!

6. Make new friends. I know a good deal of people around here just from dealing with the theatre and living on the farm, however most of them are not close friends, but rather people I say hi to in passing. I have a lack of people in my life that I can go out to movies with, or lunch, or invite over for a lazy evening of dinner and board games. This was a regular occurrence in my life in NY and it's the thing I miss most. The fact that I am a social moron makes this increasingly difficult, but I have been and will continue to make efforts.

7. Continue my efforts to eat whole, home-made, unprocessed food. My biggest battle being bagels, the cafe next to the bookstore where I get a discount, vegan butter, and my obsession with potato chips. I'm willing to keep potato chips if I can quit soy chai lattes and everything bagels with Earth Balance spread. Also, I need a blender and/or food processor to make my own vegan cheeses and spreads.

Of course there are other things to be done and changed, but a life is ever-evolving. We all have endless lists. Those are the big ones, which are most on my mind because they should have been done already. Who knows, maybe I'll check in with myself in another month and I'll be wonderfully on track. Maybe I'll really get serious and draw up a little five year plan for myself. Ugh.

Secondary note: The Logger has started to make his own changes and has created a youtube page. Though I detest youtube, I love The Logger, so check out his site here and listen to some awesome music.

Book Review - Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

2009-12-26T20:54:00.005-05:00

Eating Animals is kind of a 'tough love' sort of a book. It's not a lecture and it's not a rant. It's different than most books about vegetarianism. Foer wants to put the facts out there and let you make the decision. He writes this book under the assumption that once people have all of the information, they'll make the choice that's right for them. And I agree. There are people out there who will never care about animal cruelty, or will care, but still tell themselves there is nothing they can do. Those people are a lost cause and the book wasn't written for them. It was written for people who do have enough will power to make changes in their lives. This book is for people who know that the choices they make affect everyone around them.

Foer started to think about vegetarianism (and this book) when he started to think about being a father. Like so many people he had wanted to be a vegetarian for years and had struggled with it his whole life. He knew it was the right thing to do, but still couldn't manage to do it. He cared about animals, but he also cared about eating whatever tasted good to him. When he realized he was to become a father, his food choices suddenly started to matter. He was to set an example for his son. He was going to be a role model and he wanted to be a good one.

Foer tries very hard to get all angles of the argument. He gets letters from activists of all kinds, factory farmers, family farmers, a vegan who designs slaughter houses, a vegetarian who raises beef cattle. Of course these contradictions annoy me, but they also make me really think about what the goal is. Is the goal to stop animal cruelty, or stop animal slavery? Is the goal to cause less suffering, or no suffering? At the end of the day do these people feel good about the choices they have made? Do they think they are making a difference? Do they really feel happy about the lives they are leading? If they do, maybe they are doing more good than harm. Maybe they are on the best path they can be on. Of course to me, and to Foer, any harm at all is enough reason not to eat meat (most of these family farmers still brand their cattle, and all of them send their animals to slaughter houses. None of these animals ever grow to full adulthood).

My favorite part of this book was the chapter of definitions. Several pages with common animal farming terms put into plain (and sometimes hilarious) English. Even though I read heavily on the subject of food, there are so many things in this book I had never heard before, so many good points that had yet to be made. Are you aware that cattle are often fed ground up cats and dogs that are euthanized at shelters? That pigs become so distressed in their living conditions that even a tractor driving by outside (they are kept inside for their whole lives) can cause them to fall over and die of fright?

He ends the book with Thanksgiving. To have a turkey, or not to have a turkey? He talks about tradition, culture, family history, values. He talks about the origins of thanksgiving and the history of the turkey as a center piece. He points out that the turkey doesn't make Thanksgiving. It's the coming together, the family, the thankfulness. The truth is, having a dead, mutated, genetically altered, abused carcass as the center to a holiday about charity is a gross contradiction and he sees that. The turkey doesn't make his holiday table.

My only criticism of this book is this: like Micheal Pollan (who he chastises for doing just this), Foer doesn't address his own contradictions. Not once does he mention the dairy industry. Not once. He talks a bit about laying hens, but not enough to actually point out that eating chicken eggs is just as bad as eating chicken meat (if not worse because at least boiler hens are not kept in battery cages). He lets himself completely off the hook. The entire book is dedicated to the problems with factory farming, but that's where more of our dairy comes from, and almost all of our eggs. If he finds issues even with the family farms in his book (which he does), than how does he explain his consumption of dairy and eggs? I kept waiting for him to address this, but it never comes up.

So yes, I loved this book. I think it's a wonderful starting point. A well written starting point. But it is just a start. I wanted it to go further.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-12-18T21:06:00.008-05:00

Waking up is hard. It takes all night to make the bed into a warm, cozy cocoon and the idea of leaving it in the morning seems impossible. Even the thought of a shower isn't appealing. Going out in the morning with wet hair could lead to icicles, and having ice growing from my head isn't my idea of a good time.

Every morning I roll over and click on the mini heater, then immediately roll back to the heat of The Logger. I wait for the air in the room to get a little warmer before I even consider leaving the safety of the covers and the warm person I'm curled up around.

I stumble into the bathroom and turn on the shower. I brush my teeth as the hot water comes up and I slip out of my many layers of pajamas. The tub floor is freezing cold where the water doesn't hit it, so I jump forward to the spray of heat issuing from the shower head. I curl my hands under my chin and pray to the steamy jet of water. make me warm. If I'm patient, it works. The steam has to fill the bathroom before I'll let an inch of my body creep out from under the water so I can reach for the soap.

Getting out of the shower isn't as hard as getting out of bed. The bathroom is warm and if I've planned it right the clothes sitting in front of my bedroom heater are warm too. I scamper back into my bedroom and huddle in front of the heater to dress. The Logger is slowly waking and I huddle down next to him to soak in the last bits of sleepy heat coming from him and our warm bed, before heading downstairs to dry my hair in front of the woodstove.

As I brush my hair drops of water hit the woodstove and sputter, immediately turning to tiny steam vapors. I suppress the urge to hug the giant beast of warm iron. I'm so cold, all I want to do is wrap my body around it before I have to brave the chilly world outside. I throw my head forward and let the woodstove dry the underside of my hair. The heater in my car will take care of the rest. At least I won't need to worry about icicles this morning.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-12-11T20:42:00.006-05:00

I try not to swear too much in this blog and everything but:

Holy shit it's fucking cold in this house.

I'm sitting about 6 feet from the wood stove, which is cranking. It's so hot the kettle that sits atop it is at a near boil. The heat is just not reaching me, or my freezing toes. I was going to upload some pictures (finally), but damn it I am not leaving this couch or taking my coat off of my legs. If I get up for more than a minute I might have to warm up the spot om sitting in all over again.

Anyway I turned on my camera to see what was on there and I realized I had a TON of old photos that I never bothered to delete, even after upload. I was going through enjoying the old pictures of the plants growing in the greenhouse and the Levis kids looking so much younger than they do now, even though the pictures are not even a year old, when I stumbled upon it. My favorite picture ever! I had it as my desktop for months. I thought I had lost it when I had my hard drive replaced because I hadn't backed up most of my pictures last time I did a back up. I love this picture so much, it's just so freaking cute!

The point is, it made me change my mind. So here are some freaking pictures.

Brussels sprouts are so weird. I think they were a gift from outer space. Crash landing.

Kale forest

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-12-10T20:34:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was our first snow storm of the season. I woke up to snow plows driving past our house a few times in the night. When morning finally came it was snowing pretty heavily and the roads looked messy as hell. Of course I insisted on going to work, because I'm crazy. It's not that far away and my boss gets her driveway plowed, so whatever.

I asked The Logger to take me in though, because I don't like driving in bad weather and sliding around in a car that I don't own and don't shift super-well in doesn't sound like fun to me. The Logger is a cautious driver in bad weather, so I knew he would get me to work in one piece. He had a dentist appointment in the afternoon and didn't want to have to drive all the way back out to Sunderland, so I told him I would get a co-worker to drop me off in town where he could get me. It all sounded fine and dandy.

When we finally got to my job we realized the driveway had not been plowed and no one had come in. I went in anyway. My boss was a little shocked to see me.

"Didn't Gordon call you and tell you not to come?"
"Did he call my cell phone?"
"Maybe"
"I don't get cell reception in Dorset"
"Oh... oops."

So I worked for about three hours until the power went out. I called The Logger and asked him to come and get me. At this point he was still at the Wilbuton, which is only 5 minutes away. I told him that if he couldn't make it up the driveway I'd just walk down to the road. We saw him pull up to the driveway and stop so I figured he just couldn't make it up. As I was walking down there I noticed why he had stopped. A tree had fallen across the driveway, but since everything was covered in deep snow we couldn't really see it from the office. The Logger had pulled out a chainsaw and started cutting it up. Because that's what loggers do and if he knows whats good for him he'll earn his damn nickname. I called back up to the office and my boss thought it was quite hilarious. She also said we could have the wood. And because he's a pro, he had the whole tree cut up and either stored in the car or piled to the side in less than 20 minutes. Ultra-sexy!

So now I'm sitting in front of the wood stove, keeping warm, all thanks to a ridiculous series of events. And The Logger.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-12-06T09:05:00.002-05:00

My computer finally crashed for real. Dead. Do not resuscitate. I took a day off of work to drive myself and my poor little laptop to Albany, an hour and a half (two if you get lost, which you know I did) to the nearest Mac store. Turns out the hard drive had gone completely useless. I failed to ask if this could be because of all those times I dropped it, accidentally tripped over my backpack while it was inside, or jostled it on the subway. But that does seem rather likely. Turns out that even though my warranty was up, there is still a warranty on the hard drive, so I didn't have to pay for it to be replaced. The bad news is, I lost all the stuff on my hard drive. I did back most of it up over the summer, so I didn't lose much. Yay.

You may have noticed that I've taken down the daily-ish photo. I really haven't had time to deal with my camera (read: I'm too lazy to take it out and take pictures), and I've always been terrible at recognizing photo ops. I replaced it with books! Wonderful, wonderful books! Books you should be reading! Now that I work at the bookstore I am constantly reading (except when my computer is working and I'm giving in to internet addiction). Any spare time I thought I might have is devoted to reading (and the internet). But I like it. Anyway you can click on the link to get to a mini (very very mini) review of what I'm reading.

Other goings on include the mice in my kitchen. We caught three over the last few days and I dropped them off int he woods on my way to work, far from my house, and I hope far enough from other people's houses. I gave them a little talk about staying out of the road and other people's food. Just so they can't say they didn't know when they run into trouble. I hate hearing people say that humane traps don't work. Of course they don't work if all your doing is catching them inside and then tossing them into your back yard. They already know how to get back in. You have to take them far away. Or you need to make sure you seal up all of the holes where they are getting in. The Logger and I are going to make a trip to the basement and see if we can find where the little buggers got in. For the meantime we appear to have rid ourselves and our kitchen of daily mouse droppings.

I never really thought snap traps were ok. Even when I ate meat I would never have used a kill trap. For one thing, I'm terrified of them. But that's probably because my parents always told me to be terrified of them. My family used humane traps for a long time and to keep me away from the snap traps they instilled a deep fear in me. Even now when dealing with snap traps I tend t just drop things on them and then leap backwards at the moment of snapping. Yes, I've intentionally set off many of these traps when I find them in my own home. They're not only cruel to mice, they are down right dangerous, and don't try to get me to believe otherwise. Rat traps can break your fingers!!! So basically, live catch traps are the best. Besides getting a cat. And you just try talking the Logger into that.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-11-21T20:51:00.003-05:00

I just got home from my bookstore job and the Logger won't be home for a little while longer. I found myself faced with a predicament: How best to spend this time? Do I watch that Netflix movie that's been sitting around for weeks (I just downgraded my account to 2 movies a month, because I never have time to watch them anyway), do I read that Barbara Kingsolver I've been dying to get through (so amazing. words can not describe the love I have for her writing), or do I write in my neglected blog?

I guess the blog won for now. It won't take forever to say what I want to say here. I'll tell you what didn't win, cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes. Sick of that. Because the reality is, the kitchen is clean (except for the dishes), but a damn mouse keeps pooping on the counter every night. I have no idea what the thing is eating, because we leave no food out, and it's not getting into the sink, because it wouldn't be able to get out. I set a little trap that would catch it in a bucket if it dared to grab the popcorn at the end of the strip of cardboard, but the mouse seems to clever for that at the moment. Anyway I'm tired of cleaning up mouse poop. We're out of clean dish towels. Laundry didn't win either.

Here is my excellent news for the day. Today I scored a signed first edition of Jonathan Safran Foer's latest book caleld "Eating Animals," which is of course a book about why he doesn't. It's the #1 bestseller in independent book stores right now. I can't wait to read it!!! But I've got to finish The Lacuna first, which I'm trying to savor, but it's so hard!

