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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
Green Living Journall 100 Gilead Brook Road, Randolph VT 05060 Publisher/Editor: Stephen Morris 802.234.9101 editor@GreenLivingJournal.com Advertising Manager: Amelia Shea 603.924.0056 amelia@GreenLivingJournal.com
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from the editor
What’s the Point?
By Stephen Morris reviews. A single review makes you a “new reviewer.” At three reviews you become simply a “reviewer” and True confession time. There’s a dirty little secret (I by five reviews you’ve clawed your way up to “senior like to call it a “guilty pleasure.”) that I have hitherto reviewer.” Five more and you become a “contributor,” not revealed on the pages of Green Living Journal. I am then a “senior contributor,” then a “top contributor.” ... dramatic pause ... a reviewer. There, I’ve said it. I’ve done over 160 reviews, making a “really, really, Mostly I review restaurants, but I’ve also reviewed really top senior contributor.” hotels, tourist attractions, what else you got? I will None of these designareview it. My reviews are pubtions, by the way, has any relalished on sites like Yelp and tion whatsoever to the merit Urban Spoon, but mostly they Points or money are or content of the reviews reside on the travel website constructs that exist to submitted. TripAdvisor is TripAdvisor. reflect value. Our job, and it’s very adept at recognizing the Why do I do it? That’s a logian eternal challenge, is to power of vanity and need for cal question, as is the following: Does anyone read those things? sort out the difference between prestige that is intrinsic to the human species. Apparently so. According real and perceived so that Recently, however, to the feedback provided by we can live meaningful TripAdvisor made a big misTripAdvisor more than 75,000 lives, not “apparently” take. I submitted a review people have read my reviews meaningful lives. and received a message say(68% from the United States, ing “Thank you for your 12% from Canada, 8% from the review. You’ve now earned U.K., and 12% scattered around an additional 100 points. You now have accumuthe rest of the planet). More than 100 folks have lated 17,600 points in your TripCollective account. deemed my reviews “helpful” in making their own Congratulations!” restaurant decisions, and a half-dozen times I’ve been Points? More specifically, 17,600 points! Pack your contacted by the proprietors of establishments either bags, Honey. You know how you said I was wasting my thanking me or asking that I give them another chance. time doing what you called “those silly reviews that no There’s even a manager of a Hooters in Madeira Beach, one reads?” Well, we’re going on an exotic vacation, Florida who is still pleading for a second chance after compliments of TripAdvisor. they served me a fish sandwich on “soggy buns.” I searched the TripAdvisor website to find out how For my efforts, TripAdvisor has compensated me to redeem my points. I could find plenty of informahandsomely with a luggage tag made out of handtion on how to accumulate points and what status crafted plastic and an assortment of badges which they conferred, but nothing on how to redeem them. become increasing prestigious as you contribute more Hmm-m-m-m. Now, the investigative reporter in me was aroused, and I started digging deeper. Eventually I discovered a forum of fellow TripAdvisor reviewers Good Food, Beer, Wine and Live Music! who had in common that they were befuddled, confused, and pissed off. At the Corner of My 17.600 points are redeemable for absolutely Grove & School Streets nothing. I never expected financial compensation for in Beautiful Downtown the reviews I submitted, but once TripAdvisor “paid” Peterborough, N.H. me with something valueless, I suddenly felt manipulated, like the rat in the maze who is taught to give (603) 924-6365 himself electrical shocks. TripAdvisor showed me that www.harlowspub.com I am that rat. www.myspace.com/harlowspubmusic 4 •
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
What’s the Point? - Continued page 6
contents
HOMEMADE BUTTER
FROM THE EDITOR
What’s the Point?........................................................................4 Short Takes ...................................................................................7 A Reverence For Wood ......................................................... 10 Next Year in the Garden ...................................................... 42
FROM THE KITCHEN Jerky .......................................................................................... 42 EDUCATION How To Build a Clay Pot Smoker ...................................... 33 Elms on the Rebound .......................................................... 34
ENERGY AND BUILDING Bensonwood .......................................................................... 13 What’s A Green Dream? ...................................................... 21
HEALTH Gourmet on a Dime .............................................................. 37
Gardening Garden to Bed ........................................................................ 19 Most Useful Tools ................................................................. 29
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from the editor
What’s the Point?
Continued from page 4
What’s the lesson in this and the relevance to green living? It’s simply that there is a real value and a perceived value to everything. And by everything I mean everything. What is the value of the garlic that you grow in your garden? Is it more or less valuable than the larger, whiter bulb that was grown in China.
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How about that cord of wood that Jason up the road just delivered versus the tankful of fuel oil that is the residue of ancient sunlight that was pumped from the sands of countries where women still aren’t allowed to drive cars? Does it make sense to take a field that is harvesting sunlight and to pave it with glass that has been shipped across the Pacific so that it can harvest sunlight? Is a farm really a farm if it grows nothing, but rather generates electricity? And why do we call a place that manufactures electricity a power “plant”? My definition of a “power plant” is kale. This is as deeply philosophical as you will ever see on the pages of this publication. We don’t answer the questions, but we will raise them. And we will continue to provide the “practical information” that helps you to reach your own conclusions about green living, TripAdvisor, solar farms, and life. Stephen Morris is the editor of Green Living Journal and a really, really, really senior top contributor and wannabee restaurant reviewer.
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SHORT TAKES Letter to the Editor:
How will snow affect the output of my solar panels? I was buying a roof rake for my panels, but when I mentioned what the rake was for, the guy at the hardware store cleverly recommended I attach a squeegee-like strip on the bottom so I didn’t risk damaging the expensive panels. Is snow removal from panels recommended, or not necessary? We posed the question to the almighty Google, and here’s a sample of what turned up: A professor at Michigan Tech University (MTU), said, “If snow is completely covering the panel, you are obviously only going to get the amount of energy out of the panel from the amount of light that is able to pass through the snow. Even having a relatively small amount of snow on top of a given panel can radically reduce the amount of energy output for your entire system.” But then he adds, “When snow is on the ground and the panels are clean, the snowy surface basically acts as a mirror and you can get a small boost in output, because of the reflection off the snow.”
From the SolarCity blog:
Don’t worry about shoveling snow off your solar panels. Their dark surface will gather sun and actually help melt the snow, causing it to slide off the system’s glass surface. Raking off snow could harm the panels by scratching them or worse, harm you, were you to slip and fall or be caught under snow and ice falling from your roof.
New Grant Program Helps Municipalities Reduce Waste. The Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District (CVSWMD) has announced a new grant program for member municipalities to help fund recycling containers for public spaces. Through this program, CVSWMD will reimburse recipients for indoor or outdoor recycling containers slated for public locations. The CVSWMD recycling bin grant program follows the unveiling of a statewide bulk purchasing agreement, designed to cut costs to Vermont’s cities and towns for recycling bins. The Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District’s Additional Recyclables Collection Center (ARCC) has received the Vermont Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence for its contributions to protecting the environment and reducing waste.
Longtime Green Living Journal distributor Laurelae Oehler is also an avid stenciler, snowboarders, sky diver, and biker. On her recent travels through Putney, Vermont she was pleased to find a familiar publication at the local co-op.
The Vermont Governor’s Awards were established in 1993 to “recognize the actions taken by Vermonters to conserve and protect natural resources, prevent pollution, and promote environmental sustainability.” CVSWMD offers an array of programing that supports its Zero Waste implementation plan. Programs include a robust School Zero Waste Program, a Business Composting Program, the Additional Recyclables Collection Center, technical support and at-cost equipment for back yard composting, and reuse grants. For more information, go to cvswmd.org Short Takes - Continued page 8
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Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 7
SHORT TAKES From SunCommon
Solar panels do produce better at cooler temperatures! Hot, hot heat is hard on electronics in the summer, so the winter months provide more efficient energy production. Even with that fun fact though, the shorter days, snowfall, and less direct sunlight are real factors in determining winter PV potential. We calculate year-round production so that you can count on your over-production during the long, summer days helping carry you through the winter. This is thanks to our ability to net meter with the utility companies! Says Stephen Schneider, operations manager of SunLight General Capital: Our ground-mounted system has a 30-degree tilt and is arguably the least susceptible to snowfall because the steep angle encourages snow to slide off faster. Once a panel is cleared, sunlight reflects off nearby snow and can make a panel generate even more electricity, he said. But the response we liked best came from a homeowner who said “I bounce a tennis ball off snow-covered panels. The small divots created by the tennis ball help begin the snow shed process and allow sunlight to reach the modules and begin converting energy.”
Recognition for “Co-op Valley”
At a special awards celebration this summer, international cooperative educators will thank UMass Co-operative Enterprise Collaborative (UMass-CEC) for being an important partner of the 2015 Association of Cooperative Educators (ACE) Institute, held for the first time at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. UMassCEC is a collaborative effort among faculty and students at the Department of Economics at UMass Amherst, the Valley Allianceof Worker Co-operatives, and the Neighboring Food Co-op Association to develop curriculum on the cooperative movement, including an undergraduate Certificate in Applied Research on Cooperative Enterprise. Accepting the Outstanding Contribution to ACE Award on behalf of UMassCEC is Erbin Crowell, executive director of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association and an adjunct lecturer on the cooperative movement at UMass Amherst. “It’s such an honor for us to be hosting ACE here in what we like to call ‘Coop Valley,’” ays Crowell. “In an atmosphere of growing inequality, the Institute is an important opportunity for educators, activists and cooperators to get together and share ideas on how we can better empower people in their own lives and communities.”
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
SHORT TAKES
Proven Tips on Firewood
Ensure safety first, then higher efficiency is possible.
