Category Archives: Responsible Living

The Storms: Death and Destruction, Help, Hope and Recovery

While counts of the toll the two storms that hit the northeast in recent weeks continue toward a final tally, people of the area busy themselves donating to others still in need, waiting in gas lines, resuming (or trying) semblances of normal in their work and personal lives, while others wait for electricity and struggle to stay warm. 400,865 homes in the eastern U.S. remain without power as of yesterday.  The least fortunate of us trudge the long uphill road of grieving lost loved ones. For those, the pain will last long past the clean up crews and news media. For those, the recovery never really ends. The death toll of victims in the U.S. has reached 120. At last count, it was close to 70 victims in the Caribbean, hitting Haiti (52 fatalities) the hardest.

Flashes of hope of the basic compassion of humanity are present in the vast relief efforts underway. From local long-standing businesses such as Two Boots Brooklyn, organizing food and clothing drives, to the new and innovative Mealku, making sure those who have lost much are receiving home cooked meals. And of course there are so many others lending a hand and organizing volunteers: Red Cross, NYC Mayors office, New York Cares, Congregation Beth Elohim, Occupy Sandy, the Humane Society (leading pet search and rescue efforts), Staten Island Recovers, and of course The Salvation Army. If you are donating, please remember the victims in Haiti, whose suffering is all that much greater given its extremely impoverished state and particularly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters and global warming. Please consider contributing to groups such as Direct Relief and International Medical Corps and Americares.

Most everyone I know is in some way in the trenches, whether by helping a family member or hard hit local business (like Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook – my friend, part owner, was there with a pump before realizing the task ahead was too great — he was able to keep himself safe but the bar/restaurant itself has suffered serious damage). (Please check out this NYT blog post if your small business was affected by the storm).  Others are rolling up their sleeves and coming from our of state to see what help still needs to be done. At Greenwood Cemetery, they’re busy removing the 150 trees that were destroyed during the storm, and restoring many broken monuments. Donations for that restoration are being accepted online.

Please let us know of other disaster relief efforts you are supporting, what people can do to help, and any useful links you may have. In the wake of so much destruction, the helping hands of others is the real source of recovery.

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On Watering

Over-watering is one of the most common gardening errors.  Not only is it unnecessary to pour large doses of water on in-ground plants, but it also hurts the environment to water in-ground plants frequently.  Survival of the fittest plants produce the most useful produce.   Therefore, if you have a plant or two requiring lots of time and attention, it is okay (and good in fact!) to let it go.  Yank that whiny, pesky plant up out of the ground and toss it into the compost pile, where it will be put to good use.  I have had several tomatoes (I started late but they are starting to come up), but I am not yet harvesting the seeds because these tomatoes are not totally satisfactory.  Some have had a bit of blight (nothing serious), or they were not pickably ripe for very long.  Since I do not want these traits next year, I’m not bothering to save the seeds of those particular plants this year.  If I have learned anything so far this season, it is that I can save seeds and expect something to grow from them, and that I do not need to save every seed.   I may soon be overrun with tomatoes.  My problems could be worse.  I don’t mind the burden of abundance.  However, any of my plants that can’t stand the heat will have to be allowed to transition to the other side.  I am not a primping, preening, prompting gardener.  I admittedly want to put in as little effort as possible for the greatest harvest, and simply enjoy sinking my hands in the dirt to see what comes back up.

On the question of watering, remember that even house plants and potted plants are easily over-watered.  Use a gentle touch with them.  Do not doused or drown them.  Keep in mind that drowning is what happens when you give your plants too much water: you seal off the root ends which need to be open to receive nutrients from the soil.  Think of all the trouble you went to putting broken pieces of clay pots and other spacers for the roots to “breathe.”  Filling the root ends full of water defeats the purpose of creating pathways for the plant’s lifelines.  There is great variation in the amount of water plants need.  Fortunately for us, however, some of the signs they’re getting too much water are often the same plant to plant.  The following are a few such indicators.