Books are like food to me sometimes. When a book is really good, I want to slow down and really delve in and enjoy, but it's hard to hold myself back from just devouring it all at once. Well Kingsolver's new book is luscious. That's right, luscious. Like The Poisonwood Bible, it is written as a journal, but this one is only the journal of one man. It begins with his childhood and continues as he ages, graduating to different notebooks. He takes a job with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, but the story is about him, not them. He's a clever little bugger and his writing is not too obvious or on the nose, yet you always know what he's talking about. I often find myself rereading sentences because they are so beautifully written. Kingsolver's writing is so perfect, it almost makes me never want to write another thing again because how could I ever aspire to be that good? Keep reading I guess. Anyway I'm going to be recommending that one at work for the next few weeks. I saw a few people picking the book up today and I almost started harassing them to buy it, but I decided a full on assault is not what people come into bookstores for. A quite suggestion at the register is often enough for them to give it another thought.

Well, it's now time to pick that book up again. I guess writing in my blog made my next activity a little too obvious. Back to The Lacuna.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-11-06T20:39:00.003-05:00

Did I mention we got internet at the house? If I didn't, then I'd like to share how awesome that is. If I did, then I'd like to remind you of how awesome it is.

It's staff discount week at the bookstore, so I guess I got hired at just the right time. Yesterday I bought three books: The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver; Stiches, by David Small; and Vegan Soul Kitchen, by Bryant Terry, which I've been dying to read. Woo!

I have to do a lot of book review type stuff at the bookstore job, so I'll probably start posting them here. I almost feel like reading is my homework, and I feel guilty when I don't have time. I might bring back that little sidebar extra that says what I'm currently reading. But that sounds like work, and I sure do an awful lot of that when I'm not at home. At least today was my last day of going to two jobs in one day.

I've been feeling insanely stressed lately (see last sentence of paragraph above), and I think it's been taking a toll on my body. I've been getting some unexplained aches and pains and they are really annoying. So two days ago I told The Logger he needed to help me out. I couldn't take care of myself, him, and the house all while working two jobs. He told me to make him a list of things to do that would save me some stress, which I did. This means that he did my laundry last night and helped me mulch the garlic. Today he put those clothes away for me and cleaned that bathroom sink. So if you see The Logger on the street, please let him know that he's awesome.

Except for this conversation that took place when my cell phone rang and I was driving from the bookstore to my second job.

Me: Hello?
Logger: Hi, I just saw you
Me: Are you driving into town?
Logger: yeah, I passed you.
Me: OK, well I better go
Logger: OK, I love you be safe.
Me: If you wanted me to be safe, why would you call my cell phone when you know I drive stick?
Logger: Oh yeah. Oops. Sorry.

Snow on the mountain today. I need to charge my camera battery.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-10-26T19:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I can check 'Find A Job' off of my list of things to do. I just confirmed my second job today. I'm currently working for a non-profit web-based company just outside of Manchester, and on Wednesday I start training at the bookstore. Pretty crazy. I'll be working 7 days a week, but only until January, so I think I can manage. I need the extra income to get more aggressive with my student loan payments. The internet job is so easy, I just sit at a desk for a few hours and handle paperwork and phone calls. I actually really like it, because I like the people I work with and I think the company does some really good things.

Part of my job is to call public schools and speak to receptionists to verify that the people who order from us are eligible for the discounts we offer. Navigating the phone systems of American public schools is a scary and frustrating thing. It takes forever just to get to a person at times. My time pressing buttons through the automation system is usually longer than the calls themselves, and for once I'm not exaggerating. There are some schools that take weeks of calling before anyone actually answers the phone. It's kind of scary when I think about parents trying to reach the people that are responsible for taking care of their children for most of the day. It would be like leaving your kids with a sitter and the sitter never answering the phone. I find it a little reckless actually. When I worked for a phone-based ticketing company it was my job to make sure someone was ALWAYS there to answer the phone, and that was just ticket sales. These are public schools I'm calling, and half of the time no one is there. Today I had a lot of phones answered by students, which I thought odd. Are schools saving money by having students answer phones instead of receptionists? Awkward.

Things at the Ice House are good. Still no internet. Luckily I've started using my personal laptop as my computer at work because I got tired of using slow machines, or using extra laptops that get taken away without warning. Long story. Anyway I can update my blog from work. Plus the bookstore has internet, so both of my jobs will keep me connected and I don't have to pay for it.

Speaking of awesome things I didn't pay for, my parents got me The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak. Amazing. I made this awesome cheeze sauce with pasta tonight because I was feeling lazy, and it was so good The Logger said that he did not need to add real dairy to it. I win! I'm looking forward to trying some block cheeses so we can have cheeze slices and mozzarella for pizzas. Yum. I was kind of thinking that I wouldn't ever feel like cooking after work anymore if I was going o be working so much, but I think I'd rather cook than do dishes, and since I always make The Logger do the dishes after I cook, maybe I will still be cooking. Anyway Jessie won't want to cook every night either and The Logger is pretty limited to pasta and burritos, so I don't think I'll be giving up cooking any time soon.

I guess that means my blog can look forward to more yummy recipes in the future.

Ice House - Dorset, VT

2009-10-10T15:32:00.000-04:00

I moved! The Logger and I have moved in with The Frechman in Dorset. The house, like most of the houses in Dorset, is rather old. It sits right next to a stream and in the winter it was used to store ice for the town, thus my calling it the Ice House. I'm hoping it catches on, as houses seem to do better with names. It's an amazing house, three bedrooms upstairs, and two downstairs, but it's not huge. Still livable.

The Frenchman, also known as Jeremy, is French. Obviously, otherwise why the hell would I be calling him that? His son, Kava stays here on weekends. He is a painter, woodworker, and all around interesting guy. He's been living here for a few years, renting it from some friends. His accent is rather thick, even though his english is great, and the housemates often find ourselves thinking, "wait, what was he talking about?" I'm certain that the solution to this problem is to start thinking in a French accent when he's talking to me.

Our other housemates are Jessie and Pete Moss (I must include his last name here because it's such a weird one and I often call him by it), a pair of WWOOFers gone local. Sound familiar? They we working over at Teleion and a little with Theo for the summer and then decided to get jobs and find a place. We all get along, so it made sense to find a place together.

The house has no internet or cell service. This is kind of an issue. I need one or the other, preferably internet. My attempts to steal internet from the neighbors have been futile. Th person behind us has wireless, but it's password protected, which I don't understand. People around here don't even lock their doors, why put a password on the internet? OK, I realize that my trying to steal the internet proves that they do need a password, but the thing is, I know this town. I'm the only person around trying to steal internet and no one even knows I'm here. Plus, I wouldn't put a password on my internet because I think wireless should be everywhere for people to use. So unless people are downloading inane amounts of crap and slowing my internet down, I don't care if they use it. I always make a point not to do my downloading when stealing internet anyway, so no one would even notice if I was stealing it. So there.

Other than that, I'm really enjoying the current situation of my life. Today The Logger and I spotted some fallen tree branches near his mother's place, so I decided we better grab them before someone else did and we loaded them on to op his car and piled them in her driveway. The Ice House has a big wood stove in the kitchen and wood can be costly, plus the Logger has a chainsaw in his trunk, so why the hell not? And speaking of wood stoves, I made hot chocolate on said stove today. MMM!

So here's my super simple, super yummy hot chocolate recipe for winter warmth:
2 heaping T coco powder
2 T raw sugar
1 cup rice milk

stir up sugar and coco with a little of the milk to make a paste. Heat the rest of the milk up until it's steaming then mix it all into your mug.

Yeah, it's a really simple and obvious recipe, but holy crap, people buy hot chocolate mix and there's so much garbage in that stuff. Plus mixes are a lot more expensive than plain old coco powder.

Northshire Bookstore Cafe - Manchester, VT

2009-10-05T22:18:00.003-04:00

And now for something a little different:

The other day The NYTimes released thisarticle. It's pretty long and you may need to sign up for a free account to read it, so I'll go ahead and post it right here. It's a rather long article and reading can be quite tedious, so I've bolded some of the key points in here.

October 4, 2009
E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection
By MICHAEL MOSS

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

“I ask myself every day, ‘Why me?’ and ‘Why from a hamburger?’ ”Ms. Smith said. In the simplest terms, she ran out of luck in a food-safety game of chance whose rules and risks are not widely known.

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states.

Ms. Smith’s reaction to the virulent strain of E. coli was extreme, but tracing the story of her burger, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe.

Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen.

The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant Cargill, were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.

Using a combination of sources — a practice followed by most large producers of fresh and packaged hamburger — allowed Cargill to spend about 25 percent less than it would have for cuts of whole meat.

Those low-grade ingredients are cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with feces, which carries E. coli, industry research shows. Yet Cargill, like most meat companies, relies on its suppliers to check for the bacteria and does its own testing only after the ingredients are ground together. The United States Department of Agriculture, which allows grinders to devise their own safety plans, has encouraged them to test ingredients first as a way of increasing the chance of finding contamination.

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

“Ground beef is not a completely safe product,” said Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota who helped develop systems for tracing E. coli contamination. He said that while outbreaks had been on the decline, “unfortunately it looks like we are going a bit in the opposite direction.”

Food scientists have registered increasing concern about the virulence of this pathogen since only a few stray cells can make someone sick, and they warn that federal guidance to cook meat thoroughly and to wash up afterward is not sufficient. A test by The Times found that the safe handling instructions are not enough to prevent the bacteria from spreading in the kitchen.

Cargill, whose $116.6 billion in revenues last year made it the country’s largest private company, declined requests to interview company officials or visit its facilities. “Cargill is not in a position to answer your specific questions, other than to state that we are committed to continuous improvement in the area of food safety,” the company said, citing continuing litigation.

The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets. While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets. Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of Cargill’s grinding operation that could be learned only through copies of the documents obtained from other sources. Those documents illustrate the restrained approach to enforcement by a department whose missions include ensuring meat safety and promoting agriculture markets.

Within weeks of the Cargill outbreak in 2007, U.S.D.A. officials swept across the country, conducting spot checks at 224 meat plants to assess their efforts to combat E. coli. Although inspectors had been monitoring these plants all along, officials found serious problems at 55 that were failing to follow their own safety plans.

“Every time we look, we find out that things are not what we hoped they would be,” said Loren D. Lange, an executive associate in the Agriculture Department’s food safety division.

In the weeks before Ms. Smith’s patty was made, federal inspectors had repeatedly found that Cargill was violating its own safety procedures in handling ground beef, but they imposed no fines or sanctions, records show. After the outbreak, the department threatened to withhold the seal of approval that declares “U.S. Inspected and Passed by the Department of Agriculture.”

In the end, though, the agency accepted Cargill’s proposal to increase its scrutiny of suppliers. That agreement came early last year after contentious negotiations, records show. When Cargill defended its safety system and initially resisted making some changes, an agency official wrote back: “How is food safety not the ultimate issue?”

The Risk

On Aug. 16, 2007, the day Ms. Smith’s hamburger was made, the No.3 grinder at the Cargill plant in Butler, Wis., started up at 6:50 a.m. The largest ingredient was beef trimmings known as “50/50” — half fat, half meat — that cost about 60 cents a pound, making them the cheapest component.

Cargill bought these trimmings — fatty edges sliced from better cuts of meat — from Greater Omaha Packing, where some 2,600 cattle are slaughtered daily and processed in a plant the size of four football fields.

As with other slaughterhouses, the potential for contamination is present every step of the way, according to workers and federal inspectors. The cattle often arrive with smears of feedlot feces that harbor the E. coli pathogen, and the hide must be removed carefully to keep it off the meat. This is especially critical for trimmings sliced from the outer surface of the carcass.

Federal inspectors based at the plant are supposed to monitor the hide removal, but much can go wrong. Workers slicing away the hide can inadvertently spread feces to the meat, and large clamps that hold the hide during processing sometimes slip and smear the meat with feces, the workers and inspectors say.

Greater Omaha vacuums and washes carcasses with hot water and lactic acid before sending them to the cutting floor. But these safeguards are not foolproof.

“As the trimmings are going down the processing line into combos or boxes, no one is inspecting every single piece,” said one federal inspector who monitored Greater Omaha and requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The E. coli risk is also present at the gutting station, where intestines are removed, the inspector said

Every five seconds or so, half of a carcass moves into the meat-cutting side of the slaughterhouse, where trimmers said they could keep up with the flow unless they spot any remaining feces.

“We would step in and stop the line, and do whatever you do to take it off,” said Esley Adams, a former supervisor who said he was fired this summer after 16 years following a dispute over sick leave. “But that doesn’t mean everything was caught.”

Two current employees said the flow of carcasses keeps up its torrid pace even when trimmers get reassigned, which increases pressure on workers. To protest one such episode, the employees said, dozens of workers walked off the job for a few hours earlier this year. Last year, workers sued Greater Omaha, alleging that they were not paid for the time they need to clean contaminants off their knives and other gear before and after their shifts. The company is contesting the lawsuit.

Greater Omaha did not respond to repeated requests to interview company officials. In a statement, a company official said Greater Omaha had a “reputation for embracing new food safety technology and utilizing science to make the safest product possible.”

The Trimmings

In making hamburger meat, grinders aim for a specific fat content — 26.6 percent in the lot that Ms. Smith’s patty came from, company records show. To offset Greater Omaha’s 50/50 trimmings, Cargill added leaner material from three other suppliers.