To operate your wood heating system efficiently, you must have confidence that it is safe. Efficient operation means burning each load of wood hot for a short period. Worries about safety can force you to keep temperatures too low, which leads to low efficiency, high pollution and the potential for chimney fires. Have your system inspected by a qualified technician and upgrade it to meet safety codes before using the tips provided here. How to buy or prepare good firewood. Whatever wood species you use, it will burn more efficiently and be more convenient to use if it is properly seasoned. Here are some tips for firewood preparation. 1. Very hard woods like oak and maple are not good fuel for the relatively mild weather in spring and fall because their high density makes controlling heat output more difficult. 2. Softer woods like poplar, aspen, willow, spruce and pine are better when heat demand is low because they light easily, burn quickly and don’t leave a long lasting charcoal bed. 3. Firewood should be processed in early spring to be ready for burning that fall (exceptions: 1. large pieces of hard wood like oak may take more than the summer months to season; 2. drying in damp maritime climates can take longer). 4. Piece length should be at least 3” shorter than the firebox. 5. Shorter pieces are easier to handle and make fire maintenance easier; 14” to 16” is a good length.
exposed to sun and wind for the summer. Green wood will not season properly in a wood shed or in deep shade. 11. Stack wood on rails to keep it off the ground. 12. The triangular shape of split pieces wedge together as they are stacked and help to make the pile stable. 13. The more quickly the surface of the pieces dries, the less chance there is of molding and bug infestation. 14. Cover just the tops of firewood stacks. 15. Avoid stacking more than four feet high because tall piles become unstable. 16. Shorter firewood pieces (12” - 14”) make for narrow tippy stacks; use sticks propped against each side of the piles so wind doesn’t blow them over. 17. When seasoned, usually by late September, the wood can be moved to winter bulk storage where it should be fully sheltered from rain and snow. 18. The ideal winter storage is close to, but not inside, the house. 19. Avoid storing large amounts of wood in the house because mold spores and moisture can affect indoor air quality, a potential problem for people with asthma and other lung diseases. 20. Bring in wood to warm up before burning, but only one or two week’s supply at a time. Used by permission: woodheat.org Gulland Associates Inc. 2004
6. Split the logs to a variety of sizes, from 3” to 6” at the largest cross sectional dimension. Most commercial firewood is not split small enough for convenient fire management. 7. The larger the stove or furnace, the larger the pieces can be, but never larger than 8” diameter. 8. Tree tops and wind falls can be used for firewood down to less than 2” diameter. 9. Never leave firewood in a pile on the ground for more than a couple of days. Wet wood on the ground quickly attracts bugs and mold. 10.
Wood should be stacked in an open area Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 9
SHORT TAKES
A Reverence for Wood Citizens of the Green Living Universe Weigh In:
I’m very happy to be a part of a company that is producing thousands of tons of dry wood chips each year and has installed nearly 140 clean burning biomass boilers at 80 schools, businesses and residences over the last 5 years. We have eliminated the burning of hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil while employing dozens of Local people to help other Local people and organizations reduce their heating costs and their carbon footprint. We help to employ Local loggers, foresters, plumbers and tradesmen. So many energy dollars are now staying Local! Is there a downside? Jim Van Valkenburgh, VP Sales & Marketing Froling Energy, Peterborough, NH 03458
Woods Beauty ... A Poem
Woods’ beauty comes from its record of time. Each tree ring marks a year Each year Earth rings our sun Which rings our galaxy Wood is timelessly beautiful And no two rings can be alike! Like the celestial orbits Each ring is uniquely shaped by the one before and the times to come
Even extracted from its tree Wood imparts a rhythmic echo Like ripples on water They radiate out From a central point No other material records time with a more poetically precise effort. Joseph Cincotta AIA, Principal Architect LineSync Architecture, Wilmington, VT
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
SHORT TAKES
A Definition of Green The definition of “green” is different from person to person, but eco-friendly building materials are pretty easy to identify. The material should satisfy at least two cornerstones of environmental responsibility: renewable and biodegradable. Remarkably, in your average home, wood is the only qualifier (or more broadly, anything plant-based). When grown in a responsible and sustainable manner, wood, cork, and bamboo pretty much cover all the bases. Cork and bamboo are easier to evaluate since they have a limited growing range and are not bio-diverse. Wood is more difficult as forests yielding species appropriate for hardwood flooring occur all over the world, with different criteria constituting responsible silviculture. The farther from home, the more one has to depend on third party certification to verify an environmental pedigree. The most widely accepted and respected criteria for wood comes from a world-wide non-profit organization called the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC for short). To quote their web site (fsc.org): FSC was “established in 1993 as a response to concerns over global deforestation… and through democratic process effects solutions to the pressures facing the world’s forests and forest-dependent communities.” Wood deserves the extra scrutiny since healthy forests are necessary for human survival. What is often left out of the conversation is nearly every other element of the building, especially by comparison to wood (or bamboo, cork etc.), qualifies as an environmental disaster. For instance, the world’s yearly cement production of 1.6 billion tons accounts for about 7% of the global loading of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Portland cement, the principal hydraulic cement in use today, is not only one of the most energy-intensive materials of construction but also is responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gases. Anything plastic is deleterious to the environment in every respect from cradle to grave and beyond.
Vinyl, plastic laminate, PVC pipe are common plastics that will leach poisons in landfills for centuries beyond their lifespan. Plastic residue now outweighs plankton in our oceans. Glass, any metal, quarried and mined material… they are not renewable or bio-degradable, they consume an enormous amount of energy to extract, fabricate, and transport, they leave a toxic trail in production, and are rarely recycled. By contrast, wood is: non-toxic; leaves a small footprint in production and transportation; has a long life cycle with low maintenance; sequesters carbon dioxide; and contributes to an environment that does not harbor or promote potential allergens. Every part of the tree is used… there is no “waste” in production. And oh by the way… it’s renewable and bio-degradable. Wood is the most widely used eco-friendly building material with nearly 40% of industrial demand now satisfied by plantations. Plantation-grown does not necessarily translate to earth-friendly especially if the plantation requires unhealthy herbicides and pesticides, and/or if it replaced a diverse forest. Competing land use, like pasture and agriculture, account for more than 90% of forest degradation around the world. The rest can be attributed to development and illegal logging. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) reports consistently that over half the world’s harvest of wood is burned for fuel. Since green has become popular in mainstream culture, many claims are made including so-called “improvements” to environmentally devastating products, thereby putting them in the company of legitimate eco-friendly materials. Renewable, biodegradable, non-toxic, low energy consumption, and durability… these are the cornerstones of ecofriendly building materials, and wood is the best example. Peter Nazarenko Planet Hardwood, St. George, Vermo
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 11
SHORT TAKES This 24½-foot open center boardroom table built by WallGoldfinger in Randolph features black limba and fumed eucalyptus veneer with a solid walnut edge. WallGoldfinger makes high-end corporate furniture for customers around the world.
“Wood is integral to WallGoldfinger from the wood chips that heat our state-of-the-art Randolph factory to the beautiful domestic and exotic veneers and solid wood edges that adorn our corporate furniture. These days furniture is diverse, incorporating many other natural and manmade materials, such as glass, stone and resins, but as woodworkers we still revel in the opportunity to share the integrity and beauty of wood with our customers around the world.” John Wall, owner and chief executive officer WallGoldfinger, Randolph, Vt.
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Bensonwood - Where Old Becomes New By Stephen Morris By the early 1970s young people in America were beginning to learn what we as a culture had forgotten. It took the turmoil of Vietnam, Watergate, the assassinations, and the First Arab Oil Embargo to shake us to our collective senses, but we realized somewhere along the way we had forgotten how to grow our own food, create our own shelter, and live without being plugged in. For Tedd Benson this meant discovering wood, not the plywood of nail-bangers or the sticks that could be slapped together quickly and cheaply with a huge margin for error, but the posts and beams that would form the skeletons of homes and barns that could survive, and survive beautifully and purposefully, for centuries. He became versed in joinery, the building process that was prevalent in New England until the late 1800s. He learned the tools and techniques of mortise and tenon construction, wherein beams hewn from the surrounding forest could be joined, creating structures that would long outlive the convenience and false economy of balloon, or stick-built construction. “Many of our old barns have stood for more than two centuries,” he observed. “I reasoned that if the ancient craft of timber framing could be made viable again with modern tools and materials, there could be great benefits to the health, durability, and beauty of contemporary homes.” Benson Woodworking Company was born. He started the business initially with his brother, but later partnered with his wife, Christine. In 1975 the first full timber frame building, the Taft House was built from “foundation to furniture.” According to the Concord Monitor it was “…the first full timber frame house built in New Hampshire in over 60 years.” The home’s exterior & interior doors, stairway, cabinets, built-ins, paneling, moldings and furniture were all created offsite in the company’s new Alstead Woodworking Shop. Bensonwood - Continued page 14
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ENERGY & BUILDING
Bensonwood
Continued from page 13
Today, on the company website (Bensonwood. com) this influential project is cited as the source of the “Green & Green” holistic ethic that became part of the company’s DNA that continues to influence the way the all projects are approached. By the end of the decade Tedd Benson had progressed from neophyte to expert. He published (with Jim Gruber) his first book, Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of a Forgotten Craft (Scribner’s Sons, 1980; Simon & Schuster,1995), still considered the bible by timber frame enthusiasts around the world. The Eighties brought Ronald Reagan and the removal of the solar panels that a hopeful Jimmy Carter had put on the White House roof. Timber framing made a critical course alteration and became both the building method of the past, but of the future as well. Leading the way was Tedd Benson and his growing team of craftspeople, designers, engineers, and Renaissance folk at Bensonwood. The Simsbury
House was their first use of stress skin panels in a residential structure. With this process, developed by Tedd and Amos Winter, the timber frame carried the structural load while rigid foam insulated panels created an airtight enclosure system. To this day Bensonwood produces its own closed panel walls, although materials like dense pack cellulose insulation and waste-saving techniques have improved greatly since the initial prototype. In 1987 Tedd and Bensonwood were featured for the first of several times on Public Television’s popular This Old House, including all 17 episodes of the show’s 2008 Fall season. The company has also been featured on Good Morning America and the Today Show. As an author, his roster of titles has grown to four. The roster of credentials now includes honorary degrees (Unity College), awards (Small Builder of the Year, 2008), public service (Habitat for Humanity projects), certifications (LEED Platinum and Net-Zero Certification, 2009), and historic events (construction of a post-and-beam frame on the National Mall in Washington, DC, 1999). The various distinctions, Benson is quick to point out, are not his personal accomplishments, but stand rather as testaments to the team and organization he and Christine have built. Today, Bensonwood has more than 90 people working in their state-of-the-art facility in Walpole, NH built in 2000 toward a common goal: to create better homes and commercial structures for a more rewarding living experience and ALLEarth solar a sustainable future. “From our trackers installed company’s beginning we have been with all USA made humbled by the New England components Replacing Fossil & Nuclear Fuel One House & Business At A Time traditions of valuing community and working together to build both a better society and building stock for future generations. This is the ethos and physical reality that inspired our company. The revival of timber frame construction