SIGNS YOU MAY BE OVER-WATERING:

1. drooping leaves all around and general wilted appearance

2. browning of young leaves

3. existing leaves turn yellow (or a shade lighter than their natural color), and wilt

4. the plant stops growing new leaves

5. the soil itself may have a greenish hue (this may be algae)

If your plants are showing these signs, take a break from watering for a few days, and see how they respond.  When you do water, as a general rule, it’s a good idea to check moisture at least an inch or two beneath the surface of the soil, since looks can be deceiving.  Some soil gets dry quickly on top but is masking saturated soil beneath.

QUESTION: do you remember the first time you watered a plant?  picked a flower?  became aware of the interdependence of people and plants?  Go ahead … gimme the dirt.

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I Lost My Spliff

Now that I have your attention,* I wanted to see if all of us revelers could take a little pledge.  This weekend, please do not buy anything not made in the U.S.A.  While you don’t have to buy American to be American, it does make you a better American.  And it makes me and your neighbors better off as well, financially and ecologically.  I don’t have to recount all the reasons to avoid goods made in other parts of the world (which may and often include a bigger carbon footprint, poor quality and cheap parts, lack of rigorous standards, excessive and harmful chemicals, poor working conditions without fair wages, use of child labor, etc. etc.).  Let’s keep the spirit of Memorial Day alive by honoring those who have sacrificed to fight our wars and protect U.S. interests abroad by doing our part to improve the U.S. economy and send the message that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is.  An item made in the U.S. may be a few cents, or more, greater than a cheaper item made elsewhere.  Consider the cost, though, if we fail to consume responsibly and patriotically.

Love your world neighbors but patronize your local ones.

*Based on what WordPress tells me, the greatest number of hits to this site came when I posted “Still on the Weed.”  Let’s see if we can beat that.  Don’t bogart this post.  Pass the dutchie.

Pass it on.

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Project EATS

I satisfied my herb search today at my local nursery, Shannon Florist, and supported a new-ish and innovative local business, Brooklyn Commune, and a non-profit organization that fosters urban growing, Project EATS at their plant and seedling sale. I came home with basil, a couple heirloom tomato plants (insurance in case my seeds don’t germinate and an opportunity to expand my varieties). I also brought home a couple small cucumber plants because I got wrapped up in a moment of gushing gardeners. The purple kale is because the lady from Project EATS (pictured below) was, wisely, offering sample tastes.  I also compared notes with several other visitors to the stand on what’s the best way to grow beets in Brooklyn (I was relieved to know I’m not the only one who has struggled to get them to grow, container or ground).  A lovely woman who I learned is a neighbor gave me a suggestion for using an empty kitty litter container for cucumbers.  (Ironically, the reason I’m looking to raise them off the ground is that there is a stray cat who prowls the yard so I want to keep them up, up and away but I don’t have much trellis space).  The sale started in the morning.  I got there around noon, and it still had a few hours to go.  I left with hands, but not arms, full. I was proud of myself for the restraint, given that I really wanted to snatch up every single one of those plants and soak in hours of the casual chatter, brimming with advice and anecdotes. But I left with just enough, and no more than I needed.

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Rain, Rain, Go Away

But until it does, let’s think about how to make it greener. These tips from Daily Dose of Fiber are a good start:

Eco-Friendly Rain Tips:

1. Collect rain water in a barrel and use this water to water your garden and grass!

2. Buy an eco-friendly rain coat (check out Patagonia).

3. Buy an eco-friendly umbrella for two.

4. Turn off your sprinklers when its raining.

From my own experience, I’ve found that indoor plants especially appreciate water imported from the great outdoors. Granted those of us in NYC may have rainwater that picks up pollution, but my informal research has found no indication that it’s enough to do any harm.

QUESTION: What ways have you found to incorporate green uses to springtime’s abundant rainfall? Go ahead … gimme the dirt!