Records show that some came from a Texas slaughterhouse, Lone Star Beef Processors, which specializes in dairy cows and bulls too old to be fattened in feedlots. In a form letter dated two days before Ms. Smith’s patty was made, Lone Star recounted for Cargill its various safety measures but warned “to this date there is no guarantee for pathogen-free raw material and we would like to stress the importance of proper handling of all raw products.”

Ms. Smith’s burger also contained trimmings from a slaughterhouse in Uruguay, where government officials insist that they have never found E. coli O157:H7 in meat. Yet audits of Uruguay’s meat operations conducted by the U.S.D.A. have found sanitation problems, including improper testing for the pathogen. Dr. Hector J. Lazaneo, a meat safety official in Uruguay, said the problems were corrected immediately. “Everything is fine, finally,” he said. “That is the reason we are exporting.”

Cargill’s final source was a supplier that turns fatty trimmings into what it calls “fine lean textured beef.” The company, Beef Products Inc., said it bought meat that averages between 50 percent and 70 percent fat, including “any small pieces of fat derived from the normal breakdown of the beef carcass.” It warms the trimmings, removes the fat in a centrifuge and treats the remaining product with ammonia to kill E. coli.

With seven million pounds produced each week, the company’s product is widely used in hamburger meat sold by grocers and fast-food restaurants and served in the federal school lunch program. Ten percent of Ms. Smith’s burger came from Beef Products, which charged Cargill about $1.20 per pound, or 20 cents less than the lean trimmings in the burger, billing records show.

An Iowa State University study financed by Beef Products found that ammonia reduces E. coli to levels that cannot be detected. The Department of Agriculture accepted the research as proof that the treatment was effective and safe. And Cargill told the agency after the outbreak that it had ruled out Beef Products as the possible source of contamination.

But federal school lunch officials found E. coli in Beef Products material in 2006 and 2008 and again in August, and stopped it from going to schools, according to Agriculture Department records and interviews. A Beef Products official, Richard Jochum, said that last year’s contamination stemmed from a “minor change in our process,” which the company adjusted. The company did not respond to questions about the latest finding.

In combining the ingredients, Cargill was following a common industry practice of mixing trim from various suppliers to hit the desired fat content for the least money, industry officials said.

In all, the ingredients for Ms. Smith’s burger cost Cargill about $1 a pound, company records show, or about 30 cents less than industry experts say it would cost for ground beef made from whole cuts of meat.

Ground beef sold by most grocers is made from a blend of ingredients, industry officials said. Agriculture Department regulations also allow hamburger meat labeled ground chuck or sirloin to contain trimmings from those parts of the cow. At a chain like Publix Super Markets, customers who want hamburger made from whole cuts of meat have to buy a steak and have it specially ground, said a Publix spokeswoman, Maria Brous, or buy a product like Bubba Burgers, which boasts on its labeling, “100% whole muscle means no trimmings.”

To finish off the Smiths’ ground beef, Cargill added bread crumbs and spices, fashioned it into patties, froze them and packed them 18 to a carton.

The listed ingredients revealed little of how the meat was made. There was just one meat product listed: “Beef.”

Tension Over Testing

As it fed ingredients into its grinders, Cargill watched for some unwanted elements. Using metal detectors, workers snagged stray nails and metal hooks that could damage the grinders, then warned suppliers to make sure it did not happen again.

But when it came to E. coli O157:H7, Cargill did not screen the ingredients and only tested once the grinding was done. The potential pitfall of this practice surfaced just weeks before Ms. Smith’s patty was made. A company spot check in May 2007 found E. coli in finished hamburger, which Cargill disclosed to investigators in the wake of the October outbreak. But Cargill told them it could not determine which supplier had shipped the tainted meat since the ingredients had already been mixed together.

“Our finished ground products typically contain raw materials from numerous suppliers,” Dr. Angela Siemens, the technical services vice president for Cargill’s meat division, wrote to the U.S.D.A. “Consequently, it is not possible to implicate a specific supplier without first observing a pattern of potential contamination.”

Testing has been a point of contention since the 1994 ban on selling ground beef contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 was imposed. The department moved to require some bacterial testing of ground beef, but the industry argued that the cost would unfairly burden small producers, industry officials said. The Agriculture Department opted to carry out its own tests for E. coli, but it acknowledges that its 15,000 spot checks a year at thousands of meat plants and groceries nationwide is not meant to be comprehensive. Many slaughterhouses and processors have voluntarily adopted testing regimes, yet they vary greatly in scope from plant to plant.

The retail giant Costco is one of the few big producers that tests trimmings for E. coli before grinding, a practice it adopted after a New York woman was sickened in 1998 by its hamburger meat, prompting a recall.

Craig Wilson, Costco’s food safety director, said the company decided it could not rely on its suppliers alone. “It’s incumbent upon us,” he said. “If you say, ‘Craig, this is what we’ve done,’ I should be able to go, ‘Cool, I believe you.’ But I’m going to check.”

Costco said it had found E. coli in foreign and domestic beef trimmings and pressured suppliers to fix the problem. But even Costco, with its huge buying power, said it had met resistance from some big slaughterhouses. “Tyson will not supply us,” Mr. Wilson said. “They don’t want us to test.”

A Tyson spokesman, Gary Mickelson, would not respond to Costco’s accusation, but said, “We do not and cannot” prohibit grinders from testing ingredients. He added that since Tyson tests samples of its trimmings, “we don’t believe secondary testing by grinders is a necessity.”

The food safety officer at American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, said it stopped testing trimmings a decade ago because of resistance from slaughterhouses. “They would not sell to us,” said Timothy P. Biela, the officer. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. One, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them. So we don’t do that.”

The surge in outbreaks since 2007 has led to finger-pointing within the industry.

Dennis R. Johnson, a lobbyist for the largest meat processors, has said that not all slaughterhouses are looking hard enough for contamination. He told U.S.D.A. officials last fall that those with aggressive testing programs typically find E. coli in as much as 1 percent to 2 percent of their trimmings, yet some slaughterhouses implicated in outbreaks had failed to find any.

At the same time, the meat processing industry has resisted taking the onus on itself. An Agriculture Department survey of more than 2,000 plants taken after the Cargill outbreak showed that half of the grinders did not test their finished ground beef for E. coli; only 6 percent said they tested incoming ingredients at least four times a year.

In October 2007, the agency issued a notice recommending that processors conduct at least a few tests a year to verify the testing done by slaughterhouses. But after resistance from the industry, the department allowed suppliers to run the verification checks on their own operations.

In August 2008, the U.S.D.A. issued a draft guideline again urging, but not ordering, processors to test ingredients before grinding. “Optimally, every production lot should be sampled and tested before leaving the supplier and again before use at the receiver,” the draft guideline said.

But the department received critical comments on the guideline, which has not been made official. Industry officials said that the cost of testing could unfairly burden small processors and that slaughterhouses already test. In an October 2008 letter to the department, the American Association of Meat Processors said the proposed guideline departed from U.S.D.A.’s strategy of allowing companies to devise their own safety programs, “thus returning to more of the agency’s ‘command and control’ mind-set.”

Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, said that the department could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers. “I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,” Dr. Petersen said.

Tracing the Illness

The Smiths were slow to suspect the hamburger. Ms. Smith ate a mostly vegetarian diet, and when she grew increasingly ill, her mother, Sharon, thought the cause might be spinach, which had been tied to a recent E. coli outbreak.

Five days after the family’s Sunday dinner, Ms. Smith was admitted to St. Cloud Hospital in excruciating pain. “I’ve had women tell me that E. coli is more painful than childbirth,” said Dr. Phillip I. Tarr, a pathogen expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

The vast majority of E. coli illnesses resolve themselves without complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Five percent to 10 percent develop into a condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can affect kidney function. While most patients recover, in the worst cases, like Ms. Smith’s, the toxin in E. coli O157:H7 penetrates the colon wall, damaging blood vessels and causing clots that can lead to seizures.

To control Ms. Smith’s seizures, doctors put her in a coma and flew her to the Mayo Clinic, where doctors worked to save her.

“They didn’t even think her brain would work because of the seizuring,” her mother said. “Thanksgiving Day, I was sitting there holding her hand when a group of doctors came in, and one looked at me and just walked away, with nothing good to say. And I said, ‘Oh my God, maybe this is my last Thanksgiving with her,’ and I stayed and prayed.”

Ms. Smith’s illness was linked to the hamburger only by chance. Her aunt still had some of the frozen patties, and state health officials found that they were contaminated with a powerful strain of E. coli that was genetically identical to the pathogen that had sickened other Minnesotans.

Dr. Kirk Smith, who runs the state’s food-borne illness outbreak group and is not related to Ms. Smith, was quick to finger the source. A 4-year-old had fallen ill three weeks earlier, followed by her year-old brother and two more children, state records show. Like Ms. Smith, the others had eaten Cargill patties bought at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart.

Moreover, the state officials discovered that the hamburgers were made on the same day, Aug. 16, 2007, shortly before noon. The time stamp on the Smiths’ box of patties was 11:58.

On Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, a Minnesota Health Department warning led local news broadcasts. “We didn’t want people grilling these things over the weekend,” Dr. Smith said. “I’m positive we prevented illnesses. People sent us dozens of cartons with patties left. It was pretty contaminated stuff.”

Eventually, health officials tied 11 cases of illness in Minnesota to the Cargill outbreak, and altogether, federal health officials estimate that the outbreak sickened 940 people. Four of the 11 Minnesota victims developed hemolytic uremic syndrome — an unusually high rate of serious complications.

In the wake of the outbreak, the U.S.D.A. reminded consumers on its Web site that hamburgers had to be cooked to 160 degrees to be sure any E. coli is killed and urged them to use a thermometer to check the temperature. This reinforced Sharon Smith’s concern that she had sickened her daughter by not cooking the hamburger thoroughly.

But the pathogen is so powerful that her illness could have started with just a few cells left on a counter. “In a warm kitchen, E. coli cells will double every 45 minutes,” said Dr. Mansour Samadpour, a microbiologist who runs IEH Laboratories in Seattle, one of the meat industry’s largest testing firms.

With help from his laboratories, The Times prepared three pounds of ground beef dosed with a strain of E. coli that is nonharmful but acts in many ways like O157:H7. Although the safety instructions on the package were followed, E. coli remained on the cutting board even after it was washed with soap. A towel picked up large amounts of bacteria from the meat.

Dr. James Marsden, a meat safety expert at Kansas State University and senior science adviser for the North American Meat Processors Association, said the Department of Agriculture needed to issue better guidance on avoiding cross-contamination, like urging people to use bleach to sterilize cutting boards. “Even if you are a scientist, much less a housewife with a child, it’s very difficult,” Dr. Marsden said.

Told of The Times’s test, Jerold R. Mande, the deputy under secretary for food safety at the U.S.D.A., said he planned to “look very carefully at the labels that we oversee.”

“They need to provide the right information to people,” Mr. Mande said, “in a way that is readable and actionable.”

Dead Ends

With Ms. Smith lying comatose in the hospital and others ill around the country, Cargill announced on Oct. 6, 2007, that it was recalling 844,812 pounds of patties. The mix of ingredients in the burgers made it almost impossible for either federal officials or Cargill to trace the contamination to a specific slaughterhouse. Yet after the outbreak, Cargill had new incentives to find out which supplier had sent the tainted meat.

Cargill got hit by multimillion-dollar claims from people who got sick.

Shawn K. Stevens, a lawyer in Milwaukee working for Cargill, began investigating. Sifting through state health department records from around the nation, Mr. Stevens found the case of a young girl in Hawaii stricken with the same E. coli found in the Cargill patties. But instead of a Cargill burger, she had eaten raw minced beef at a Japanese restaurant that Mr. Stevens said he traced through a distributor to Greater Omaha.

“Potentially, it could let Cargill shift all the responsibility,” Mr. Stevens said. In March, he sent his findings to William Marler, a lawyer in Seattle who specializes in food-borne disease cases and is handling the claims against Cargill.

“Most of the time, in these outbreaks, it’s not unusual when I point the finger at somebody, they try to point the finger at somebody else,” Mr. Marler said. But he said Mr. Stevens’s finding “doesn’t rise to the level of proof that I need” to sue Greater Omaha.

It is unclear whether Cargill presented the Hawaii findings to Greater Omaha, since neither company would comment on the matter. In December 2007, in a move that Greater Omaha said was unrelated to the outbreak, the slaughterhouse informed Cargill that it had taken 16 “corrective actions” to better protect consumers from E. coli “as we strive to live up to the performance standards required in the continuation of supplier relationship with Cargill.”

Those changes included better monitoring of the production line, more robust testing for E. coli, intensified plant sanitation and added employee training.

The U.S.D.A. efforts to find the ultimate source of the contamination went nowhere. Officials examined production records of Cargill’s three domestic suppliers, but they yielded no clues. The Agriculture Department contacted Uruguayan officials, who said they found nothing amiss in the slaughterhouse there.

In examining Cargill, investigators discovered that their own inspectors had lodged complaints about unsanitary conditions at the plant in the weeks before the outbreak, but that they had failed to set off any alarms within the department. Inspectors had found “large amounts of patties on the floor,” grinders that were gnarly with old bits of meat, and a worker who routinely dumped inedible meat on the floor close to a production line, records show.