Tracking the Sun: Not fracking gas
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
Bensonwood - Continued page 15
enerGY & BUiLdinG Bensonwood Continued from page 14
could not have happened outside of a place ensconced in its proven benefits, and high-performance building is only a continuation of centuries of the search for more sustainable methods and lifestyles.” Tedd Benson’s continual search for new and better ways to build has resulted in a proprietary design/build system, called Open-Built. He summarized his philosophy of building in an interview in the trade Journal Green Building Canada: “Design tends to make the inhabitants’ lives generic and buildings are so fixed in their aesthetics and function that people must adapt to buildings because buildings have not been made to adapt to the people who live in them ... Buildings are for people, yet people tend to be dynamic and ever-changing, while buildings tend to be static and thwart change.” In Open Building the durable and sustainable structure is considered to be an asset to the community “designed and organized to reinvigorate the natural relation that people should have with their living environment.” The uses of the building are more ephemeral and will be adapted to the changing needs, technologies, and fashions of the owners or occupants. A building may have a lifespan of several hundred years, but during that time it might see a wide span of uses, called “infill” in Open Building jargon. This versatility must be an inherent part of the design/build process. Properly executed, Open Building makes the construction process more efficient by organizing the mechanical systems like wires, pipes, and ducts into easily accessible chases, or channels. This disentanglement allows owners open access to finish the building as they can afford it, and, down the road, to make simple changes, from moving a light switch to changing a bedroom into a study without the need for a carpenter, electrician, plumber, taper, painter or a dumpster. Benson is a proponent of Roman author and architect Vitruvius’s assertion that a building must exhibit three essential qualities: firmitas, utilitas,
venustas—durability, usefulness and beauty. To these he has added a fourth quality: frugality, not only in initial cost, but also in long-term cost to operate through energy efficiency and minimal maintenance. Bensonwood - Continued page 16
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Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 15
ENERGY & BUILDING Bensonwood
Continued from page 15
Benson characterizes the idea of Open Building torical preservation. as “disruptive” in a building world that traditionThe company also completed work on Burr & ally values cheaper and faster. “I want builders to Burton Academy’s Mountain Campus, the centerpiece know is that the change is coming—just as it has in of the school’s “Local Semester Abroad” focusing every other industrial activity—and they can either on landscape, sustainability and culture. Students at be victims or beneficiathe Mountain Campus ries of the inevitable.” immerse themselves in Tedd Benson: A Few Thoughts on Wood a study of the landscape, At the moment, how history and culture of ever, builders are not • Wood is one of the greenest building materials, simply resistant to the the mountains, learnbecause it is the most renewable. idea, they are in coming first-hand about the • Wood has a low level of embodied energy, as opposed plete denial of the need. organisms and systems to glass, plastic, or steel. In 2012 Tedd Benson that sustain us, in an • You can source wood products from known sources launched a new comeffort to build skills, that have a long history of responsible forest managepany, Unity Homes, to curiosity and confiment. put into practice what dence, while developing • We offer salvaged or local woods as options in all of he preaches. “We can a deep understanding our projects. totally change the equaand sense of place. • Wood products can be certified through the American tion of home building,” How better Tree Farm System and the Sustainable Forestry Initiahe says. “We can build to develop a sense of tive. homes that are fossil“place” than by being • We use several types of engineered lumber that are fuel free and affordable. in the world as envimade from lower grade and/or smaller diameter trees, We can build homes sioned by Tedd and which helps support sustainable forest management. in thirty days that are Christine Benson. And (The use of timbers effectively function as carbon storaround for 300 years. to underscore what this age batteries to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmoWe can build homes world might look like, sphere.) that easily evolve as both Bensonwood and • You can find timber and ceiling board finishes that are your life unfolds ... Unity Homes will be environmentally benign. homes that actually exhibiting at the 2015 • Timbers that don’t make the grade for a timber frame change the quality of Greenbuild Internacan be resawn for use in wall panels, finishes, and trim. your life.” Moreover, he tional Convention and • Dense-packed cellulose, one of the most environmenpromises to do it a way Expo, November 18-20, tally building products, can insulate wall panels floors that is “stress free for all in Washington DC. and ceilings. of us.” For those who’d like to • Wood products work well with low or no VOC coatTwo recently comglimpse the future in ings from such local sources as Vermont Natural Coatpleted Bensonwood affordable sustainability, projects provide neat Unity Homes—in partings. bookends for the mulnership with Hanley • We heat our offices with scrap wood! As you can tell, tifaceted world that Wood, Cradle to Cradle we are quite fond of wood! is Tedd and Christine Products Innovation Benson, and their 90 Institute, and a host employees. In 2013 they of innovative industry worked in tandem with local builders to rebuild the leaders and experts—will be installing a state-ofhistoric Bartonsville covered bridge in Rockingham, the-art ZŪM home in one day, inside the Walter E. Vermont that was destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene. Washington Convention Center. The home, which This was a community-based effort of traditional hisreflects Unity’s determination to drive down the cost 16 •
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
MONEY An Interview with Cliff Feigenbaum
GreenMoney Talks to Green Living Journal
GLJ: How and why did GreenMoney get started? Cliff: In 1991 I was working at a hospital in the Northwest and discovered that my 401k plan was full of mutual funds that owned tobacco stocks. I wanted to make informed financial decisions, yet I was having trouble finding the information needed to grow my financial literacy. The GreenMoney journey began when a friend, who was a writer and editor, and I put together an article on SRI (socially responsible investing) and sent it to the local business newspaper, and they published it. We then started a quarterly sixpage newsletter focused on helping people align their money and their business interests with their values. After a couple of years, Paul Hawken mentioned our publication in an article on responsible business in the Utne Reader magazine. We were thrilled. Then, in 1995 we created a website, GreenMoney.com, that is now twenty years old. We continue to publish quarterly – always asking our reader to become more aware of their financial decisions. We are always asking the question “As an investor, from which business activity or company do, or don’t, you want to profit?” GLJ: Was there a signature event that put GreenMoney on the map, so to speak? Cliff: Business kept getting better. In 1997 I took on a new editor, who is still with us, and we established a very approachable, usable but challenging tone to the publication. I was so excited about each issue, I framed them! Then, in 1997, I got a call from Bloomberg Press in NYC asking me to write a book on SRI. I responded “I don’t know if we can work together because you just believe in profits, and we believe in principles and profits.” The acquisitions editor assured me that the book would be very lightly edited, preserving our message about socially responsible investing. I had never written a book, so I approached a pair of experienced authors, Hal and Jack Brill. We teamed up and worked harder than we’d ever worked on any project. “Investing With Your Values” was published in 1999 and met with moderate success, but it put all of us on new, upward career trajectory. The definition of sustainability was continuing to
Cliff FEIGENBAUM
expand, now including organics, fair trade, green building, and renewable energy. We had to decide on which aspects of sustainable business and investing to focus, and which to leave to others. GLJ: How has the world of SRI evolved in the 20 years since you began? Cliff: SRI actually began in the churches, where investment groups wanted to avoid companies using slave labor or involved in the “sin” activities like gambling, alcohol, and tobacco. It has evolved to include antiwar and environmental issues (no profiting from war, violence, weapons and environmental polluters) and political, such as in South Africa when Apartheid was in place. The CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) movements expanded over the next two decades to include supply chains, gender equality in management, and CEO pay. Meanwhile SRI has
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 17
GreenMoney - Continued page 18
ENERGY & BUILDING
Green Money
Continued from page 17
matured to provide stronger and better financial return. It changed from being “Socially Responsible Investing” to “Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing.” It now appeals to more mainstream investors with hundreds of screened mutual funds to choose form. Increasingly, institutional investors are involved, including states and pension plans. One of the hottest areas at the moment, thanks to the work of 350.org and Bill McKibben, is the divest/reinvestment issue. GLJ: Explain Impact Investing. Cliff: Impact Investing is a redefining and expansion of community investing, putting your money in local banks, credit unions, or loan funds. Some investment notes are international in scope. The Calvert Foundation really launched the idea of investment notes. This is a very committed and competent organization that has helped thousands of investors align investing with the desired impact. Faith-based investors who believe in stewardship of God’s planet as well as social justice really like this part of SRI. Seeing this customer demand, mainstream firms have begun moving into impact investing, so the definition of the term “sustainable investing” is still in flux. GLJ: So, prospective investors should read the fine print.?
Cliff: Yes, read the fine print. GLJ: After twenty years of hard copy publication, why did GreenMoney go online exclusively? Cliff: Partly it had to do with simple economics. The economic downturn really hurt advertising revenue in our print publication, but we were also looking to expand. GreenMoney wanted to reach more people and increase the frequency. My online designer proposed the idea of a monthly eJournal. In January 2014 we began a very fruitful change from 10,000 paper subscribers to over 25,000 online, increasing every month. We’re working with impactful writers such as Philippe Cousteau, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mellody Hobson (named to TIME magazine 100 most Influential people list in 2015), Amy Domini, and many others. Feedback has been very positive. It is a tremendous amount of work to go from a quarterly to a monthly. We have greatly increased our brand visibility and are having a greater impact in the investing marketplace. Every issue helps answer the question of how to thrive and be resilient in turbulent times. It is a very exciting time to be in publishing! Last year I was named one of the 100 Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business by Trust Across America. Green Living readers are invited to sign up for the monthly eJournal on GreenMoney.com. Just like Green Living ... it’s free!
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
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GARDENING
Putting the Gardens to Bed for the Winter By Margaret Haapoja My enthusiasm for gardening wanes by autumn, and I long for the respite winter offers. While putting the garden to bed in the fall isn’t as much fun as watching it wake up in the spring, don’t let your care for the garden disappear just yet. “The end of October is really the first day of spring, because everything you do in fall sets up your success or lack thereof for the next year,” says John Kempf, CEO of Advancing Eco Agriculture and owner of a community-supported agriculture farm near Cleveland.