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My Beef With Bittman … But, Actually …

Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters (Simon & Schuster 2009), How to Cook Everything (who cares who published it?  But age maters — it was ’08), and author of the former NYT column “The Minimalist,” was on NPR recently, hawking a follow-up to his break out success.  I was listening on my headphones, probably scarfing down yet another overpriced meal from Pret as I listed to Bittman explain that How to Cook Everything: the Basics (with 1,000 photos – for reals) is his response to feedback/criticism he got on How to Cook Everything.  The Basics describes – and apparently illustrates – everything from the most simple (boiling water) to the most overwhelming (how to select kitchen equipment and stock a pantry).  I sat down to write this post, ready to argue him up and down on several points, and to set forth with crystalline clarity why in fact one should never use soap on a cherished cast iron skillet, why having good kitchen equipment does indeed make one a better cook, and why not every star chef should jump in front of a camera.  (When did “triple threat” turn from sing/dance/act to write/cook/be-on-every-show-even-peripherally-relating to food?)

Then I made the mistake of looking him up online.  I should’ve just stuck to my workday tainted impression of Bittman as another media hungry foodievangelist.  But now I can’t.  How can I argue with a guy that uses his good name to make a case for limiting junk food ads in schools?

The Revel Mama in me is cheering him on even as I’m dreading my partner’s turn to watch down our DVR list and as I’m silently casting my curses against Spain: on the Road Again.  I love Spain but I will gouge out innocent olives out if I have to sit through one more awkward dinner with Gwyneth and Batali, whose recent croc in mouth disease further deflates my appetite.  (In November, Batali was quoted as equating bankers to Stalin and Hitler, and just last month shelled out $5.25M to settle claims that he cheated waitstaff out of tips).

Bittman brings to our attention the fact that only one state has banned junk food advertising (I could survive on Maine lobster) while nine states (and this number is growing) expressly permit advertising on school buses.  How can I say one bad word against this man when I, myself, envision retiring to Sao Paolo for the sole reason that in 2006 its mayor passed the “Clean City Law,” which banned outdoor advertising of all kinds.  Despite urgings from alarmist businesses against instituting the ban, now 70% of the city’s residents agree that it’s been beneficial.  Pictures of the city, wiped clean of visual pollution (not even fliers are permitted — can we get that in Brooklyn??), speak for themselves.

Not only does Bittman have a compelling fiscal argument (the ad revenue cannot begin to cover the cost of the obesity epidemic it feeds), but he has a sound legal one as well.  While the environmentalist in me was questioning the necessity of publishing 1,000 photos (1,000!), the Revel Lawyer in me is more impressed by Bittman’s command of the law.  He clearly understands BigFood’s efforts to twist the First Amendment in a way that would make the drafters’ stomachs churn.  Bittman explains that the First Amendment was applied to advertising in the 1970s to give the public access to information about products, but now it’s being used as a corporate sword to swipe away at kiddie consumers’ protections.  The legal test for whether the First Amendment applies to permit unfettered commercial speech, Bittman notes, is that the speech itself must be truthful and not actually or inherently misleading.  As he further explains, authors of a recent article in the journal Health Affairs make the (obvious to any parent) point that children under 12 cannot discern bias in marketing and so all advertising targeting them should be subject to regulation because it is inherently misleading.

Well, Mr. Bittman, I guess your deft legal ability makes you a quadruple threat.  Now, back to my beef with you.  Hmm.  I think I’ve forgotten.  Or maybe it wasn’t so important.  Perhaps it was more a green-eyed author than work-a-day tedium that initially inspired this post.  Either way, I’m glad it led me past your shiny celebrity chef veneer to hear what is clearly an important voice in pushing back the BigFood giants and protecting our most valuable assets.  And for that, I thank you.

One little barb I can get in on Bittman: he teases the Health Affairs article authors about the boring name of their article (“Government Can Regulate Food Advertising To Children Because Cognitive Research Shows That It Is Inherently Misleading.”) but in my opinion slightly missteps with his own headline.  When I first read the title, “The Right to Sell Kids Junk,” in The New York Times Opinionator, 3/27/12, I thought he was going to tell me it’s okay to sell my daughter’s Thomas the Tank Engine collection on Ebay while she sleeps – which I was fully ready to agree with.  Then I read it and realized it’s something far more important than clearing kids’ clutter, which is putting limits on the clutter they can’t control.