Although none were likely to have caused the contamination, federal officials said the conditions could have exacerbated the spread of bacteria. Cargill vowed to correct the problems. Dr. Petersen, the federal food safety official, said the department was working to make sure violations are tracked so they can be used “in real time to take action.”

The U.S.D.A. found that Cargill had not followed its own safety program for controlling E. coli. For example, Cargill was supposed to obtain a certificate from each supplier showing that their tests had found no E. coli. But Cargill did not have a certificate for the Uruguayan trimmings used on the day it made the burgers that sickened Ms. Smith and others.

After four months of negotiations, Cargill agreed to increase its scrutiny of suppliers and their testing, including audits and periodic checks to determine the accuracy of their laboratories.

A recent industry test in which spiked samples of meat were sent to independent laboratories used by food companies found that some missed the E. coli in as many as 80 percent of the samples.

Cargill also said it would notify suppliers whenever it found E. coli in finished ground beef, so they could check their facilities. It also agreed to increase testing of finished ground beef, according to a U.S.D.A. official familiar with the company’s operations, but would not test incoming ingredients.

Looking to the Future

The spate of outbreaks in the last three years has increased pressure on the Agriculture Department and the industry.

James H. Hodges, executive vice president of the American Meat Institute, a trade association, said that while the outbreaks were disconcerting, they followed several years during which there were fewer incidents. “Are we perfect?” he said. “No. But what we have done is to show some continual improvement.”

Dr. Petersen, the U.S.D.A. official, said the department had adopted additional procedures, including enhanced testing at slaughterhouses implicated in outbreaks and better training for investigators.

“We are not standing still when it comes to E. coli,” Dr. Petersen said.

The department has held a series of meetings since the recent outbreaks, soliciting ideas from all quarters. Dr. Samadpour, the laboratory owner, has said that “we can make hamburger safe,” but that in addition to enhanced testing, it will take an aggressive use of measures like meat rinses and safety audits by qualified experts.

At these sessions, Felicia Nestor, a senior policy analyst with the consumer group Food and Water Watch, has urged the government to redouble its effort to track outbreaks back to slaughterhouses. “They are the source of the problem,” Ms. Nestor said.

For Ms. Smith, the road ahead is challenging. She is living at her mother’s home in Cold Spring, Minn. She spends a lot of her time in physical therapy, which is being paid for by Cargill in anticipation of a legal claim, according to Mr. Marler. Her kidneys are at high risk of failure. She is struggling to regain some basic life skills and deal with the anger that sometimes envelops her. Despite her determination, doctors say, she will most likely never walk again.

Gabe Johnson contributed reporting.

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So, why have I posted this? Obviously because I find so many things wrong with the meat industry, this is just one more reason I'm glad to be vegan. How is it safe to trust companies to test their own food? Americans seem to believe that government regulations of food keep them safe, when they do the exact opposite. Instead of the government actually regulating and watching the food, they allow the meat industry to do it themselves. Of course the meat is contaminated. They wouldn't go out of their way to make sure it wasn't, because it would cost them so much. Outbreaks from tainted meat are on the rise, not the decline. The government and the meat industry are both relying on the public to protect themselves by cooking their meat properly and cleaning up properly, neither of which, by government set safety standards would even protect anyone. If the food was safe, we would be able to eat it raw, end of story.

To top this off, here's a little response article I rather liked:

The American Meat Institute’s Facts of Nature
Date October 7, 2009

J. Patrick Boyle, the President of the American Meat Institute (every college applicant’s favorite safety school), wrote in to the New York Times about last Sunday’s E. coli article.

Boyle’s closing paragraph had me shaking my head and wondering how he could possibly believe that his argument was in the meat industry’s best interest:

"The meat industry has a single-mindedness when it comes to E. coli O157:H7 — we want to eliminate it. But like other facts of nature — from floods to the flu — even when there is a will, there may not always be a way to do it 100 percent of the time."

By asserting that E. coli 0157 is one of the “facts of nature,” as inevitable as floods and influenza, Boyle has opened a can of worms for anyone who wants to give the matter some thought.

* Is packing cattle into feedlots, where the excrement can be smelled from miles away, a fact of nature?
* Cattle at the feedlot often wallow in their own manure, so it gets caked to their hides prior to transport to the slaughterhouse. Is that also a fact of nature?
* Is giving ruminant animals a diet of corn, so they’ll bloat up with abnormal levels of intramuscular fat, yet another a fact of nature?
* Finally, is keeping slaughterhouse line speeds at hundreds of cattle per hour just one more fact of nature? The faster workers must cut, the greater the possibility for contamination.

As I understand it, these four issues have been key to E. coli’s emergence and persistence within the beef industry. Yet if you read Boyle’s letter, he’s pushing to deal with E. coli by getting the government to approve treating beef with radiation. I suppose in Boyle’s world, nuking beef is yet another…fact of nature.

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As a secondary note, I am aware that E. coli has been found occasionally not meat products such as spinach, however E. coli originates in the feces of mammals. When it turns up in vegetables it is the outcome of bad food handling. Translation: poop has gotten into our food. These sorts of contaminants are generally caused by the same problems as in the meat industry. If we didn't allow factory farming and good food handling practices were used, we wouldn't find poop in our food. If we didn't raise animals for food, maybe their shit wouldn't be all over it.

Or, there's another option: we buy or food directly from the farmer.

Bushwick House - Brooklyn, NY

2009-10-03T09:59:00.003-04:00

This morning I opened my eyes and WHOA, there's Fatty Jack the Tub Cat right in my face like, "Sup. Pet me." So I did. We had a moment and it was good. When he realized I would not be getting up to feed him he finally ditched me. Men.

So, it's my birthday. I went out with a few friends to Zen Palate the other night to celebrate a little early. Slokes had a mild panic attack when we discovered that they don't serve alcohol, even though he had gone out for cocktails beforehand. Love me some Slokes. It was basically the perfect birthday dinner. Much fun was had and no meat was eaten, because I don't want people eating dead animals in order to celebrate my birthday. Gross.

The Logger's House- Pawlet, VT

2009-09-24T21:04:00.004-04:00

I -finally- pulled some pictures off my camera to put here. I want to take some more and I have some ideas, but I'm so shy about using my camera. It's a little lame.

The maple sugar shack, or the Baby maple shack, or something like that. No maple syrup was made here, but it did contain the magic of Lauren, who has since moved back to Brooklyn.

So we had this boat. No, it was just the front of a baot. And not a real boat. It was built for a show and Oliver said he really wanted it, so Slokes and I drove it over to his place as a late birthday present. The kids were really excited, but I doubt they have played with it since that night. Ha.

It's ok to eat unhealthy food like doughnuts, if you plan to eat lots of healthy food like kale. Or, you could just eat both at once. Oliver's birthday cake. I had nothing to do with this, but I did enjoy the texture.

OK, short post. Gotta get my brain ready for NY.

The Winpenny House - Pawlet, VT

2009-09-19T18:08:00.002-04:00

Did I ever mention the time when The Logger accidentally called me by his name, instead of mine? Who does that? Anyway we laughed for a good long time.

I don't have much to say right now. Everything is up in the air and a lot of it will come crashing down (in a good way I hope) when I get back from New York.

I need to update some pictures.

The Logger's House- Pawlet, VT

2009-09-07T10:14:00.001-04:00

With all of this spare time I'm finally starting to catch up on a bunch of things I had been wanting to do. I made toothpaste. It still needs a little tweaking, but it's close to being good. The Logger likes it. I made it almond flavored, instead of mint, which is a fun change. I'm going to get some aloe vera gel to soften it up a bit and make it more pasty. Right now it's ore of a tooth liquid, rather than a tooth paste. It's pretty simple though, water, baking soda, almond extract, hydrogen peroxide. The trick is making sure you don't overdue the peroxide and also making sure that you have enough water for the soda to dissolve in, but still be effective. But basically it's a cheaper and healthier alternative to store bought toothpaste, which has some pretty nasty ingredients in it. Even some of the all natural and organic brands have Sodium Laurel Sulphate, which is a carcinogen. Bad Bad. It's a pretty good indication not to put something in your mouth that has a warning label stating that it is harmful if swallowed. Check your toothpaste, unless it's an all natural brand, it'll have the warning.

I had an interview the other day for job I think I'd really like. The interview went really well, and I'm supposedly going to be contacted for a second one, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm trying to be patient. For now I'm taking odd jobs in the kitchen at the inn. Last night I washed dishes for 9 hours straight. There was a 200 person wedding. It was a bit crazy in the kitchen, but the guests were very happy, and I think they had no idea of the insane things happening back there, so job well done. I might go in and help Jason a little more with organizing the kitchen as well. We both love to organize.

Working at the inn has its downsides though. Generally if someone is working the dinner shift, it means they'll get fed. It was a really long shift, so Jason was making plates for people. However, pretty much everything was meat. And the veggies all had butter in them. The appetizers were a lot of vegan food, but the leftovers got taken to the big white before I got a chance to eat any. I was snaking on bread most of the night, which I don't like to do, when I finally asked Drew (who came up from New York to help Jason out), if there was anything without dairy. He whipped me up a really yummy salad, which was awesome. However, a side salad isn't really a dinner, so I still pretty hungry. I'm not all frustrated at being vegan. I accept that these things will happen. If I am frustrated, it's because people think they have to load everything with animal products in order for it to be tasty. I know quite well that is not true, and to prove it I'm going to make myself vegan pancakes for breakfast, which I've always preferred over non-vegan, because they taste better. So there. Not to mention the best cupcake I've ever had IN MY LIFE (and I've eaten a lot of cupcakes) was a vegan green tea cupcake. Which Ceora made. Yay.

I'm out of rice flour at the moment and there is no room in this kitchen for me to get more. Thus, wheat flour pancakes for breakfast. At some point I may need to address the fact that The Logger's mother has more dishes than food to put on them. The entire kitchen is full of dishes and bakeware and food storage containers, but no food. Just one little cabinet for food in the whole house. I'm hoping that if I take over the role of cook in the house, I can start to consolidate dishes and make a new food cabinet. I hope I hope.

Anyway I'm getting a haircut tomorrow. It'll be grand.

Colony House - Dorset, VT

2009-09-02T09:47:00.005-04:00

Oh the days have been flying by. It's already the end of the summer and our last show closed on Saturday. We've been cleaning up the playhouse and finishing up little projects, so the place will be ready for the Dorset Players to move back in for the winter. I finally finished the aisle lights, which have been a nuisance since the summer began. They look quite wonderful.

Alice came and went. I thought it was spectacular. The amount of talent and sheer force of will that went into that complicated show was amazing. I have some photos, which are a little dark, and a little color corrected, and not of the full stage, but it's what was managed. There was no time to take photos, except during a performance, so I never got to take any of my own, and I haven't seen any photos of the full set. It's a bummer, but the ones I have are ok.

Friday is the big day. The big scary day. It dawned on me quite suddenly that at 25 years old I'll be moving in with my 30 year old boyfriend and his mother. And I have no job. This is not where I planned to be at this point in my life, but I really hope that the situation will get better soon. I need to find a job first.

I'm sort of in this odd position between trying to decide whether I want to save up as much money as I can, as fast as I can in order to buy land. Or if I want to focus on paying off my student loans so that I can eventually buy land without my student loans in the way. It would be awesome if I could find someone who will lease me some land, with the idea that I would pay it off over time, so I could just pay both off at once. Because, really, smaller bills are better at this point. But like I said, the first step is finding a job. And a haircut. I need to get a haircut.

Colony House - Dorset, VT

2009-08-06T10:08:00.004-04:00

OK, I've talked about my computer, now let's talk about my life.

Several things to go over:
1. I love Friday nights
2. Lobsters can cause nightmares, dirty looks, and unexpected reporters
3. A broken computer means hours of podcats which may lead to dietary changes that make your mother roll her eyes and wonder what she did to raise you so wrong.

Friday nights! Dinner! At Teleion! No, Earth, Sky, Time! The Levis clan has moved houses to be closer to their fields and never have to deal with cyber-creeps again! They have moved themselves and their WWOOFers into The Big White House. So Friday dinners are there, which means Slocum and I are there. The Logger can come too. I've had a renewed interest in cooking, even though I hate this kitchen and Slokes and I have been making some freaking yummy thing. Recipes later, I've got far too much to say right now.

There's a WWOOFer there right now who loves to sing, and has a talent for rewriting pop songs. So for the past few weeks I've had TLC's "No Scrubs" stuck in my head (only her version is No Slugs), and other equally irritating things. And I would find this endlessly annoying, except for the two things that make it tolerable: It's fucking genius and I can always go find Slocum and have a sing-along (which is actually more annoying for anyone around us, but somehow makes it better for me).

The lobster. Oh man, the lobster. So... I got this email. Actually, wait. Let me start here: I know that the number one rule of blogging is that you don't write about work. However, I blog about my life and my life tends to be wrapped up in my work and since my boss has the address to my blog (I gave it to him, he was curious, he got bored and never looked at it more than once, I'm sure), and I never say bad things about anyone, I often blog about work. I blogged about Teleion endlessly. Last year I blogged about the theatre. This year I saw no reason to stop. I still don't. Except for the lobster.