Cleanup Time
When it comes to putting the garden to bed, the first step should be to clean up your plants—including your food crop beds and any landscape plants you may have. First, prevent disease from returning to next year’s garden by removing any diseased plant material and disposing of it by burning it or putting it in the trash. Certain plants are more likely to harbor diseases, therefore it’s recommended to remove all vegetation from them. These include tomatoes, potatoes, raspberry canes and any plants with evidence of powdery mildew. However, in healthy plants not on this list, it may be advantageous to leave vegetation on the plant. “Research has demonstrated that there is a better survival rate when foliage is left on,” says Francois Medion, farm manager for Duluth Grill, a local and organic food restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota. “It’s also the winter refuge of beneficial insects.” Leaving most perennial foliage and flower stalks in place also provides winter interest, wildlife food and habitat, natural mulch and insulation, says landscape designer Betsy Danielson of Dazzle Gardens in Sandstone, Minnesota. Some plants prove particularly beneficial for wildlife and insects: Duluth Master Gardener Donna Peterson leaves the hollow stems of swamp milkweed as nesting material for bees; rosarian Kathy Ahlgren begins the winterization process the first week of August when she stops deadheading and fertilizing her roses. “By stopping deadheading, I’m allowing rose hips to form, which will trigger dormancy and add winter interest and food for the birds,” she says. When cool weather hits, it’s also the time to bring in any houseplants that you may have moved outside for the summer season. Most of my houseplants spend their summers out on our deck. In the fall, I give them all a good bath with organic insecticidal soap before bringing them back indoors. I also quarantine them for a couple of weeks to make sure they are free of pests.
Mulch Madly
A mantra of the serious gardener is never to leave bare
soil. One of the simplest techniques for making sure soil is protected and enriched is using mulch. “Mulch creates a great environment for the development of soil biology,” Kempf says. “When we mulch the soil, we get good levels of biological activity, nutrient availability and aggressive plant growth the following spring.” Mulch is a blanket that protects plant crowns and roots from the extreme temperature fluctuations of winter. One of the best mulches is a good snow cover, but even very cold regions occasionally have winters with little snow. Thus it is important to mulch with plant material that does not compact and retains a certain degree of “fluffiness.” Chopped leaves work well, as do straw and marsh grass. Danielson spreads a two-inch layer of compost or other organic material (shredded leaves or well-rotted manure) over garden beds and around woody plants. “Don’t dig or till it in. This is called no-till,” she says. “Just let it decompose over the winter, which will add a lush layer of nutrients, organic matter and worm-rich humus.”
Employ Cover Crops
Cover crops are an excellent way to maintain and enhance soil health throughout the winter. Several options for cover crops exist; choosing the right one for you depends on your crops, climate and other factors (read more about cover crops at Using Cover Crops in Your Putting the Gardens To Bed - Continued page 20
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 19
GARDENING Putting the Gardens to Bed Continued from page 19 Garden). In his Minnesota garden, Jesse Davis, a market farmer from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, tills old plant material, raked leaves and mulching straw into his gardens after the first killing frost and sows winter rye into the beds in early October. “The small root growth helps with winter wind erosion and spring rain erosion,” he says. “The rye also emits a natural ‘herbicide’ through its roots to stifle competition. The rye herbicide needs about two weeks to break down in the soil, so we till it in two weeks before planting.” Davis also plants Dutch white clover between rows in the spring. “If the roots of produce can touch the nitrogen-producing nodules of this legume, they can actually take it up,” he says. “It also can spread over the summer around the plants and create a sort of living mulch.”
Plan For Next Year’s Success
Fall is the perfect time to study your plantings so you can plan additions and rearrangements. I walk around with my tape recorder and list the plants I want to divide for spring plant sales or move to a better location next season. I transcribe the tape so I have a written reminder in the spring. Some gardeners stroll through
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their landscape with a video camera commenting on changes they’d like to institute the following year. You could also simply jot notes with pencil and paper. Kent Lorentzen, a market gardener from Jacobson, Minnesota, tries to determine which varieties did best, how things sold and what was most worthwhile to grow. “I look at production, flavor, how easy it is to grow, how hard it is to weed, how difficult it is to pick, what it costs to grow, what the returns are, and most important, customer acceptance,” he says. “It helps to make notes for next year while things are fresh in my mind.” Once outdoor fall chores are completed, come inside with a warm mug and a blanket to read new garden catalogs and dream about your next successful growing season.
End-of-Season Checklist
• Plant spring-flowering bulbs before the first frost. • Divide/move spring-blooming perennials if you wish. • Dig, dry and store summer-flowering bulbs such as dahlias, tuberous begonias and gladiolus to replant in spring. • Clean garden beds of any diseased plant material, and amend with compost and manure. • Leave plants with vines, seed heads or tall plumes for visual interest and wildlife habitat. • Mark still-living plants with stakes or draw a map for future reference. • Prune deciduous shrubs such as spirea and potentilla to promote spring growth. • After a hard frost, cut to the ground any perennials that are diseased or that you don’t want to self-seed. • Mulch all uncovered soil with leaves, straw or hay. • Bring in houseplants that spent summer outdoors, but quarantine them for a couple of weeks inside. • Keep trees, shrubs and evergreens well-hydrated until the ground freezes. • Wrap the trunks of newly planted and thin-barked trees (such as apple, cherry, honey locust, linden, maple and plum) with hardware cloth to protect against winter sunscald and rodent damage. • Empty clay and concrete pots, birdbaths and other items, and store them in the garage or basement to prevent damage. • Let hoses drain before circling and hanging for winter. • Perform a soil test. Kits are available at most county extension offices. Excerpted from Mother Earth Living, a national magazine devoted to living wisely and living well. To read more visit MotherEarthLiving.com. Copyright 2014 by Ogden Publications Inc.
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
ENERGY & BUILDING
What’s A Green Dream?
Once upon a time a little girl lived in an upstairs room in a little house in town. It was a really hot room. Really. The black rubber roof of the front porch under her windows baked with heat all summer, creating a Heat Monster that went right through her windows and into her room. She put up curtains to block the light, but the Monster came in anyway. In distress, the little girl blocked out all the light with aluminum foil from the kitchen. In the dark she did feel a bit cooler. “Cool? “ said the Heat Monster. “Ha!”, and then baked her like a potato. That night, the little girl slept hot and sticky. Slowly, she drifted out of the room into a deep, deep dream, a cool, green dream of meadows and birds. “What if?” she dreamed. “What if this cool meadow was right outside my window?” In the night dream a wind rustled the trees and softly tossed soil and mosses onto the black roof. Birds came in flocks, dropping moss and straw. Squirrels buried seeds, tiny plants and flower bulbs, and like all good squirrels do, dug holes mixing it all up. Then the wind brought rain and softly tapped on the roof of her dream. In the morning the little girl woke to the lovely sound of rain. She felt cool and refreshed, and heard birds singing. Curious, she pulled back the curtains and tore off the foil, letting in soft morning light. And there, under her windows was a green meadow, and butterflies on the flowers. A bird sang. Best of all the horrible black roof, the home of the Heat Monster was gone, because the little girl had dared to dream. Much like the girl in the dream, we all need nature in our environments to keep us healthy and happy. This innate human
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attraction to nature was first called ‘biophilia’ by Eric Fromm, a German social psychologist and philosopher. It describes the love of life and all things living. In his book Biophilia, Edward O. Wilson states that there is an “inherent goodness in putting plants and nature back into our environments… Our natural affinity for life (biophilia) is the very essence of our humanity that bonds us to all living things”. Biophilic Design is a field of environmental architecture that links buildings with nature and natural processes. Using biophilic principles, whole buildings come alive with plants and solar panels on their roofs, gardens growing food, and beautiful healing spaces to revive our spirits. Living walls of plants both inside and outside lure us into their refreshing presence. Buildings come alive. Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian architect and artist, built many amazing buildings that embodied these principles with flair
and delightful playfulness. He broke architectural boundaries, bringing sculpture, color, plants, architecture and environment together in mind-boggling flights of fancy. Visit them in Austria (or on the web) and your idea of architecture and your mind will be forever expanded. There are many amazing green roofs on buildings in Vermont and also around the world. Most of them here are on large, new commercial structures designed specifically to include a green roof or garden and are not visible from street level. Several new hotels in Burlington have wonderful green areas. Ask to see the outdoor lounging area at Hotel Vermont, and you will find a delightful park with benches and views of the lake high above the city. Fletcher Allen Hospital has a large, rambling green roof covering the underground radiation wing. It Green Dream? - Continued page 22
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 21
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begins as a normal lawn adjacent to the east wall of the main hospital entrance, and continues up a ramp to a second level where summer herbs and vegetables are grown for the cafeteria! Look for it, find the marker that describes it, and wander through. Nearby, UVM has a large green roof over the delivery entrance of Davis Center, a magical green park-like area between buildings at Living/Learning, and a small green roof for study on Aiken Hall, a science building. Other green roofs are at the Burlington Airport, at Heritage Aviation, and at Champlain College. With a little scouting, you will find others. These large vegetated roofs are not just for show. They are part of integrated systems to protect the environment, save energy costs, and to provide the human benefits of open space, beauty, and improved air quality. Ultimately, green roofs increase real estate value. Green roofs on any scale provide huge benefits to the surrounding environment as well. Nearby waterways as well as Lake Champlain benefit from the slowed and filtered runoff. Some green roof systems also collect and reuse rainwater. A vegetative roof cools buildings and the surrounding air in summer, and insulates from cold in winter. By returning the footprint of the building to a natural habitat the insects and birds that were displaced are encouraged to return. The benefits of vegetative roofs are reciprocal, with many positive benefits for people, the environment, and the lifetime success of the buildings themselves. Return to our little girl’s dream. What if there were small-scale green roofs in our neighborhoods, on our homes, garages, porches, tool sheds, baseball dugouts, and chicken coops? Green roofs that we could see, tend, and watch grow and change over the seasons. What if, along with recycling, using solar Green Dream? - Continued page 24
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ENERGY & BUILDING Green Dream? Continued from page 22
panels, driving smaller cars with better efficiency, growing our own food in gardens, and caring for the earth in general, what if we began to think of green roofs as a natural part of our buildings and local environment? Small is indeed beautiful, and small green roofs are now increasingly attainable. Now that’s a thought to make you smile! Beth Haggart is an artist, sculptor and designer who studied green roofs at Yestermorrow School, and the non-profit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, earning the designation as a ‘Green Roof Professional’. She specializes in green roofs for smallscale buildings.