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Good Stuff’s Going On

Instead of gorging on hyperconsumptionism this Friday (and helping stores full of foreign manufactured crap increase their sales enough for the first time of the year to get out of the red and into the black, thus the origin of the name “Black Friday”), why not occupy some space and take a stand against excess by participating in Buy Nothing Day (originated by Adbusters, those quirky Canadians behind the Occupy Wall Street protests that took over Zucotti Park in Manhattan and sites across the globe).  Don’t do it for Adbusters but do it for yourself.  In Brooklyn, a potluck is being held at All Souls Bethlehem Chruch in Park Slope.  I’ll be working but I recommend it for anyone who wants to avoid the crowds and the pocketbook drain typical of Black Friday.  Details as follows….

 

 

Come to Sustainable Flatbush’s first annual Buy Nothing Day Community Meal!

Buy Nothing Day offers an alternative to the consumerist excess of Black Friday: a chance to unshop, unspend, and unwind. Bring a dish to share, or bring ingredients (Thanksgiving leftovers are great) and join the communal cooking fun! Meet your neighbors and join Sustainable Flatbush as we build a local sharing economy.

The idea is to create a space where people can come together to enjoy a healthy free meal, get to know each other, and exchange ideas on how we as a community can become more engaged in the transformation to a society that is more equal and sustainable. To plug out of the mainstream for a day, abandon the tradition of Black Friday that comes with excessive consumerism, and discuss real alternatives.

Hope to see you there!

WHAT:
Sustainable Flatbush first annual Buy Nothing Day Community Meal! 

WHEN:
Friday November 25th from 6 until 8pm 

WHERE:
All Souls Bethlehem Church
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Keeping It Green

Maybe I was a little harsh.  My last report on my bi-weekly CSA pick up pointed out the meagerness of some of the offerings.  I’ve been noting all summer the harsh effects of climate change (f/k/a global warming) on home gardeners across the country.  According to an email that I received this week, re-posted below, we are not alone.  Larger local growers, as well, have felt the impact of unpredictable weather this season, which has run the gamut from drought to flooding, and has resulted in various pests brought in on the winds of Irene, blight, rot, increased sick days and low worker morale.  I just wanted to take a minute to say that I do try to give a fair and accurate picture of this – my first – CSA experience, but it doesn’t always capture the whole picture.  This is why I have invited others to tell me their stories, share their experiences, suggest additional alternasources, and, now, why I am forwarding the (very thoughtful) message I received a couple days ago from the organizers of my CSA and the farmers who grow some of the pretty awesome food I’ve been eating this summer.

Recently at a farmers market in Fort Greene, I saw signs from GrowNYC calling for donations to help organic/local farmers whose crops were damaged or wiped out by Hurricane Irene.  Their efforts are still underway.  One of their suggestions for how to help, in addition to direct donations, is to commit to eat locally as much as possible in September (the “locavore challenge”).  I’m encouraging all of you/us to continue this commitment through the end of the year, since it will take more than a month’s effort to help the farmers recover losses from a season screwed up by the environmental mess that we’re in.  Please share your stories here and beyond about what you are doing to participate in an extended locavore challenge (if the Occupy Wall Street protesters aim to make it through the winter, so can we).  Updates ahead on ways I’ve been putting my CSA treats to work.  Please pass along your recipes, suggestions, etc., on where/what/how to advance the local-eating agenda.

Here’s the email….

Chris and Eve have sent an update about the difficulties they’ve experienced this growing season, which I’ve shared below. We’ll be sending everyone an end-of-season survey later on, but if you have any feedback to pass on to the farmer before then, feel free to email the core group at kwtcsa@gmail.com.

Stacy,

On behalf of the KWT CSA core group

From the farmers:


This has been a challenging last couple of months and although we were not wiped out by the hurricane the amount of rain has been a huge issue affecting the quality of many crops.  Not just with organic growers, as conventional farmers in the northeast are experiencing similar challenges and losses.