OK, I took the post down, so maybe you don't know what I'm talking about. There was an incident at work. It made me unhappy, it made others unhappy, I voiced my opinion, problem was solved. I blogged about my reaction to it, what the main issue was, no names, no finger pointing. It was a problem and we solved it. We were all at fault and we all realized it and changed what we were doing. Well, a reporter saw that post and emailed me. He wanted to write a story about it. He doesn't want to say anything bad about the theatre, he just agrees with what I was saying, and in Vermont, somehow this kind of little thing can become news. I guiltily told my employers, they were not upset and I remain silent on the issue until this all blows over. Meaning, I'm not saying anything more until I can put a link in my blog to the news article. That I started with my blog. Hell yeah. At least I'm not getting fired. It's not like it was a big deal, it's just that businesses don't generally want newspaper articles written about mistakes they may have made.

Fine, on to point three. Dairy and I broke up. When my computer died I still needed something to entertain me at work, so I decided to catch up on all the podcasts I had sitting on my ipod. Replacing aisle lights is not so bad when listening to Vegan Radio, followed by RadioLab (by the way I HIGHLY recommend RadioLab to everyone, as it is an awesome odcast that will make you smarter), followed by Vegan Freak. That's a lot of Vegan, and a little bit of science.

The thing is I haven't really been eating much dairy. Maybe a cookie or two that was lying around, but I never buy it, never cook with it, and wouldn't ever order it in a restaurant. I was eating pizza at changeover because the theatre bought it for us and I had no time to go home and eat anything else. My logic was that I wasn't contributing to the dairy industry because I wasn't buying anything, or causing others to buy things for me. And while I'm fine with the Freegan logic and lifestyle, I have finally become grossed out enough that I just plain don't want to put that crap into my body. Dairy is full of puss. And it causes lots of mucous. Mucous and Puss are gross words and I don't want to eat things associated with it. So there you have it, no more dairy for me. And don't start talking to me about cheese. Who the hell even cares about cheese? Sure it tastes good, but not THAT good. The only food that might actually be a true strugle for me to never eat again, and no way could I go through with it, so if I suddenly develope an allergy could you please just kill me? is chocolate. There I said it. You thought I would say eggplant, but I didn't. It's chocolate. And since Fairtrade dark chocolate doesn't have puss or suffering in it, I'm not going to stop eating it. Eggplant is still a close second though.

So Mom, I know you aren't a big fan of the veganism and maybe Dad and Justin just disowned me, but at least I know what's important in life: chocolate and eggplant.

High cholesterol and Alzheimer's

Colony House - Dorset, VT

2009-08-05T09:37:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted in forever. Again. But this time I have a good reason: Complete Computer Meltdown. Listen, I'm not a computer wiz, what I know about computers, I've learned from using them. So when my computer wouldn't start up properly and flashed a "No" sign and then a blinking question mark folder, I panicked. PANIC! Well, as much a I can panic, having never actually panicked for real in my entire life. I'm not kidding.

I googled the problem and read a bunch of stuff about my hard drive becoming "unblessed." yeah. I don't know either. I called my parents and informed them that they would need to search their entire house for the install disks that came with my computer, because of course I didn't bring them with me, why the hell would I do that? Macs don't crash! Duh. Anyway my mother was able to find them pretty painlessly in one of the first places she looked and FedExed them to me. That was a long 4-day wait. Damn weekend.

In the meantime, I used a boot disk from a MacBookPro to start up my comp and try and deal with it. The words excruciatingly slow and also futile come to mind. I was able to boot up with this disk, but not much else. I called my friend Marc, who IS a computer genius and he of course made my near-panic worse by saying it could be a physical issue with the hard drive. Like maybe something in there broke. Something I can't fix for free, even with help from the internet. The nearest Apple store is an hour and a half from here and also my warranty is up. If you think I bought AppleCare, you are out of your mind. May as well save my $300 for my next computer. Anyway I never made it there.

When my FedEx package from Mom came, several things fell out: 2 install disks, user manual, warranty info and... a Leopard install disk. What?!!?!? All this time I was running Tiger and I *could* have been running Leopard?!?! It came with my computer?!? Damn my ignorance at the moment of unpacking my computer. I probably wrote it off as some junk program I didn't need and then never thought about it again. Months later when I was fully immersed in Mac life, I considered buying Leopard. I almost paid for software. I never do that! Suddenly I realized that I considered purchasing something I already had? And now my computer was dead and I could have been enjoying it that much more this whole time?!!? GHA!

I had no choice, I had to get the thing up and running again just so I could install Leopard. It was my Apple-given right! Anyway I booted with my own install disk, backed up all my important stuff and then I started a new install. The internet told me that if I installed over what I had already, it would re-bless the hard drive and keep all of my other stuff. Meaning, I didn't have to back up, but it was a good idea. Especially if that wasn't the problem and my computer ended up exploding. At least then I would have my work files. And the second season of Pushing Daisies.

I started the install, went to bed, woke up when the first disk popped out, put the second in and went to bed again. This morning... the computer started all by itself! No boot disk needed! YAY! But when I started up Firefox it was still being an asshole. Firefox was ruining my good time! I had been having problems with it before the meltdown, that was the reason I turned my computer off in the first place and the start of all this trouble. I tried updating it and that did nothing. Finally I just reinstalled the damn browser, lost all my settings and bookmarks, but whatever. My computer works now.

I'm kind of on the fence about this though. I think that whatever started the major problem in my computer, where it couldn't find its own damn hard drive without help, maybe started with Firefox? I really don't know. All I know is, it was giving me trouble, I tried to reboot my comp and suddenly it won't work. Then when I get it working, everything is fine except for Firefox freaking out. So maybe I shouldn't use it until the next update? It's just that I love Firefox so much. It makes the internet worth browsing, that's how much I love it. Safari just won't cut it.

Well, probably all of my problems in life (laziness, homelessness, unemployment) will be solved when I update to Leopard. I hear the newer Mac operating systems will even find you a job these days. A good job. Where you get paid.

The Dorset Playhouse - Dorset, VT

2009-07-23T14:46:00.002-04:00

The longer I am here the more I realize that it isn't my attachment to the people of the Dorset Theatre Festival that keep me coming back, but the place itself. I care so much about this theatre that it would break my heart if it were to fail. I love the history and I feel honored to be a part of it. I think we do good things here and with time maybe we can win back the audience that was lost over the years.

Some events occurred last night that made me question why I decided to come back here and work these ridiculous hours for so little pay. I put so much of my life and energy into this theatre, to be insulted for it is a major blow. It just made it so much more obvious that I'm not here for anyone but me and this place. I build relationships with the people here and make lasting friendships, but that feels so separate from my actual work.

The Dorset Playhouse - Dorset, VT

2009-07-07T20:06:00.003-04:00

I've been experiencing this overwhelming feeling of being out of place no matter where I am. At the theatre I only feel right when I'm working non-stop during tech week. I feel weird at the farm because of all the new WWOOFers and the fact that they've moved the whole operation to The Big White House and out of Teleion Holon. I can't even relax in Colony House. The kitchen situation is not good and I'm the only person in the house who cooks for every meal. This is baffling to many people there and they often stare at my food as though I've made some kind of gourmet meal, when all I've done is put squash in quinoa. For some reason it makes me feel incredibly awkward.

I'm starting to realize just how much my living situation revolves around the kitchen. After being at the farm cooking has become even more important to me. I decided to do more cooking this summer and buy no pre-made frozen meals. They are pricey and not even very good. Not to mention how much healthier whole foods are. My meals have been revolving around what I can get at the farmers market, plus whatever grain sounds good to me at the moment. I feel really great about my food, but I've become less excited about cooking it in the Colony House kitchen. The fact that I'm the only vegetarian doesn't really help. Yeah, I'm sure that meat you made is -really- tasty, but amazingly I'm not even a little bit interested. I realize my aversion to meat is self-alienating, but I'm not about to fake interest in something I find repulsive.

I just feel like I can't be very independent right now and I have little control over my living situation. I can't wait to have my own meat-free, clean kitchen. I think a lot about when The Logger and I came back from New York and walked in the kitchen at Teleion and The Logger took a deep breath and commented on the good smell of a meat-free kitchen. At the time I just thought it was silly and cute, but lately it's become so obvious. I miss my little vegetarian community.

I think I'm just frustrated by the fact that I ditched New York over a year ago to seek out my independence and I've been enjoying my freedom. Now I'm back to Dorset and it's a lot like being back in college, which I never really enjoyed much anyway. Wha Wha, maybe someone should just call me a big whaaaaambulance.

Colony House - Dorset, VT

2009-06-23T09:24:00.004-04:00

On Friday The Logger's father came into town for a day so we all went out to lunch. I was somewhat nervous about meeting him, not because I was worried he wouldn't like me, I didn't really care about that, but because I was worried I wouldn't like him. He only sees The Logger once a year and he thinks his own son is crazy. I don't like it. But, he turned out to be a nice guy, and he was almost nothing like The Logger, which means he was actually a social person and easy to go to lunch with. The strangest thing about him was that he seemed genuinely interested in The Logger, how he is doing, what he is doing, how happy he is. But the man never calls him, he doesn't remember his birthday and he only sees him one day a year. If The Logger never called his father, they probably wouldn't ever talk. I don't really understand it.

While we were at lunch there was an old man sitting across the room eating a sandwich. When he was done he got up, threw away his trash, took some bottles and cans out of the trash can and put them into the recycling, then he came over to our table and picked up the tray that we had leaned against the wall. The Logger's father thanked him and he replied "We're all in this together man." And even though the guy seemed a little batty (he soon began chattering on and on), I was struck by it. I mean, I know that's true and I think most of us do, but I think we forget it. I think sometimes we need reminding. So maybe that's why The Logger's father doesn't really call, but he still really cares. Maybe he forgets and The Logger is his reminder.

Colony House - Dorset, VT

2009-06-18T08:29:00.006-04:00

I can't believe I'm still in bed at 8:30. Lately I've been going in to the theatre at 8:00 and today I think I will go in at 10. The interns have arrived, as well as the cast of the next two shows, so things have been picking up rapidly. St. Nicholas opens tonight, so the past few days of my life have been spent in the dark, with 10 minutes breaks of sunshine every hour and a half. I was terribly worried about getting my job done on time for this show. I really felt like I just didn't have enough time, but it actually worked out great. Bradford usually ends up needing me to change most of the lights over the course of tech, but that didn't really happen this time. I only spent one night in the theatre until 1am, other than that I've been leaving at a reasonable time. Still after my 9:30 bedtime, but... this is theatre, not farming. We all have to be night people here.

This is the stage last week

Let me try and explain the layout of this show a little. St. Nick is a one man show, in which the one man (The actor's name is Jack Gilpin) is telling the audience a story. It's an intimate kind of story-telling and it needs an intimate setting. So we moved the audience to the stage. They are seated along the back wall of the stage and down the side walls. His playing area is pretty small and he has a chance to really look every person in the audience in the eye. It's so amazing and I think the people of Dorset are a bit shocked and giddy about it when they walk into the theatre. Anyway the backdrop of the whole play is the empty theatre. Bradford designed a bunch of cool effects that light up the theatre in interesting ways. I also got the wonderful project of cutting up Christmas lights and hiding them in the seats. I now know more about christmas lights than I ever really wanted to know and 5 hours of my life are gone forever to this subject. However, when we tuned the lights on the effect was so beautiful. It was exactly what Carl (director of this show) wanted to see.

The stage and its weirdo seating

I'm going to pause for a second here to explain that the average audience member of this theatre is... older. A few years past retirement. They are well educated and maybe a bit old-fashioned, and when they pay good money to see a show, they don't want to be offended. This means we can't have smoking on stage, we have to be careful about loud unexpected noises and, holy crap, we do not want to swear too much. Well, this show is about an Irish alcoholic. He swears a lot. Carl cut about 90% of the swearing out of the show, and though it might throw the rhythm a little, I know the audience appreciates it.

So, after we tried the Christmas lights for the first time, Jack turned to Carl and said "I think this is worth putting at least five 'cunts' back in the show." I would say the five hours of frustrating work I put into this look was all worth it just for that hilarious moment.

Colony House - Dorset, VT

2009-06-10T07:28:00.003-04:00

Back in Dorset once again. I miss Teleion so much, but the people here are great too. Slocum is back and Marshall got recruited as the Tech Director. There are only a few other people here right now to start the season up. Everyone else is coming on the 13th. This makes no difference to me, of course, because I am the only person in my department. I only hope more vegetarian/vegan types come up with the interns, as I am the only one so far. Whatever, I'm not eating a single Boca burger this summer, I'm just going to eat before all of the functions.

I've been pretty busy organizing the equipment and fixing lights, which I love doing. I'm back to the basement again, working happily with my headphones on. I found my camera so here are some pictures of my work situation:

My office. It's cozy, but it's pretty far from farming.

Inbox

Outbox

And here's my room in Colony House.