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Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 23
ENERGY & BUILDING
Tea Time at the 100 Watt House By Michael J. Daley If the two young women fund raising for VPIRG had come at 3 pm, they would have found us enjoying tea. It’s a critical break in our workdays we hardly ever
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As it was, they came later in the day in a hurry. They stopped long enough to chat and check out our off-grid solar electric system. When they saw that it consists of a single 100 watt panel, they took a picture to share with their colleagues. Their “Oh-Wow!” response renewed my conviction that some of the lessons we’ve learned from living 30 years in a 100 watt house are relevant today. Long before the frugality movement, long before the tiny house craze, long before the latest back to the land wave, we followed this guy into the woods. We didn’t do it to find simplicity alone, although that was one of our reasons. We didn’t do it just to live in a tiny cabin, although we built that, too. We didn’t do it merely to revolt against our society’s materialism and careless use of this planet, although the need for that was as true in our time as it had been in his day. No, we followed him for what he promised we could find there ... our writer’s souls. The promise proved true. We also found much much more along that path because, of course, Henry David Thoreau wasn’t simply a writer, and neither are we. We built our tiny cabin in our bit of woods in Westminster West, Vermont in 1984. It was a time of relative prosperity, stability and cheap oil, again. Soon, Reagan would throw the solar panels off the White House, beginning a new dark ages for renewable energy. We’d just graduated college, yearning to be writers, somehow wise enough to know we needed time to nurture and perfect our 100 Watt House - Continued next page Barn - Continued page 25
enerGY & BUiLdinG 100 Watt House Continued from page 24
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craft more than anything. In acquiring the land, we’d already mortgaged an enormous sum for two aspiring writers with lowwage part-time day jobs. The contractor wanted $5,000 to put a road to the house site. The power company wanted the same for power lines. The bank wouldn’t loan anything for the house without either. So with $2000 left in savings, we constructed the no watt house. We carried every board and nail in from the road. We used no power tools. It took us three months. We quickly learned that kerosene lamps and the writing life do not mix. Next, we tried the pedal power house. Ask Jessie about those midnight experiments attempting to perfect the generator. Never again! Then we discovered solar electricity. I built our first 30 watt panels from $60 worth of surplus cells dumped on the market as Reagan’s policies destroyed the industry. With electricity at 1/100th the cost of power lines and relative economic freedom, we were able to pursue our main lifework as freelance writers. That freedom also enabled my 16 years of volunteered anti-nuclear activism and renewable energy educational work (and inspired my first book!). It allowed us a decade of healthcare activism on single-payer reform in Vermont. We followed our passions like horse riding, Scottish country dancing, wine-making, electric car building, spiritual questing
ENERGY & BUILDING
100 Watt House
Continued from page 25
and, of course, tea times. It might be hard for a young person today to believe solar electricity played such a critical role in freeing us from the economic burdens of conventional society. The stunning success of solar power presents them with images of whole house systems sporting dozens of panels and megawatt farms overtaking fields as quick as witch-grass. From a certain perspective, PV could easily be mistaken for a status symbol of the “establishment�, an adornment to upper middle class McMansions, an image of full blown buy-in to American Consumerism, green style. What these larger systems obscure is the fact that PV is a /modular/energy system. A single panel of 100 watts – costing around $350 today – is a far more transformative force than we energy guzzlers can imagine (and I include myself as a guzzler – still driving a car!). You couldn’t power your PC with that
panel, yet placed on the home of any of the billions of people who have no electricity, it instantly ends their dark ages. For those of us steeped in a society of energy gluttons, choosing to live lightly brings a different blessing. It puts us in direct relationship with the basic necessities of life: shelter, power, fuel, food, garbage, poop, water. On a large scale, these things have become threatening to the Earth. Many of us feel disconnected and uncertain of solutions. Dealing with them yourself can correct that estrangement. Take drinking water, for one example. We needed to find it on the land or else an already tricky venture would fail. I still recall searching out every wet spot, digging test holes, then watching the murky puddles for signs of an upwelling spring. What a delight when after many attempts little swirls of clarity appeared in one hole dug against a wall of shale. The experience created a deep appreciation of water. Whenever I hear about fracking or other threats to potable water, I feel an in-my-bones horror. To ruin a source of drinkable water is to ruin the possibility of living on that bit of Earth. I’m not sure I AT THE would understand that so clearly if all I knew was to turn on the tap. BOOTH #83 Perhaps the most important lesson comes from repeating this kind of encounter on each of the necessities mentioned, personally and directly, over the span of 30 years. Too much waste hurting the Earth? Stop wasting! Simple Electric and Solar Electric and as that. Try it. Try to solve the problem in your own immediate Hot Water Water Systems Systems Hot life. Find out how far individual Home Heating Indoor/Outdoor action can take you toward the solution. When you’ve reached Wood Boilers Systems the limit of that, sit down with a cup of tea. Think it over. Maybe Wood and and you’ll see more clearly where Pellet Stoves communal action is needed and even, just what that action ought to be.
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ENERGY & BUILDING
Tips Worth a Hundred Watts Think Modular
In housing and solar systems. Our tiny house began as a single room. Start with the bare bones. Plan to grow within your (hopefully) expanding means.
years because I thought this tiny electric pump I used to amuse kids during energy shows couldn’t possibly do that work for us. Then one day, on inexplicable impulse, I hooked it up to a hose and – voila -- we had running water. LOL!
Aim for the Golden Mean
Elders
I would not want to give the impression that we’ve “solved” the problems of housing, waste, and power with utmost elegance and grace. Another affectionately used name for our place is “the halfassed homestead”. The perfectionism of a Scott Nearing scares the heck out of me. I’m much more taken with Schumacher’s concept of ‘adequatio’.
Try It!
We hauled water uphill from our spring for five
Keep company with Elders you respect. Mix with them frequently in work, play, and activism. They know more than you do.
Don’t Go It Alone
Go with family. Go with friends. Find community, soon! Rugged individualism is a highly overrated fantasy. Our land is next to the family homestead. We obtained vital support during gaps in our infrastructure by sharing resources. Over time we evolved a blended household beneficial to us all.
Keep it Small
Resist temptations to overextend. A bit of prosperity twice tempted us, once to add a grand new addition to the house and another time to buy our first ever new car. Caution and discipline saved us both times from getting beyond the cash in hand and a good thing too, as those bubbles burst with a collapsing economy and a publishing industry crisis.
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
GARDENING Most Useful Tools for a Half-Acre Homestead By Lloyd Kahn
Summon the word “homestead” and you likely think of hardy farmers with 10 or more acres on which they keep livestock, grow and preserve a great deal of their own food, and fell trees to build their homes. But more modest-sized homesteads are more attainable for most people, and these smaller-scale acreages can embody old-school homesteading in principle, if not in scope. Our half-acre homestead is one of those. We began our homesteading lifestyle in the ’60s and ’70s, when the countercultural revolution was sweeping across the United States. The ’60s meant many different things to many people, but for me, the focus was on food and shelter. By building our own house, we could escape rent and mortgage payments. In 1971, we bought our half-acre of land (two 100-by-100-foot lots) for $6,500 in a small town in Northern California. I built our current home with used lumber from torn-down Navy barracks. I salvaged the windows
Redwood shakes sheathe the exterior of Lloyd’s home, and fiberglass on the roof forms inexpensive skylights. Photo by Lloyd Kahn
from chicken coops in a nearby town and picked up the doors from debris boxes outside remodeling projects in San Francisco. I covered the exterior walls with
Household Hazardous Waste Collection Schedule Summer/Fall 2015 Series Summer Spring 2012 2011 Series 2011 Series Saturday, Saturday, 3/24/12 7/9 7/13 3/28/12 Saturday, 7/23 3/31/12 Saturday, 3/19 Wednesday, Wednesday, 3/23 Saturday, Saturday, 3/26 Saturday, 9/12/15 Wednesday, 9/16/15 Saturday, Saturday, 4/14/12 8/13 Wednesday, 8/17 4/18/12 Saturday, Saturday, 8/27 Saturday, 4/9 Wednesday, 4/20 Saturday, 4/30 Saturday, 9/26/15 Saturday, 10/3/15 4/28/12 Saturday Saturday, 5/5/12 9/10 Wednesday 5/9/12 9/14 Satiurday 9/24 Saturday, 5/7 Wednesday, Wednesday, 5/11 Saturday, Saturday, 5/215/19/12 Wednesday, 10/14/15 Saturday, 10/24/15 Saturday Saturday, 6/9/12 10/8 Wednesday 6/13/12 10/12 Satiurday 10/22 Saturday, 6/11 Wednesday, Wednesday, 6/15 Saturday, Saturday, 6/256/23/12
Useful Tools - Continued next page
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GARDENING
Useful Tools
Continued from page 29
shakes I split from redwood logs that had washed up on a nearby beach. Concurrent with the construction, we planted fruit trees and a large vegetable garden, and got chickens, bees and goats. Between then and now, our half-acre homestead has gone through continuous changes. I learned long ago that you probably can’t become fully self-sufficient, but you can work meaningfully toward greater selfsufficiency. You can grow as much of your own food and do as much of your own building as possible without fixating on doing it all. After four decades of embracing this mindset, I’ve discovered that you’ll certainly get much further down the road to selfreliance if you have the right high-quality tools for the tasks that will arise along the way. Following are some of the tools and techniques that have made Lesley’s and my 40-year journey toward greater self-sufficiency successful. As comic book character Mr. Natural said, “Get the right tool for the job!”