Under the circumstance we try to stay optimistic about the situation. All seasons are different and rarely are they void of conditions at some time that will have an impact on quality, quantity or diversity.    Farms in the northeast can be impacted by one or more problems like pests, drought, disease, flooding or other issues  outside of the farmers control.   Other farms even 100 miles away may have a totally different growing experience in a season.

I met with Cornell cooperative extension today to seek professional help (as I do throughout the season) regarding three different crop disease issues  and one pest issue tied directly to the wet weather.  They believed the steps that we had taken were sound and accurate given the tools we have under the national organic standards.  I also learned about the vast damage and loss of  crops in our region to conventional farmers who can use chemicals as a tool.  That didn’t make me feel better; I just wished conditions were better.

In conclusion, we are disappointed that we were struck with tomato blight this year,  that we have received almost double our annual rainfall total (most of which in the last month and a half),  that we were hit with damaging hurricane winds and pests and insects that were transported with winds.  What does this mean for crops:

Cracking and rotting of root crops like sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes and carrots.  Tomato quality and loss due to blight which kills the plant and cracking and rotting due to excessive rain.  This means we have to throw out a lot of produce.  Heavy rain and pooling of water leads to leaf disease on all kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli, head lettuce, beans beets and many more.  In extreme cases plant roots can suffocate leading to the plant wilting to the ground.  That has happened to broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts.  Seedlings that wilt off or get damaged by heavy winds and pounding rains.  Seeding schedules get thrown off because the ground is too wet to work.  Cultivation and weeding schedules are difficult to maintain.  Farm help doesn’t want to work and morale is affected and sick days increase.

These are some of the issues that are a result of the extreme weather we are experiencing.  We don’t like some of the challenges it has created and we feel grateful that it wasn’t worse for us and our csa members.

Thanks,

chris
QUESTION: And you?  What will you do to keep it green?  Go ahead … gimme the dirt!
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Taking it to Another Level: fellow blogger learns the secrets of grow lights and water ways

Hello fellow revelers,

Just wanted to share a recent post from a fellow gardening blog, Gardening in the Boroughs of NYC.  I met the author at the recent Big BK Seed, Etc., Exchange.  I love this description of how she went to a lecture on hydroponic farming, which was informative but only served to even further pique her curiosity on the subject.  Instead of setting down her pen and checking off the lecture as another thing done on her list of to-dos, she dug in deeper, and farmed for a way to learn more.  She wound up with an internship to learn the deeper ins and outs of hydroponic farming with Boswyck Farms of Bushwick. 

The post is a good reminder of the virtue in each of us, individually and collectively, to roll up our sleeves, dig in the dirt, learn the earth and its resources, explore new methods of doing, telling what we’ve learned and sharing, to the best of ability, our means to do more with less. 

Revel reading, y’all!


http://nycgardening.blogspot.com/2011/09/hydroponic-farm-intern.html

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Alternasourcing and Getting Back to the Garden

Hello fellow revelers,

I’ve been taking my time getting back up to speed on things in my garden and life since a much needed hiatus that involved throwing myself in heart, mind and soul in a writers’ workshop in the wilds of Vermont, with one phenomenal group of compadres, led by the magnanimous Crescent Dragonwagon, cookbook author extraordinaire (as well as children’s book author, poet, instructor, all around phenom, and etc.).