I feel a little backwards right now. I left New York and I left the theatre in order to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I know I want to farm, but the only way I know how to make money is by doing theatre. It's this annoying back and forth thing. People will pay me to waste electricity, but not to grow healthy food? I say waste because good theatre doesn't need lighting it just wants lighting. It's true, I love doing this job, but I can't do it forever. It's not really where I want to be. If I knew I could have land somewhere and farm it, and then do theatre in the winter once in a while, that would be perfectly fine with me. But, Dorset is a summer job and as much as it disrupts the rest of my life, I would miss it. Theatre gets under your skin. You can only do it for so long, and if you try to spend those years getting away from it, something always pulls you back.

Wilburton Inn- Manchester, VT

2009-06-04T17:19:00.004-04:00

Before I start this post, I just want to mention that I have no idea where my camera is and that is why there are no pictures and have been no pictures for some time. I'm sure it's mixed in with my stuff somewhere, but I haven't had the time or patience to look for it.

There have been a mass of birthdays recently, which gave me many reasons to bake yummy cakes (Recipes at the end of the post. No, don't scroll down, just read the damn post first. Lazy). Elyssa's birthday was first so Dresden and I made her some of those amazing six-minutes cakes that everyone is so fond of. It's a bonus that they're vegan and there happen to be so many vegans in the house right now. We surprised her with them by sneaking them into the dining room, but she had somehow snuck out and there was a moment of confusion where, instead of the cake coming in unannounced and everyone singing, the cake came in and she followed after. She was surprised and pleased anyway, despite the mix-up.

Bonnie's birthday was two days after. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said that she had been so fond of the six-minute cake she kind of wanted that, and she kind of wanted apple pie, but the conversation never came to a conclusion. As a compromise I made her an apple cake and a six-minute cake. The apple cake was not vegan, but I substituted the butter for applesauce and oil, so the only non-vegan thing in it were the eggs, which come from the farm anyway, so the vegans among us were willing to have a little. Everyone seemed to like it, but I thought there was not enough apple and a little too much lemon. If it were my cookbook I would have noted this in the recipe. Instead I'll just post here how I would make it now, were I to make it again.

To celebrate Bonnie's birthday we went for a picnic at Emerald Lake. She requested that she not be involved in putting the event together, so Mike and I made some food, but severely underestimated the amount of food we would need, so the portions were small. Not to worry, I never make too little cake so those portions were just fine. Bonnie's friend Terry also showed up with amazing peanut butter banana vegan cupcakes. Oliver and Max also stopped off and picked u some snacks and food from the Inn, so no one went hungry. There was kayaking, paddle-boating and plenty of relaxation (except that the plates kept blowing away, because we never really learned our lesson. Maybe people just enjoy chasing paper plates). In all, the day was a success, especially when Bonnie saw that we had made her a kitchen herb garden (pictures coming soon). We even put a bench out there in the hopes that she would b able to sit by her garden while watching her kids play in the sandbox with a trashy magazine in her hand. JUST KIDDING! Bonnie doesn't read trashy magazines. In public.

The last birthday to be celebrated was Nathaniel's. He didn't want a cake, so I took the opportunity to make something I had been really curious about. I had found a gluten-free, vegan cake online a while ago and because of it's odd ingredients I was intrigued and made a little nervous by it. It's a chocolate cake with black-eyed peas as it's base. One of our vegan WWOOFers is also gluten-free so she hadn't been partaking in birthday cakes, which gave me one more reason to attempt this crazy cake. As I was putting it together I was feeling skeptical, especially because of the one-hour baking time. It turned out AMAZING in the end and the only thing I tweaked about it was that I added a bit more sugar and possibly more chocolate (didn't really bother to measure that). The nice thing about a cake like this is that you can really play with the stuff in it, because there is no delicate balance of liquids and powders, it's pretty much just a solid mush base. Anyway, the ingredients are a little pricey, but well worth it. It's easy to make, and so delicious. The texture is wonderful as well; kind of somewhere between pudding a cake. Just trust me and make the damn thing.

A note about the recipes. These are all vegan, or easily made vegan. When using chocolate, be sure to check ingredients as many seemingly dark chocolate chips contain milk fat. If you intend to keep the cakes vegan, you'll want to be careful about this.

Gluten-free chocolate cake
Original recipe here
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas
14 oz extra-firm tofu
1 cup sugar (my adjusted amount, up from 3/4)
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or more, whatever)
1/4 cup coco powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan.

Toss both the black-eyed peas and the tofu into your food processor or blender, and let it run until the mixture is completely smooth. Give it a good long time to work, since it would be rather unpleasant to find any whole beans in your cake. Add in the sugar and pulse to combine.

Separately, melt the chocolate and stir well until smooth before adding into the food processor, and then let it run for a minute until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides to make sure you aren’t missing anything, and give it another minute to process. Finally, add the cocoa,baking powder, soda, and salt, and pulse to combine.

Spread the mixture into your prepared pan, leveling off the top with your spatula as best you can. Bake for about 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. I know that’s a bit vague, but it will still be ever so slightly wet since it’s such a moist cake- Just make sure it doesn’t look like it’s covered in raw batter. Let it cool completely in the pan before serving.

The following recipes are from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts:

Six minute cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup coco powder (or more, whatever)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup veggie oil (or 1/4 oil, 1/4 applesauce, or all applesauce, it's really up to you. I like it with more applesauce and less oil. Creamier)
1 cup cold water or coffee (I have never tried it with coffee, because I don't like coffee, but I bet it would be good to those who love it)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

The awesome thing about this recipe is that you don't need to create a ton of dirty dishes with it. You can mix everything right up in the pan. I have not tried this because I a, always making massive quantities and also layering the cakes. If you want to stack the cakes and put a layer of jam between them (I highly recommend this), you'll need to put a layer of parchment paper down in the pan, as these cakes stick no matter what you do. If you do this, mixing in the pan is pretty impossible.

Mix together flour, coco, baking soda, salt and sugar directly into cake pan. In your measuring cup combine oil, applesauce, water, and vanilla. Pour liquid into dry ingredients and mix with a fork until smooth. Add in the vinegar and mix quickly, it will start to bubble and react, but mix until just incorporated.

Bake for 25- 30 minutes and let cool. If you go the jam route, dump the cooled cake out of the pan and spread jam on the flatter side of one. Put the other cake on top, flat side down (get it? flat sides go together better). Rock out with your cake.

If you want an east yummy frosting:
melt a half pound of chocolate, stir in 3/4 cup hot water and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Pour over cooled cake and then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Then rock out with your cake.

Apple cake
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup oil
1 cup packed brown sugar (I used turbinado, but brown might be better)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs (or 1 well mashed banana, haven't tried this, but I bet it would be tasty)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups peeled and chopped apples
1 tbl lemon juice

preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 inch square pan

Combine applesauce, oil and sugar, beating until well combined by hand or with a mixer. Whatever. Add vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time, or banana a little at a time. combine four, baking powder, soda and salt. fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture- the batter will be stiff. fold in chopped apples and lemon juice.

Pour batter into pan and bake for 45-50 minutes until cake is golden and knife comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temp.

THEN ROCK OUT WITH YOUR CAKES

Outside Burlington, VT

2009-05-30T19:31:00.002-04:00

Last night was such a wonderful night. This weekend the house was rented out, so everyone moved to the big white house except for The Logger and I, who stayed in Bonnie and Oliver's apartment. I headed over to the big white for dinner last night and everyone was sitting in the living room playing guitar and singing. I started to think about how lucky I am to be in a place with so many wonderful and interesting people. I have already been feeling this way or a long time, but last night I was really feeling it. It was surreal to be in such a wonderful place full of so much love. Everyday is a new confirmation that I made the right choice by leaving the life I used to have.

Dresden, Kelly, Elyssa and I went to Burlington for the day today. The drive up here was so amazing. I have to get out of Manchester to be reminded of just how beautiful Vermont is. This place is so different from everywhere else I have ever been. I guess I haven't spent much time in small towns, but I love them so much. I was so excited to see Burlington, because I had never been there before. I found myself a little disappointed. It looks just like Boulder. It's such an engineered city, planned to look the way it does and attract the kind of people who live there. I like it just fine, but I wouldn't want to live here. I've always known that I prefer to be in a huge city or a tiny town. Medium sized cities give me trouble. However, I had a great time, especially sitting out in the park being surrounded by so many people. I forget about the rest of the world when I am at Teleion.

I'm looking forward to going over to Dorset for the summer, but I'm not super-excited to be leaving my wonderful Teleion house-mates (or my private bathroom). The kinds of stresses I will have will be completely different. At Teleion I worry about the plants being too overgrown before getting transplanted, and I worry about cucumber beetles. The theatre is such a rush to get many complicated things done in such a short amount of time. There are weeks of relaxation, followed by a sleepless week of changeover. I'm glad to have a world separate from the theatre to escape to.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-05-21T19:01:00.001-04:00

OK, this post has been sitting open on my computer for a week now and I haven't put it up. I can't deal with myself. Sorry I'm so lame.

I have some fun things to talk about, including bike rides and food (of course). Yesterday Dresden asked me if I was up for a bike ride, and Kelly and Elyssa were into it as well as myself. Guv was standing there while we talked about it so he of course wanted to come. The only problem with that is that his little bike is not so safe to be taking out on the street. There's this crazy bike attachment that can be put onto another bike that would allow him to ride beind as a kind of trailer. It basically adds another person and another wheel to the bike. There were several obstacles involved in this: The bike it attaches to is too tall for me, so riding it is possible, but stopping is tricky and impossible with Guv on the back without someone to hold the bike up. Guv also has no sense of balance on a bike, so when he peddles he shifts his weight wildly. We got around this by agreeing that Guv should only peddle when we were going up a hill. The last problem, and most obvious one is that pulling Guv up a hill on the bike is freaking hard. We only did three really tough hills, but by the last one I was sure I was going to die. The up side of all of this is that when we were on straight road, or going downhill having Guv on there was no problem at all and he was great biking company. I'm glad he came along, it was fun to have him back there there whole time and made the ride so much more interesting.

Today was a potato day at Theo's. However, before we could head over a number of confusing things had to happen. Guv had to get to school, the white van needed to be loaded up, Oliver needed to do tractor work at the big white and then drive it over to Theo's and someone needed to pick up lime from the Big White. Bonnie couldn't take Guv though because Oliver had driven the minivan to the big white and all of the kid's car seats were in there. Dresden and I offered to take him in the Jeep, then swing by the big white and pick up the lime and the minivan while everyone else took the white van to Theo's and Oliver would drive over with the tractor and meet us there. This seemed to be a great plan, until Dresden and I passed the white van in town. Everyone was sitting on the curb and the van was parked. They had run out of gas and Mike and Elyssa had hitched a ride to the gas station. Dresden and I still needed to get the lime and the minivan and head back to Teleion before going to Theo's, so we said we'd look for them on the way back, as they seemed rather content. Things took a little longer than planned and by the time we got back to where they had been, they were gone. Turns out that The Logger saw Mike walking back and picked him up. Problem solved. On to Theo's.

We spent some of the morning and all of the afternoon there planting our own potatoes and helping him plant his. It's amazing how much can get done in a short time, with a good group of focused and willing people. We planted about ten beds of potatoes, which was close to 500 lbs. A good potato yeild will give us 10 lbs for every one lb, but we will probably get closer to 5-7 lbs per 1 lb, which is still a lot of freaking potatoes. Oliver used his tractor to make the furrows that we plant to potatoes in, and in order for the thing to work properly two people need to stand on it. I really wanted to get a picture of it, but before I could get my camera out, Theo's brother declared the activity unsafe and put a stop to it. Boo.

After many, many hours of working, Theo took us all over to his neighbor's pond for swimming. Bonnie came with the kids and some bathing suits. Talula did not like the cold water, but I couldn't get enough. I kind of wanted to swim all the way across, but the water was so cold it was hard to breath, so I stayed close to the shore. I wanted to bake in the sun a little (or allow my clothes to bake, as I was wearing about ten layers of sunscreen by that point), but Theo's brother again ended our party and told us it was time to go.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-05-19T16:00:00.001-04:00

I've been slowing down on the blogging, but not because there isn't anything to say. In fact, I have too much to say. We've been so busy planting, cooking, welcoming new people, getting the soil ready, and cleaning up neglected areas. A few new WWOOFers have come and things have been getting done so quickly. It's wonderful to have so much activity in the house and the fields. I especially like looking up from whatever I'm working on and reminding myself that while I'm working on this one project, someone else is getting something else done. A few weeks ago if Elyssa and I weren't doing it, it wasn't getting done yet.

The newest WWOOFers are Nathaniel, The Poets (Sara Rose and Mike), Dresden, and Kelly. They came almost all at the same time, but spread out enough for people to get a general feel of things before new people arrived. It's great that everyone is so positive and willing to work. The whole vibe of the house has changed drastically with so many people buzzing around doing their thing. Sarah Rose and Dresden are both vegan so my desire to lay off dairy has become much easier as there is always vegan food available. Our pizza nights might turn into make-your-own-pizza nights, instead of ordering from Christo's.