and blocks with soil and — voilà! — we had gopherproof vegetable beds. Compost system. We’ve found that keeping two compost buckets works well — a 1-gallon bucket by the sink for food scraps we’ll feed to our chickens, and a 3-gallon bucket with a foot-operated lid for the rest of our food scraps, such as orange peels and coffee grounds. In the garden, I built three 5-by-5-foot bins, each about 5 feet high, with sliding boards in front that I can adjust according to the pile’s height. We mix in food scraps from the foot-operated bin, grass cuttings, seaweed, topsoil, and manure and bedding straw from the chicken coop, and keep adding, mixing and moving the compost from bin to bin until it has Most Useful Tools - Continued next page
Build Basic Homestead Infrastructure
Chicken coop. I built about five makeshift coops and lost quite a few hens to predators before deciding to construct a proper coop. We poured a concrete slab, put up conventional walls, and protected the yard with aviary wire, which we sank about 18 inches into the ground all the way around. The new coop has successfully kept out hawks, rats and digging critters, such as raccoons. It also has a living roof. Greenhouse. Its north wall is made of stabilized adobe bricks (1 part cement to 12 parts soil). The other three walls are recycled windows that were free. With the greenhouse roofing, trial and error prevailed. The first roof was made of corrugated vinyl sheets from Home Depot, and after a few years, they became discolored — horrible stuff. I replaced them with greenhouse-grade fiberglass, and within six years, it too had become discolored from road dust and lichen, causing the plants inside to grow too leggy. The greenhouse’s present roof is twin-walled polycarbonate, a wonderful (though expensive) glazing material with a 10-year guarantee. We also installed a solar-powered fan for cooling. Raid-proof garden beds. Gophers are a problem in our area, so Lesley laid quarter-inch wire mesh on the ground where we wanted each garden bed, and then dry-stacked two layers of concrete blocks on top around the edges of the wire. We then filled the bed 30 •
Raised beds and wire keep gophers at bay.Photo by Lloyd Kahn
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
GARDENING
Succulents add charm to the roof of the chicken coop without requiring much care. Photo by Lloyd Kahn
Useful Tools
Continued from page 30
matured. Tin roofs for outdoor storage. Our entire property is fenced to keep out deer and dogs. On many sections of fence, I’ve formed roofs out of recycled, heavy-gauge corrugated metal sheets to create covered areas for tool storage, firewood and more. Lumber racks. To compensate for limited storage space, I’ve built racks so I can stack lumber five tiers high. Hearthstone woodburning stove. This 35-year-old woodstove is our only source of heat (though we also rely on the age-old principle of layering clothing). I get wood from trees that topple on or alongside nearby roads, and once a year I rent a log splitter to split them into firewood.
Most Useful Tools in the Kitchen
WonderMill 110-volt electric grain mill. This mill grinds grain quickly and efficiently. We use it to grind wheat and rye for our sourdough bread, make our own cream of rice, and grind oat groats into flour for pancakes and waffles. KitchenAid Professional 600 Series mixer. This machine is reliable and unbeatable for kneading dough. AccuSharp 001 knife sharpener. This inexpensive little tool lets you swiftly and effectively sharpen knives. Marga Mulino grain flaker. This small, hand-
powered Italian roller turns oat groats into rolled oats, and can be set for finer grinds as well. Fermenting crock. Using a ceramic vessel to ferment foods is so simple. To make sauerkraut, for example, you just shred cabbage, add salt and let the mixture sit for a few weeks. Our favorite pot, made in Poland, features a water seal. Rheem hot water heater. I installed a 5-gallon electric hot water heater under the kitchen sink. It uses minimal electricity and provides hot water right at the source. Dishwashing system. In place of a dishwasher, we use Rubbermaid 4-gallon dishpans to wash dishes in, and we place the dishes in a custom-built rack for drying and storage. Honorable mentions: Chef ’s Choice cordless tea kettle for coffee, tea and hot water needs; Component Design Northwest meat thermometer for an accurate temperature read when cooking meat; Pure Water water distiller for drinking water; Messermeister poultry shears for cutting up poultry; Weber Genesis liquid-propane gas grill for cooking meat, poultry and fish outdoors. Excerpted from MOTHER EARTH NEWS, the Original Guide to Living Wisely. To read more visit MotherEarthNews.com. Copyright 2015 by Ogden Publications Inc.
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 31
ON THE NIGHTSTAND
A Man Apart
Bill Coperthwaite had the ability to reach out and touch you. He showed up in my office looking for someone to publish his book, a memoir published eventually to much critical acclaim under the title A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity (Chelsea Green, 2007). Coperthwaite is a teacher, builder, designer, and writer who homesteaded off the coast of Maine, living a life of independence, integrity, and radical simplicity. It is a monk’s existence that has attracted those on an inner quest throughout the ages. I explained to him that while his lifestyle was admirable and romantic, attracting a non-stop stream of acolytes to his rough-hewn world, it did not translate directly to commercial success in conventional publishing. More people want to know about the sex lives of celebrities or the latest diet fad than the rewards of a life without the trappings of conspicuous consumption. At the same time, I professed my personal admiration for his life choices. I explained the economics of book publishing. Unless we could be guaranteed to sell a certain quantity of books, it didn’t make sense for us to publish a story, no matter how worthy. He was quick to come up with a solution. “So, all I’ve got to do is sell this number of books in advance, and you’ll publish it?” I nodded. Off he went. The long story/short is that he accomplished this feat, and he did it not through the benificence of a wealthy donor or a foundation, but rather by sending long, hand-written letters to the many pilgrims who had made the journey to his rock bound, wind swept home. They were glad to support someone who
32 •
provided the inspiration and courage to experience life without the crutches that we have adopted as the necessities of modern success. Giving birth to A Handmade Life was not an easy task, but it was rewarding. As the finish line (printed books) approached, Bill again showed up at the office. “Here’s something I made for you,” he said, handing me a small wooden bowl so imperfectly perfect that it glowed with the reverence of wood. Now, some ten years later, it sits on my desk, holding paper clips and paraphenalia … works real good … and reminds me daily of a man who inspired so many with his simplicity. A Man Apart (Chelsea Green, 2015) is Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow’s loving tribute to their mentor Bill Coperthwaite. In this intimate and honest account framed by Coperthwaite’s sudden death and brought alive through the month-long adventure of building with him what would turn out to be his last yurt Forbes and Whybrow explore the timeless lessons of his experiment in intentional living and self-reliance. They also reveal an important story about the power and complexities of mentorship: the opening of one’s life to someone else to learn together, and carrying on in that person’s physical absence. While mourning Coperthwaite’s death and coming to understand the real meaning of his life and how it endures through their own, Forbes and Whybrow craft a story that reveals why it’s important to seek direct experience, to be drawn to beauty and simplicity, to create rather than critique, and to encourage others. This is a great read for anyone seeking to answer the question “How can I live according to what I believe?”
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
EDUCATION
How to Build a Clay Pot Smoker By Spike Carlsen
cover for the handle assembly.
If the thought of smoking meat and fish conjures up images of heaps of hardwood, a large smokehouse, and a big investment of time and cash, think again. You can start small with this simple homemade clay-pot smoker that assembles quickly.
4. Test-fit the parts. Position a few 2-inch-thick brick or patio block scraps inside the pot to prop up the hot plate for air circulation. Place the pie pan for wood chips on top of the hot plate, insert the cooking grate, and then add the cover. When everything fits, you’ll be ready to start smoking. Prop the pot on three bricks or patio blocks. If your cooking grate wobbles or tilts, create three support lips for the grate to rest on using dabs of silicone caulk on the inside of the larger pot.
Begin this weekend project with a shopping trip for readily available materials, or by rooting around at home for spare parts. So, find your materials, lay out your tools, and let’s get cooking — outdoors.
How to Build a Smoker
1. Purchase materials. Follow the materials list below. Because you’ll acquire parts to build this homemade smoker from a variety of sources, measure as you go and purchase the parts in the following order: • Electric hot plate. The smaller, the better, but make sure it runs on at least 1,000 watts to maintain the temperature required for smoking meats. • Clay pot. The bottom must be large enough to accommodate the hot plate and control knob, with a little room to spare. • Grate. You can find a grate at hardware stores or online. The one you choose must be of the right diameter to nestle inside your clay pot about 1/4 of the way down the sides. • Cover. Find a pot tray or a clay pot that will fit over, inside of, or directly on top of the lip of the larger pot. The cover should create a decent seal and not be prone to sliding off the larger clay pot. • Handle. Make sure the handle assembly hardware will work with the cover you chose. 2. Drill a hole. Use a masonry or glass-and-tile bit to drill a hole — or enlarge an existing hole — in the bottom of the large clay pot for the hot plate’s electrical plug to pass through. To minimize the chance of damage as you drill the hole, cradle the pot on a bag of sand for support. 3. Assemble a handle for the lid. Use the eye bolt, bolt, washers, nuts, and a 6-inch length of wood or wood dowel. Drill a hole in the bottom of the clay
5. Get smokin’. Position the smoker outdoors on a noncombustible surface in a sheltered area. On the trial run of my homemade smoker, a 5-pound brisket took 4-1/2 hours to get to the recommended internal temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Some trial and error will be required to find the hot plate setting that will keep your DIY smoker within the desired temperature range — between 210 and 220 degrees. Use gloves to handle the hot components of your smoker, and keep curious kids and pets away from the designated smoking area.
Meat Smoker Materials List
Electric hot plate, 1,000 watts or greater Clay pot, 12-inch to 16-inch diameter Smaller clay pot or tray for lid Circular cooking grate, sized to pot interior 5 to 7 pieces of 2-inch-thick brick or patio block scraps Metal pie pan Oven thermometer with range up to 220 degrees Fahrenheit For handle assembly 1 eye bolt, 3/8-inch or 1/2-inch x 6-inch, with 2 washers and 2 nuts 1 bolt, 1/4-inch x 2-inch, with washer and nut 1 wood dowel for handle, 6 inches long Excerpted from MOTHER EARTH NEWS, the Original Guide to Living Wisely. To read morevisit MotherEarthNews.com. Copyright 2015 by Ogden Publications Inc.
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 33
Gardening
Outside Story
Elms on the Rebound
By Carolyn Lorié On a recent damp May morning I walked around Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, with arborist Brian Beaty. While he is responsible for
all of the trees in the center of the campus, our visit focused on a small number of trees that require an inordinate amount of his attention. These were the college’s mature American elms – tall, elegant, and, most importantly, healthy. Beaty wants to keep them that way, which is why he checks on the elms almost daily from early spring to late summer, and has his crew look them over every time they drive by one. “We don’t have a lot big elms left,” he explained. Of the hundreds of mature elms that once adorned the college, only twenty remain. Beaty and his crew hope not only to protect the few remaining mature elms, but to nurture a new generation of disease-resistant varieties to grow alongside them. Similar efforts are underway across the country, including in Vermont, where the state chapter of the Nature Conservancy expects to plant 7,000 American elms over the next three years. The American elm (Ulmus americana) was once a common tree in American cities, suburbs, and forests. That changed starting in 1930, when a shipment of logs from Europe arrived with the fungus Ophiostoma ulmi, which causes Dutch elm disease. The fungus (and a second, more recently discovered species, Ophiostoma novo-ulmi) is spread by a native elm bark beetle as well as by a smaller European species. It lives in the beetles’ guts, and is regurgitated as they feed. Soon after an elm is infected, it develops symptoms – yellowing leaves and dying limbs – and it often dies soon after. Elms - Continued page 35
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Elms
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It’s those tell-tale signs that Beaty looks for on his morning rounds, starting in early spring when the bark beetles begin to emerge. Infections usually appear in June, but can surface throughout the summer. At the first sign of infection, Beaty and his crew cut off limbs that appear to be infected. It’s crucial that the fungus not spread, because infection of the trunk is “usually a death sentence for the tree,” said Beaty. But Dartmouth does more than monitoring and cutting to protect its last grand elms. Every three years, trees more than 15 inches in diameter are inoculated with the fungicide Arbotect. As we visited 100-year-old specimens along College Street, Beaty pointed out small holes along the root floor of each tree where it had been injected. The most recent application was in 2013, and the college spent about $8,000 on the fungicide, plus the labor costs for Beaty’s crew to apply it. That’s a price tag most homeowners and municipalities can’t afford. Thanks to the development of disease-resistant cultivars, they may not have to. As we walked along Tuck Drive, Beaty pointed out a row of young staked elms. They are cultivars –
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Elms - Continued page 36
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
crosses of mature trees that have most likely been exposed to the disease many times, but appear to have some natural resistance – although not complete immunity – to infection. Among the better known varieties are Princeton, Valley Forge, and Liberty. The Vermont Nature Conservancy hopes to add to the list of disease-resistant cultivars. In 2011 ecologists from the organization collected the pollen of four large American elms from Connecticut River floodplain forests and used it to pollinate disease-resistant cultivars. “The offspring from these crosses have been planted at several wildlife management areas in the Northeast Kingdom for field testing,” explained Christian Marks, a Nature Conservancy ecologist. Over the next three years, the organization plans to plant elms around the state, including in Canaan, Orleans, and Pomfret. The newly-developed crosses will be carefully monitored and compared to some of the more established cultivars, which will also be planted. If the crosses prove successful, they will be named and could eventually be made available to the public. Rose Paul, Director of Critical Lands and Conservation Science at the Nature Conservancy of Vermont, is leading the elm planting project. Like Beaty, her attachment to this endeavor runs deep. “How many times in one’s lifetime do you have the chance to say you helped to restore a species? I love this project!” Carolyn Lorié lives with her rescue dog and very large cat in Thetford, Vermont. The illustration for this column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: wellborn@nhcf.org
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Gourmet Continued from page 37
sugar, digestion, immunity and cognitive function — all while helping maintain a healthy weight. But so can other tree nuts. With a jar of almond butter approaching $10 in some stores, it’s wise to look for ways to save. Making your own nut butters is incredibly easy and it’s a great way to save money. If you enjoy a range of nut flavors, including Brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts, you’ll be able to shop for deals on unprocessed nuts. Plus, by diversifying your nut intake, you’ll invite a wider range of micronutrients into your diet: Brazil nuts are packed with selenium; hazelnuts are filled with folate and heart-healthy proanthocyanidin; pecans increase metabolism; pistachios support the vascular system; and walnuts have more antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids than any other nut. On her blog Lemons & Anchovies, Jean Pope gives instructions to make this beautiful, one-ingredient almond butter. Visit her at lemonsandanchovies.com. Photo By Jean Rhodes
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
Gourmet - Continued page 40
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COOKING Gourmet
Continued from page 38
How to Make Nut Butters
Add whole nuts or nut pieces to a food processor or high-powered blender, such as those made by Blendtec or Vitamix. If you’d like to add optional salt or honey, a good ratio is 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon honey per cup of nuts. Process all ingredients on low speed at first, then faster, until a cohesive mass of nut butter pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. Scrape out and store in an airtight container; eat within two weeks.
Coconut Oil
There’s no doubt that coconut oil is a miracle food. Coconuts are incredibly nutrient-dense and contain fats that protect us from heart disease and a long list of other maladies. As the world learns more about the bad science of recent years, which had everyone avoiding fats while still managing to put on weight, it’s becoming clear that many naturally occurring fats are good for us. They make us feel full and satisfied, which contributes to the maintenance of a healthy weight, and contain heart-healthy compounds our bodies cannot otherwise make. The fact that coconut oil must be harvested in exotic locations and shipped to us necessarily means it’s not going to be cheap. I keep coconut oil at home for some purposes, but I also buy healthful lard from heritage-breed pigs raised on nutritious pastures near my home for about half the price of most brands of coconut oil. Unfortunately, most commercially available lard is processed in ways that transform it into a transfat-laced bad fat, so when choosing lard for healthy cooking, you’ll want to investigate your source. If you
don’t have a good farmers market, sustainable butcher or other specialty market near you, check for pastured lard resources online. You can also make lard at home quite easily, and you might be able to get it for free — like I did last summer when a farming friend gave me an enormous bag filled with pork fat that her family normally throws away. If you’re in a position to be choosy, keep in mind that fat from the back of the hogs is best for sautéing and frying, while the prized fat around the kidneys, known as leaf lard, is best for pastries. How to Render Lard Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Fill a large, ovenproof pan with 1-inch cubes of pork fat, plus about 1/3 cup of water per pound of fat, and roast in the oven for four to eight hours. It takes a while, but slow cooking ensures the fat will retain a neutral, nonporky taste. Stir and press on the fat cubes about every 30 minutes or so. Remove the pan whenever you see that the fat is beginning to color. Drain off the rendered liquid and return any cubes to the oven to continue melting. Eventually, you will reach the point of diminishing returns and some of the pieces of fat and connective tissues may not melt but will instead become crispy cracklings that you may choose to eat or discard — or feed to your dog or chickens. Strain the liquid fat through cheesecloth into a glass jar. Refrigerate for a couple of months, or freeze for up to a year.
Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is thicker and more luscious than many other kinds of yogurt. Its creamy quality comes from straining out some of the whey, which ends up concentrating the yogurt into a more nutrient-dense offering. Many brands of Greek yogurt have about double the protein of other yogurts. Besides being an
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
COOKING Heat a quart of whole milk to 180 degrees over low heat, stirring frequently. Allow milk to cool to between 110 and 115 degrees. In your yogurt maker, mix a small amount of the heated milk with 1 tablespoon of any yogurt you like that contains live, active cultures. (This is known as your “starter.” You can use a tablespoon of your own homemade yogurt as the starter for your next batch.) Then stir in the rest of the heated milk and cover the yogurt maker for incubation. The longer your yogurt ferments, the tangier it will be — you might like the results of your yogurt at three to four hours, or more likely at six to eight hours. Taste to determine your preference. To thicken your yogurt, pour it into a cheeseclothlined colander set over a bowl to drain for a few hours, or longer if you prefer. If you allow it to strain for about 24 hours, you’ll end up with yogurt cheese. Refrigerate the yogurt while it strains. Enjoy your homemade thick and tangy yogurt within a week or two. Excerpted from Mother Earth Living, a national magazine devoted to living wisely and living well. To read more visit MotherEarthLiving.com. Copyright 2015 by Ogden Publications Inc. Blogger Paula Rhodes offers instructions and a video demonstrating how to make homemade Greek yogurt on her blog, Salad in a Jar (salad-in-a-jar.com).Photo By Paula Rhodes
easy breakfast food, thick and tangy Greek yogurt is a perfect substitute for cream and sour cream in a wide variety of recipes. While many brands of Greek yogurt do contain an abundance of protein, they often lack the full blend of micronutrients they could offer because the milk used to make the yogurt isn’t of the highest quality. To get that kind of yogurt, you have two options: Buy yogurt made from the milk of grass-fed animals, and strain it through cheesecloth for several hours to concentrate and thicken it; or make your own yogurt from premium grass-fed milk, and then strain it to the thickness that you prefer.
®
How to Make Thick, Homemade Yogurt
The instructions here are for use with a yogurt maker — available at most kitchen stores or online for $30 to $50. Yogurt makers keep the fermenting mixture at a consistent 110 degrees during incubation, perfect for the proliferation of yogurt bacteria. If you don’t want to use a yogurt maker, improvise with a Thermos or cooler using these instructions.
M-W 9-7, Th.-F 9-8, Sat. 9-6, Sun. 11-5
Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 41
GARDENING
Next Year in the Garden By Stephen Morris (Note: This article has appeared previously in Green Living Journal as an early season reminder. It seems just as appropriate at the end of the year as well.)
Part I–Spring
Next year in the garden I won’t plant my seeds too early just because I am excited by a warm day in April. I will wear a long sleeve shirt while pruning roses, raspberries, and blackberries. I will open seed packets the right way so that they reseal. I won’t just rip off the tops, then wonder why my pockets are filled with spilled seed. Next year in the garden I will read the instructions before planting the seeds. That is, I will read the instructions IF I remember my reading glasses. Gardening is yet one more activity that now requires those damn things. Next year in the garden I won’t read the newspapers as I lay down the mulch, and I will take off my muddy boots before coming into the kitchen. I won’t shout “Ignition!” when I see the first green dots of germination. I won’t pump my first and say “Yes!” when green shoots of garlic poke through the hay. I will take it in stride, with the right stuff of a master gardener. Next year in the garden I will keep detailed records of what I do, when, and where. I won’t mark planted rows with little sticks and kid myself that I will remember what I planted And I won’t plant too many zucchini, or too few. I promise.