The food projects have become rather interesting. I attempted to make rice milk twice, the second time worked out better than the first, though house consensus was that both were good substitutes for store bought, and were obviously cheaper. Oliver made soy milk yesterday and the okara byproduct is always an invitation for creative cooking. Okara is is a tasteless, dry-ish substance that makes a great filler with enough flavoring. Kelly and I worked on making "chicken" nuggets this morning. We made three different kinds: Curry-mustard, carrot-ginger, and tomato-basil. Kelly is wanting to expand her cooking knowledge so cooking by just tasting and throwing things in was a great way to spend the morning. After lunch we threw together some quick sauces and will have ourselves an okara feast for dinner. To make into more of a comfort food night there will be french fries (baked, actually) and sweet corn (off the cob).

Kelly and I went for a quick bike ride before heading back to Teleion to start prepping potatoes for planting, setting aside a few for french fries with dinner. It was a nice, short little ride and I'm glad that the new WWOOFers are so interested in outdoor activities. We even cut the potatoes outside because it was such a nice day. The black flies have become annoying, but not enough to actually keep a person inside. I have been chased inside a few times by allergies though.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-05-08T06:42:00.005-04:00

OK, OK, Let's talk about the farm. Where did I leave off? After that crazy week of hot, summery weather Southern Vermont went back to Spring. It's been doing it's fair share of raining and it's not cold, but having jacket ready is a good idea.

We're a little more than half way through the tomato planting process. One greenhouse is done and Elyssa and I started the other one yesterday. The greenhouse we use to start the plants was so full of tomatoes it was hard to find room for new things. It's nice to get them out of there and into the ground where they belong.

The tomatoes make the back of the van look like a jungle

I'm going to try and remember my camera today to make some photos of the finished greenhouses. The smaller greenhouse has really wonderful beds in it. We put down the mud we got from the bottom of the pond, covered it with peat moss, mixed in some lime and chicken poop and then went over all of it with the tiller. What we ended up with was a fluffy raised bed that is so easy to plant in that we don't need a shovel. The tomatoes were into it.

We've got three new WWOOFers coming this weekend. One today and two more on Sunday. Elyssa, Oliver and I have been working crazy-long days to get all of this stuff done; it will be such a relief to have three more helpers. We spent some time getting more organized so that it would be easier for the three of them to get quickly into the swing of things.

Bonnie and I took all of Wednesday to clean out the basement, clean out two supply closets, get those supplies together to put in the closets, and we made up the new WWOOFer rooms. I love the basement right now. I've been harassing Elyssa to go down there and look at it while it's still clean. We got rid of most of the stuff that was junking it up, but I suspect that more junk will make its way down there and the cleanliness won't last. But maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong.

A bag of overgrown potatoes we found while cleaning. At first glance we both thought they were a bag of white sticks.

One thing I'm very excited about is that there will be three more people to split up the letting out of the chickens at 5:30AM. I know everyone thinks that we get up at start work at 5AM everyday because it's a farm, and maybe that's what other farmers do, but we don't. I think the veggies like to have the early morning hours to themselves anyway. Anything earlier than 6AM is just mean and those chickens are the meanest.

Some cool news:
Solving the problem of "Range Anxiety" in electric cars
Europe pisses off Canada

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-04-26T07:20:00.005-04:00

Winter ended so abruptly. I felt like it dragged on, fighting all through March to stick around, and then suddenly, it was gone. Yesterday actually felt like we skipped Spring as well. It was sunny and hot, and The Logger managed to get a sunburn. I conducted my favorite Vermont activity of laying in the grass for a good portion of the day.

I went out early to hit up a rummage sale at the Dorset Church. I took Nisi with me and she was a huge hit with the old ladies. It's so funny that so many of them just loved her. She's not a little lap dog (common to Dorset), and she wasn't doing anything particularly cute. She was pulling at the leash, as usual, because she's not really used to a leash being a free-roaming farm dog. She was not letting me take my time looking through books. However, I was glad to let the old ladies coo over her because it kept her occupied while I browsed. I finally found the ultimate rummage sale score: Cranium, with all the pieces, pretty much new for $2. This is so coming to Dorset this summer. I love that game. Sadly the clay is dried out, but this is easily replaced.

I got back in time for Talula's birthday picnic. She is 2 years old as of yesterday, which she celebrated by finally saying "Guv," quite clearly. Talking is great, but I love to hear kids pick up names especially. It just kind of makes me happy. We had a fun picnic with bubbles and balls and yummy food and good friends. The kids loved it. I took many pictures with Bonnie and Oliver's camera. None are going up on this blog today because both mine, and their camera is downstairs. Oops.

I took a quick break from the fun to go buy some darning materials from the local yarn shop that I had been wanting to check out. I found some really cool stuff made entirely from bamboo. It was ultra-soft and beautiful and a decent price, but it was hand-wash only, so it wouldn't be a good thing to patch socks with. Both Elyssa and Oliver want me to show them how to darn, which I think is a fun and thrifty thing to know, so I'm more than happy to show them.

We went for a dip in the freezing stream in the afternoon. Well, Max and Guv took a dip; Bonnie, Talula and I put our feet in. Good, clear, running water beats a pool any day. You come out feeling clean and refreshed instead of stinking of chlorine and wanting to get into the nearest shower. Or maybe I'm backwards compared to most people.

Today is another nice day, though thunderstorms are expected this afternoon. It's good for the plants, so rain wouldn't actually ruin the nice-ness of the day. Hail might. By the way, has anyone ever heard of a Hail Cannon? Yeah, me neither.

Link-ity Link:
Sticking up for the little guys: Rats

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-04-20T07:06:00.006-04:00

Lots of excitement on the farm. The ground is thawed and it's been so warm out, so we're finally getting the beds at the Big White House ready for plants. Oliver is also planning to use a little more land this season and he ran the plow through it to get it ready. It was full of huge boulders that the tractor couldn't move so he rented an excavator. The Logger is pretty masterful at large pieces of machinery so he moved most of the boulders, and stacked them up at rock sculptures in the process. He wasn't very into the idea of Elyssa and I using the excavator, so I asked Oliver instead and he was excited about it.

Elyssa in the excavator. My camera didn't happen until after I had taken my turn.

The excavator is completely complicated to me. There are two joysticks that control all of the claw movements and the swivel of the machine. It's hard to remember what does what and some mountains of mud were definitely dropped from high up, resulting in mud baths for all. The goal of this operation was to take this muck out of the pond and make a big pile for it to dry out a bit. Then Oliver wants to mix it with other composty-chicken-poopy stuff and make some super-compost to put in the beds.

Max took a turn

This dog, who belongs to a neighbor, was very curious about the claw of the excavator.

Then we went out to the beds to till them and get them ready for planting. Oliver went through with the tractor while Elyssa and I picked up the big rocks in the beds. I do not know how to drive a tractor, but I will. If only so I can look this cool:

Tillin' like a villan, yo.

Plus this fun link:
Abundance Not Deprivation - Lose Weight by Eating More

Penn Station - New York, NY

2009-04-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

What a trip. I'm so tired I can't focus on my free trashy newspaper. There's no internet in Penn Station, which makes me sad. I haven't had much internet the past few days, so these posts are going up later than when they were written. Oh well.

My train doesn't leave for two hours, but I had to come into Manhattan early to load our rental lights onto a truck to be returned and no one else could really make it without a huge hassle. I guess it's better that I didn't end up going back last night. All the the train ticket prices have gone up so I can't transfer to an earlier train without paying extra money, thus I wait. I haven't spent any money here besides the $7 I spent on a Metrocard.

Last night we were finishing up strike at 8pm, and it looked like we'd be leaving pretty soon. Strike had gone well and we got things done pretty quickly. I called Ceora to tell her I would be staying another night and that I'd probably be leaving in a half hour. Then we all went up to storage to put all of the Keen crap away and realized there wasn't really any room. It ended up taking an hour to get everything away and organized in there. I got on the train at 9pm and I was exhausted. When I got off the train, my feet were killing me and I kept telling myself that I would be there very soon, at which point I would take off my shoes, make dinner and sit on my ass for at least an hour. However, when I got there, no one was home and I couldn't get in. I called Ceora and she said they were in the pita place right next to the train station. It's only 4 blocks to the train, but I swear I almost cried. I didn't want to lug myself and my stuff back where I just came from and I didn't want to buy any food, but I was wicked-hungry.

I left some of my stuff just inside the entryway and went over tot he pita place. Part of me wanted to call her back and tell her I was just going to sit on the front steps and wait, but I knew that I was just being a whiner. When I got there Marcy ended up giving me the rest of her food because she had ordered something massive. So I felt a little better once I was sitting for a few minutes and munching on falafel. Yay for Marcy always ordering more food than she can eat! Then The Logger called, which I had also been pouting about. I had not been able to get through to Teleion all evening and it had gotten too late to try calling again. Turns out the phone was off the hook, so he called me from Oliver's cell.

The theatre was full of pompous musical theatre people this morning, complaining about not being able to get into the theatre before 9:30. I admit that I also got there early, but that was because I wanted to take the train in with Iggy, I didn't expect that they would let me in early. So I hung out and used their free internet for half an hour (yeah didn't fel like getting on blogger, whatever). Keith kind of got a little upset and over-reacted about my being there so early, but I told him that I was happy to wait and that my train had taken less time than I expected. But these freaking musical theatre people were going on about their reading and their Tony Award Winner (apparently he has no name), who would have to come through the back doors. Then the truck driver arrived and didn't know he was supposed to be picking up my lights. And also he's a little high-strung and started ranting about the musical theatre people. But he helped me get everything onto the truck quickly and without hassle, so rant away Hayden truck driver, chances are I agree with you anyway, I'm just not in the talking mood this morning.

So now I'm finally going back to Vermont after the longest one-day trip ever. I love my job, but coming here for a single day just to work and go back is a shock to my system. I have to switch gears so quickly I feel like I've been hit in the head with a book. When I have a few days here I just get into NY mode and I don't feel so sulky. Also, I did not go to Dumpling Man on this trip. Boo.

Amtrak train - Somewhere between Albany and NYC

2009-04-11T16:45:00.000-04:00

I'm doing this ridiculous one day trip to NYC to strike Heroes (if you didn't see it, you totally blew it because that show was awesome). I'm hoping that strike ends soon enough for me to leave tomorrow night, because I am, yet again, being a big baby about leaving Vermont. It's funny because I used to be this way about New York. It was always home to me, even when I wasn't living there. Whenever I left I felt really sad about and going back was the best thing ever. Now it just seems like a hassle. I hope my feeling for Vermont don't change like they did for New York.

I talked to my friend Jess on the phone today. She works in Dorset over the summer as well and said she couldn't wait to get back because the city starts to make her feel claustrophobic. I told her that the big difference for me is that in NY I am thinking and worrying about myself all the time; How will I get there? Who is going to harass me? Is that guy gonna try and steal my bag if I fall asleep? Will the train be late? Is that pee that I just stepped in while wearing flip-flops? In Vermont, I don't worry about myself. I'm fine, I'm healthy even when I'm sick, I'm never stuck in traffic and if I step in poop I've planned for it. It's one very huge stress that I no longer have: myself. Even if I don't know what I'm doing with my life after Dorset, I do know that I'll be safe and healthy. I won't be stuck in a terrible situation involving bed bugs and an opera singer, or staying in an apartment long after roommate relations have gone sour because I can't afford to find another place. If I disagree with the people I live with here, it's nothing serious and I don't think we let it carry over to the next day, or even the next hour. With so much space, it's easy to step away from the tension. I think that makes living with anyone easier.

Wonderful Link for today:
Really great and easy tips for healthy eating (no, really, I think you should check this out)

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-04-09T07:18:00.009-04:00

Last night started Passover. I admit I did a little Wikipedia research on Passover a few weeks ago just so I had some idea of what was going on. I liked having a reason to give the kitchen a thorough cleaning and Oliver made the stove look new. I bought all of the suspect foods for $1. The dinner was super-yummy: Spinach-eggy-lasagna-type thing (with matzo as the noodle layers), roasted potatoes, carrot salad, fresh horseradish from the garden, salad, and an apple-salad called haroset.

I really enjoyed Passover, and I think the Jewish holidays as a whole have been so much more fun than the Holidays I'm used to with my family. There's a good chance that this is because holidays in my family are just a good excuse to get together with family and friends and have a huge homemade Italian meal. Religion never had a place in my home. My parents never talked about God or their beliefs and I never really asked. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've been to church. This is all fine with me, as I find church boring. I remember my neighbors used to put a candle in a cupcake on Christmas and sing happy birthday to Jesus. This weirded me out and I've never seen or heard of anyone else doing this.

The thing is, I think Christian rituals are kind of meaningless. Most of the big holidays are not even accurate in their timing; they were timed to coincide with Pagan holidays to sort of over-ride them. You can't have a fertility celebration that leads to an orgy on the day Christ came back to life, that's just not right. And what the hell do chocolate, egg-laying bunnies have to do with Christianity anyway?

OK, these points have all been made before by other people, in more eloquent or fiery ways. So what is my point? My point is that I respect that the Jewish holidays do their own thing, as far as I can tell. They have stories and reasons behind everything. I may not really understand the point of having an entire set of dishes that you only use once a year because you don't want trace amounts of chametz on the plates, but at least I can understand the story and symbolism behind it. I understand the historical significance of it, even if the logic side of my brain is making an argument that sounds more and more like my mother every day.