Part II–Summer
Next year in the garden I won’t wander out after showering and changing clothes to admire my work and bend down to pluck just one errant weed, because I’ve learned that one good weed deserves another. I won’t work with my shirt off, even though it feels 42 •
so good, because I know the sun is bad for me. I will always put on sun screen (SPF 45 and wear a widebrimmed hat.) I will make myself smile by singing “Inch by inch, row by row...”, and not once will I think about the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I will, however, wonder who the Red Sox will use as a fifth starter and marvel at the ability of David Ortiz to deliver in the clutch. Next year in the garden I will do successive plantings so that I always have tender lettuce. I won’t say “What the heck” and empty the rest of the packet. I won’t plant peas in August that don’t have a prayer of bearing fruit before the frost. Next year in the garden I won’t curse potato bugs, but will accept my responsibility for the pests I attract. I will outwit potato bugs by not planting potatoes. Next year, that is. I will de-sucker the tomatoes religiously, and I will build those groovy bent-wood trellises I saw in the gardening magazine. I will say a prayer when I eat the first red fruit. I won’t let the rogue squash grow, thinking it might turn out to be the elusive “great pumpkin.” Next year in the garden, at least once, I will strip off all my clothes, lie spread-eagled in the dirt and say “Take me, God, I’m yours!” Then I will take a an
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
GARDENING
... Famous Last Words outdoor shower, scrubbing every noon and cranny, and feel like the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
Part III–Fall
Next year in the garden, as I pull weeds, I won’t think that I coined the phrase “Nature abhors a vacuum.” (Who did coin that phrase, if not me?). I won’t wonder why I planted mustard greens. I will wear a long-sleeve shirt while pruning the roses. Did I already say that? I won’t start the chipper-shredder “just to see if it will start,” then put through a sunflower stalk “just to see what happens,” especially when I am just killing time before we go out to dinner. Next year I won’t bore visitors with extensive garden tours, filled with eloquent soliloquies on the virtues of compost. I won’t describe myself as the “poor man’s Eliot Coleman.” I will pick the chard before it becomes tough and stringy. I won’t stand speechless before a ten foot sunflower and marvel at the memory of pressing a single seed into the soil with my thumb. I won’t laugh out loud when I see three blue jays hanging upside down on the foot-wide seed pods, possessed by gluttony. I won’t be disappointed when the Sox fall by the wayside, because I know there is always next year. Next year in the garden, I will cover at the hint of frost. I will plant my bulbs and garlic before the ground freezes, but I won’t cover them with mulch until the ground is hard and critter-proof. I won’t pretend not to be disappointed when my garlic and cherry tomatoes fail to score ribbons at the Tunbridge World’s Fair. Next year in the garden I won’t break into Joni Mitchell’s “Urge for Going” when I see a chevron overhead.
Part IV–Winter
Next year in the garden I won’t get delusional when I see this year’s seeds on sale. I won’t buy enough to feed all of central Vermont and I won’t think I’m a rich man as I flip through the colorful packets in January. I won’t question why I bought two types of turnips. I
hate turnip. I won’t delude myself into thinking I can grow seven varieties of pepper from seed. I won’t buy seeds for inedible greens with exotic Japanese names, I will store my squash properly, so they don’t rot I will give gifts of garlic and elderberry wine as if I am bestowing frankincense and myhrr (even though the elderberry wine sucks). I won’t take it personally when I see how cheap garlic is at Costco I won’t check the mail for the first seed catalog the day after Christmas. I will think good thoughts when we eat last summer’s pesto. Next year in the garden I won’t think I am part of life’s great cycle just because I pee on the frozen compost.
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Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 43
COOKING By Shirley Splittstoesser
Homemade Jerky
Jerky – meat that has been dried to a very low moisture content and usually does not require refrigeration – is a favorite food for many Americans. In days gone by, jerky was made to preserve meat while it was plentiful, and was eaten when fresh meat was scarce. Today, it is often considered a snack food. Jerky is a light, compact protein source, making it a handy food for backpackers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Beef jerky makes a good nutritional snack, but it is expensive since a pound of meat dries to about 4 ounces. Jerky can be stored in a cool, dry place in zipper-seal bags for up to three months. However, if you see any moisture forming on the inside of the bag, either dry the jerky further by putting it back in the oven or dehydrator, or refrigerate it. Whether in the pantry or the refrigerator, you will find jerky too tasty to stay around very long. Here are some things you should know before making this wonderful meaty snack. • Jerky can be made by drying it in the sun, the oven, a dehydrator, some sort of smoking apparatus, or even the microwave (though we don’t recommend it). • Jerky should be stored in airtight, snap-top containers or zipper-seal bags in a cool, dry place. • A vacuum packer is ideal. • After jerky has been completely cooled and put into storage containers, check to see if moisture forms on the inside of the container or bag. If any moisture is present, the jerky must either be stored in the refrigerator or freezer, or put back in the oven, dehydrator, smoker, etc., for additional drying time. • Small shiny patches of fat on finished jerky can be wiped off before storing. • Jerky can be stored on a pantry shelf for up to three months. • Jerky loses about three-quarters of its weight during the drying process. • Flank steak, top round, or any meat with low fat works well for making jerky.
Smoky Peppered Beef Jerky
The following directions are for making this recipe in the oven. Meat dries to jerky consistency through a combination of salt drawing the moisture from the meat cells and heat continuing the drying process. Until modern times, salt was rubbed directly onto the meat. Current recipes, however, use soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce for their flavor and high sodium content. 44 •
4 pounds beef 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce 1/2 cup ketchup 1 teaspoon smoke flavoring, hickory or mesquite 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1. Slice partially frozen beef from which all extra fat has been removed. (Thin slices about 1/8-inch thick dry faster than 1/4-inch-thick slices.) 2. Make marinade by mixing soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, smoke flavoring, garlic powder and cracked black pepper. 3. Coat slices of beef with marinade by alternately layering meat and sauce, or by mixing marinade and beef. (A glass cake pan is ideal for laying the slices flat.) The beef should be coated but need not be swimming in sauce. 4. Cover pan and refrigerate for 4 hours, stirring mixture occasionally. 5. Preheat oven to 200 F. 6. Place beef slices in single layers on cooling racks, and place racks on baking sheets. Bake for 2 hours, then turn and continue baking for 2 additional hours. 7. After 4 hours, test for dryness. It is ready when meat is barely flexible. 8. Let cool for 1 hour, then store in airtight, snaptop containers or zipper-seal bags in cool, dry place for up to 3 months.
Candied Bacon Jerky
By Janice Lawandi, KitchenHealsSoul.com. 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 10 strips bacon 1. Preheat oven to 225 F. Use rimmed baking sheet with fitted rack, if possible. Line baking sheet with foil. Place rack over foil, and spray rack generously with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. 2. In shallow bowl, combine brown sugar and cayenne, mixing well. 3. Place bacon in brown sugar mixture, pressing down to coat one side, then turning and coating other side. Shake off excess mixture, and place bacon on prepared rack. 4. Bake for 2-1/2 to 3 hours, turning every hour. When done, bacon will be deep mahogany brown and
Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
COOKING
For Any Taste
will have shrunk quite a bit. 5. Cool for a minute, then move slices around every so often to ensure they don’t stick to the rack as they cool completely.
Mitchell Brothers’ Venison Jerky By Randy, Rick and Ryan Mitchell
The Mitchell brothers – Randy of Ham Lake, Minnesota; Rick of Antlers, Oklahoma; and Ryan of Clayton, Oklahoma – have enjoyed making deer jerky for years. Hunting season starts with the brothers gathering their hunting equipment, and ends with their families getting together to make up a supply of venison jerky to last them most of the year. 6 tablespoons brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 4 teaspoons lemon pepper 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper 10 teaspoons meat tenderizer 1/2 cup liquid smoke 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce 2 cups hot water 5 pounds venison, sliced thin
Simple to make, deer jerky is a great way to use up the venison in your freezer. Photo By Lori Dunn
1. In bowl, blend brown sugar, garlic powder, lemon and red pepper, meat tenderizer, liquid smoke, Worcestershire and teriyaki sauces, and water. Add meat. Cover and chill for 24 hours. 2. Remove meat from marinade. Wipe excess liquid from meat, and arrange in single layers on dehydrator trays. 3. Follow directions in your dehydrator manual. Jerky is done when it is barely flexible.
Turkey Jerky
By Peggy Trowbridge Filippone, HomeCooking. about.com
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, or to taste 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce 1-1/2 teaspoons liquid mesquite flavoring 2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar 1 tablespoon onion powder 2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 pound turkey meat, sliced thin 1. Combine all ingredients except turkey slices in large zipper-seal bag. Add turkey to bag. Seal and squish to coat meat. Unseal and squeeze out all air. Reseal, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. 2. Remove turkey from marinade and gently pat off excess moisture with paper towels. Place turkey strips in single layers, with space in between, on dehydrator racks. 3. Dehydrate until jerky is leathery and chewy, but not crisp enough to snap when bent. See manufacturer directions for approximate cooking times. 4. Cool completely, then store in zipper-seal bags in refrigerator.
1 tablespoon liquid smoke 2 tablespoons soy sauce Visit us online at GreenLivingJournal.com • Green Living • Fall 2015 • 45
Jerky - Continued page 47
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015
Group by Annette Aberdale-Kendra pearls of a Sultana by Hinda Miller
Jerky
Create A Personal Memoir
Continued from page 45
Chicken Jerky
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1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders, sliced into 1/4- to 1/8-inch-thick strips 1. In 1-gallon zipper-seal bag, combine all ingredients except chicken; mix well. Add chicken strips. Seal bag and ensure that all meat is coated with marinade. Place bag in refrigerator for about 20 minutes. 2. Place chicken strips in single layers on dehydrator trays. Dry at 145 F for 5 to 7 hours, or until completely dry. Length of drying time will vary depending on thickness of chicken strips. Excerpted from GRIT, Celebrating Rural America Since 1882. To read more visit Grit.com. Copyright 2015 1-2 page Publications 2014:Green Living by Ogden Inc. 1/2 page 04/21/15 11:34
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Green Living Journal • Fall 2015