I think, by far, my favorite part of the day was actually the cooking. Specifically the macaroons. Both Guv and Talula stood on stools to watch/help me make them. We had to separate 12 egg whites for the macaroons and I was showing Guv how to do this by moving the yolk carefully from one half of the eggshell to the other. I cracked an egg and gave him the halves and let him try it once. We were doing this over a separate bowl to be sure that no yolk got into the batter and also to make sure there were not blood spots in the eggs, which sometimes happens, even though the eggs are not fertile. Talula always wants to do what Guv does, so she wanted to try separating the egg whites as well. I cracked an egg and gave her half and then dropped the yolk from my half to hers. She got very excited and threw the yolk into the batter. Luckily it didn't break, so I just scooped it out, but Guv and I thought this was rather funny and whenever anyone else laughs Talula does too.

Do these boots make me look fat?

Links of interest:
12 Endangered Animals That People Still Eat
Gay Rights Groups Celebrate Victories in Marriage Push

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-04-04T16:09:00.007-04:00

What a fun day we had a few days ago! We decided to clean up the weeds in the big greenhouse that had our salad all winter. As the weather has warmed up the weeds kind of took over a bit and the salad got a little overgrown. Bonnie and Talula even came to help out and the chickens did their part. Guv was at daycare, so he missed all the fun, and Eden slept through most of it.

The plan was to pick out most of the weeds, move the chickens in there for a few days to let them get the rest of the salad and weeds and bugs, and then move the chickens out to Teleion Holon for the summer. The weeding went pretty quickly with so many people.

Helping Daddy

The chickens were not so interested in moving into the big greenhouse, they just wanted to eat and run. Right now half of them have moved in and the other half are staying in the smaller greenhouse that has been their home all winter and become very muddy. We leave the door open during the day so that if they want food and water, or if they want to go into the other greenhouse where food and water have been provided without having to search for it, they can do that. At night we close the houses up as best we can.

The salad greenhouse looks great with all the weeds pulled out and the chickens doing their thing. We even fixed the greenhouse sides so that the wind wasn't blowing them all apart and wreaking havoc. I'm so excited to move the chickens out, clean up, and start planting!

I got one, but it's gross. What do I do with it?

I also want to point out that I've updated my links section, as promised. I am also going to try and end each post with a link or article, or something I find noteworthy. For today, I'll kick this thing off with two links:
Are the lab rat's days numbered?
Iowa Court Voids Gay Marriage Ban

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-04-01T07:47:00.005-04:00

I've got to go to New York in a few days. For one day. I really, really don't want to. It's just a big stress and I'm only losing money. Basically, my pay for being the Master Electrician for the show I put up also included the day to take it all down. This means I have to spend another $72 to travel back to NY to work for one day, on a job I was already paid for and then travel back to VT. I'm a little grumpy. And I'm taking my food with me, because I am determined to spend no money except for subway rides. Even if that means not eating a meal or five.

Today we're going to visit Jay's land out in Jamaica. I'll try to take pictures. I will leave you with these pictures that Bonnie took. Don't even act like these aren't the cutest kids you've ever seen in a greenhouse.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-03-30T20:27:00.006-04:00

I made a chocolate cake tonight. Basically because I needed it. Elyssa and I have talked about the fact that plants should grow in chocolate cake batter. This may or may not be because of this:

My batter did not look quite like that. But I bet it tasted better.

Anyway I got the recipe from Hello Veggie, but I made a few small changes. These changes are in no way enough for me to take any credit for this yummy cake. So thank you Jenn at Hello Veggie for making my night.

1 cup soy milk + 1 T apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 unbleached white flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup softened (not melted)non-dairy non-hydrogenated butter
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raw sugar
2 T maple syrup

Preheat Oven to 325º. Add the vinegar to the soy milk and set aside to curdle. In a large bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa and sift if needed. In a medium bowl combine butter with sugar, maple syrup and extracts. Then cream these ingredients until smooth and add the milk. Next add the dry mixture and stir together until a smooth batter forms.

Grease your cake pan well and fill 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 25 minutes and check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in center. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's done. If it's got batter stuck to it, continue baking for 5 minute intervals until done. Allow cake to cook in the pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-03-30T07:51:00.004-04:00

After a few days of staying in bed, I'm feeling much better. Most people, after being sick for a while, eventually get over it and feel better and go on with their lives. Well, I apparently don't do that. On the day I was finally feeling better I got a canker sore just so my body could prove how much it hates me. I don't mean to be a big baby about this, we've all had canker sores, they hurt a little and then they go away, no big deal. This one keep getting caught on my tooth, but I'm trying to ignore it. The thing that bothers me the most is that after a month of being ill, I really just wanted to be better. Well now I can't sleep so well on my left side. Bonnie gave me some clove essential oil, which is pretty amazing. As soon as you put it on you can't feel the sore anymore. It lasts for a long enough time as well. I haven't been using it lately because it doesn't really hurt so much anymore and I had a feeling it was making my cut angrier.

Enough of that. I finally ventured out into the greenhouse a few days ago to see what I had been missing. I took a bunch of wonderful pictures of wonderful growing things. The cucumbers in particular make me happy. They grew so fast and they look so cheery and happy. I also moved my sprouted eggplants to bigger soil blocks yesterday. It's so great to finally be planting after months of winter and trying to find ways to stay busy. I've been living on a farm for 6 months and I haven't done much growing and planting.

Last night we had a little house meeting where we talked about what needs to get done this week. We started off the meeting by saying what kind of machine we felt like (I felt like a soil blocker, but then later reconsidered and decided I felt more like bellows because I'm coughing so much), and then we talked about our favorite and least favorite things we've done since getting here. I mentioned the fact that we are growing things now and the incident with the moldy hay.

This week looks pretty good. More planting and transplanting. Some people who want to help Bonnie and Oliver buy a farm are coming by on Tuesday so we've been cleaning up a bit for them. On Wednesday we're going to visit Jay's property in Jamaica (yes, Jamaica is in Vermont). And then more and more planting.

I had some pictures to put up, but I can't seem to find my camera at the moment, which is odd. I'll look around for it tonight and maybe add some pictures later.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-03-24T11:39:00.003-04:00

I don't have much to say about the farm today. I'm still sick and I've spent most of the last three days in bed. I know there are things happening, but sadly I am not really part of them. I'm glad that we got two more WWOOFers when we did because I am being utterly useless right now. I can't wait to get back out to the greenhouse.

I have spent a lot of time catching up on Vegan Radio episodes and also reading articles that fellow twitterers send out. Someone posted this one, which I found pleasing. The only thing lacking from that article is the wrap-up sentence of: JOIN A CSA. I've also been looking at lots of food blogs recently and I want to update my links section. There is a lot of really good information out there and anytime someone can compile a useful list is great. I'm not really doing anything better with my time, so I'll be working on that today.

Oh, I almost forgot. Last night our friend Jay brought his dog Kira over to spend the night here. I never really caught why, but I assume he had to go somewhere and couldn't bring her. Nisi freaked out and harassed her for a long time, while she mostly just tried to mind her own business. I guess after a few hours of Nisi's harassment Kira finally snapped and the two have been barking at each other non-stop. They slept inside in different rooms, so we had a quiet night, but they have been at it all day again. They don't really do any serious scuffling unless they end up on the porch where the food is and the space is small. I've heard Oliver go out there twice and yell at them. I think it's good to see a dog stand up to Nisi, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. Nisi is so used to being growly and vicious sounding to other dogs and they end up backing down, so she never stops. At least this dog doesn't seem to be putting up with her, or hurting her, so it could be a good thing. They teamed up for barking at the garbage man, so maybe they're friends now.

Oliver came in here and brought me a mysterious orange drink and told me that it would make me better. I believe he called it switchel? It kind of looks like orange juice and honey, plus I trust Oliver so I took a sip. NEVER TRUST SOMEONE WHO WON'T TELL YOU WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE GIVING YOU. Garlic, ginger, honey and lemon juice. Oh my god, that is spicy! But he claims it will make me better and I keep hearing about how good it is to have ginger and garlic when sick. Probably because nothing living in my body will survive this drink very long. Ugh.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-03-21T12:30:00.004-04:00

I'm tired of this being sick thing. I've had some kind of cold since I got back from NY. I'm thinking it may have been two or three colds all in a row, not counting that short-lived stomach thing. I'm so glad today is a day off because I feel pretty awful and I need the rest. The kids have been sick as well and I'm thinking we just keep giving things to each other.

Yesterday Oliver gave me the project of installing outlets in the greenhouse to have a system of fans that circulate the air and are all on one switch. Normally this is the kind of job I would really enjoy, but I just ended up frustrated because I couldn't focus very well. Oliver had to explain things to me several times because I just wasn't able to follow him. Guv was also at my feet talking about Oliver's birthday (which is not until summer), so that made it even harder. Finally I told Oliver that I needed to go inside and get a bit of lunch and a break and then I'd be able to focus.

When I went back out I got the general idea of the whole thing and started working. I've never installed outlets before because that's not really something I would normally do in theatre. Generally the power you need is already there in some form and we rarely use Edison plugs anyway. I understood what I had to do, but the chair I was standing on was just a little too short and the sun was really in my eyes. Oliver and Jay offered me their sunglasses which helped, and I should have had the sense to go and get something taller to stand on, but I just wanted to get it done. It's 90% finished now, it just needs a male Edison for the end beginning of the system and a switch. The whole project took me so much longer than it should have, but I'm happy with the result and once it's totally complete it'll be so useful.

To end, I will post some pictures of what's growing in there.

Onions

Kale

Kale

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

2009-03-18T07:46:00.005-04:00

The Logger and I headed back to Manchester on Monday after our week of being shunned. The drive back was wonderful because I noticed just how much of the snow had melted. This grass stuff is EVERYWHERE. The weather has been so warm and nice, I've been able to go out in my sweatshirt, without a coat and gloves and scarf. I finally said out loud, "Spring is here!" Later that day I did the thing I had managed to avoid all winter and thought I was safe from: I slipped on ice and fell on my ass. No one saw this, so I of course had to tell everyone about it (hello internet).

Finished soil blocks

Things in Manchester are great. The greenhouse looks so promising with all its soil blocks lined up in trays. Some of them have started to grow just a little and Elyssa (another WWOOFer) and I have voiced our wish that we could eat this stuff already. Today we plant cucumbers, which I would like ready by dinner time please.

Soil block makers

Yesterday I was making soil blocks for a good part of the day. Oliver had first shown me how to do this with micro blocks, which are teeny tiny and I got into a fight with them. Alone. In the kitchen. Bonnie had told me she thought the bigger ones were even harder, so I wasn't looking forward to it. However, the bigger blocks are about a thousand times easier for me. No troubles. Oliver walked up to me yesterday and said "Nice blocks!" which I was super happy about. Then I paused for a minute and realized that if some random person had said that to me in New York I probably would have been pissed, and maybe also a little confused. Yep, I do like farm life better than city life.

the adventures of a vermont hooligan

More feelings toward trash-free eating

Reflections on month three

Zucchini Salad

Chocolate Mint Rice Milk

White Bean Hummus

Paper plate picnics are for parasites

Reflections on month two

Fiesta Food! - Part 3 of 3

Fiesta Food! - Part 2 of 3

Fiesta Food! - Part 1 of 3

Month one recap- Belated

Farewell My Subaru by Doug Fine

Moving!

Hello potatoes!

Fiddleheads!!!

Macaroni Salad

Meh. Sorry.

Recipe: Veggie stir fry with coconut rice

Foraging

So it begins

Dressing!

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz

Eggplant steaks

Round two of trash confessions

VegFest!!!

A Snag

The list of trash so far

Dish Soap

Bagels!

No Impact Man by Colin Beaven

Taking a trash inventory

The No Trash Diet

**We interrupt this normally scheduled blog silence to bring you an important update**

Oh Dear, how embarassing

On relaxing

Afternoons in the Ice House

The Ice House is for summers.

That's Why We Don't Eat Animals by Ruby Roth

Winter to Spring, in pictures

Book Review - Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Shopping bags

Book Review - Eaarth by Bill McKibbon

A scattered and belated post

Adventure in my pants: Part 2

Adventure in my pants: Part 1

A post about Stuff

Wicked Plants - Amy Stewart

I live in a Dorset horror flick

The dark side of the farm

Book Review - Generation A by Douglas Coupland

Rice Flour Pancakes

A mid-winter check in

Lemon Amazing!

Bees!!! and a canker sore

Book Review - Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres

No 'poo

Book Review - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

This is a post in which I rant a little

Book Review - Sleeping Naked is Green by Vanessa Farquharson

2010 - Happy New Year

Book Review - Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Ice House - Dorset, VT

Northshire Bookstore Cafe - Manchester, VT

Bushwick House - Brooklyn, NY

The Logger's House- Pawlet, VT

The Winpenny House - Pawlet, VT

The Logger's House- Pawlet, VT

Colony House - Dorset, VT

Colony House - Dorset, VT

Colony House - Dorset, VT

The Dorset Playhouse - Dorset, VT

The Dorset Playhouse - Dorset, VT

We interrupt this normally scheduled blog silence to bring you an important update