A rapid fire survey of the grounds this morning reminded me that a garden needs tending well past the browning of the last cuke on the vine.  I’m not much of a fall gardener, but I still have the steadies going: my hot peppers upstairs, the various herbs, the last of my heirloom tomatoes, and that mysterious bush out back that I never did determine conclusively was dogwood or elderberry (the issue became less pressing when the local herbivores devoured the few fruit it produced this year).  The pumpkins that I got after a friend’s show at a restaurant in New Haven last year gave the scene bountiful color with its vibrant squash blossoms springing from every vine wound relentlessly up, down, over and under every spare inch in my yard.  Alas, I don’t think they’re going to give me a single jack-o-lantern by Halloween.  My neighbor from Bangladesh watched as I cut back the wild rose bush that likes to keep sticking its neck over into her territory where her kids like to play.  As we were talking, she saw me cut off one of the many pumpkin stems squirreling around the yard.  She asked me why I cut it, since it had a small blossom that looked ready to bloom.  I didn’t really know.  I guess it was because we were in conversation, and as I said before, I don’t really like to talk as I’m gardening.  It’s not the kind of multi-tasking that makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something.  If anything, when I’m persuaded to talk while I’m gardening it robs me of that little bit of time I get away from the rest of the world.  But this is a good neighbor, and I like her company, so I didn’t mind much this morning.  But the point is that the talk made me absent-minded, and I plucked a perfectly good vine I likely wouldn’t have otherwise.  She asked me for it, and said she’d like to cook it.  I thought she meant the squash blossoms but she was talking about the leaves.  I remembered a few years ago she gave me a plate of food she had made for Ramadan, and it had fish cooked with leaves from the squash she had growing out back.  It was tasty and I’d meant to ask for the recipe then, but never did.  This morning, after a few more minutes commiserating over a sad season for fruit trees (she has plum, peach, apple, and cherry in the back to my peach and cherry), she decided she wasn’t going to have time to cook today and handed me back my needlessly interrupted vine.  I tossed it in with the other clippings to be put to the compost out back.  We agreed that in the next couple weeks, we’ll make a day of picking and cooking the leaves that are now so overly abundant in the yard.

Something I heard several times last weekend at the workshop/retreat was one of Crescent’s sayings, inherited, I believe, from her father, Maurice Zolotow: “nothing is wasted on the writer.”  The same, it seems, is true of the gardener.

As I mentioned before, the extent of tending my front yard last year was to toss whatever seeds I had aging in my basement to see if any would take root.  As you likely know by now, my approach this year is slightly more steady, measured, and, hopefully, responsible, since that is a goal I’ve set for myself.  I am moving toward living a more responsible life overall, one where little to nothing is wasted.  Toward that end, I am supplanting my gardening with the exploration of additional paths to self-sufficiency since self-sufficiency is, in and of itself, responsible.  Of course we don’t all have the means to “Thoreau” it all away and Walden our days away.  For those of us who are revelers of the brick and mortar set (though not limited to this demographic), I am exploring, in various arenas, a practice I have coined “alternasourcing.”  As I use the term (and invite others to collude), alternasourcing is the obtaining of goods and services from non-traditional sources, which, in its optimal functioning, provide sometimes less expensive and frequently more environmentally and socially friendly products.  Alternasourcing is not just about where you get your goods.  It is also about the how you obtain the things you need to live (as well as the things you want, hopefully with an eye to questioning needs/wants in a new way).

Alternasourcing may include, for example, minimizing the groceries you buy from the corner megastore, and supplanting it with regular visits to your local farmers’ markets, using your own space for herbs or whatever you have space for, learning how to forage for naturally grown wild edibles, or getting a plot in a community garden.  (An aside: my uber-awesome neighbor/friend/co-gardener I mention frequently, and her partner, were on a three-year wait list in our not-super-hip ‘hood just to get a small triangular not-so-enviable plot in the local community garden.)   So, while you’re waiting in line for a patch of dirt down the street, consider new ways to tick those items off your grocery list.  It may include participation in a CSA, a venture I undertook this summer for the first time.  For those of you who have been following, the journey has had its ups and downs, but summer’s not over, nor are the remainder of my bi-weekly shares.  I’ve been chronicling it here, but thought it was time to bring in another voice (of reason, I believe) who has had a more hands-on CSA experience, and whose insight has helped answer nagging questions I’m left with after bagging up my produce (at that same community garden, btw).  Long after I’ve bagged up my goodies and have unloaded them on my table to shoot, the questions linger.  They usually concern the demeanor of the volunteers (disabusing me of the Pollyannaish notion that all gardeners are revelers).   For the answer to this, and an inside peek at what goes on behind the other side of the table….read on my friends in the next post, for a spiffy piece comped by our friend, former neighbor and fellow reveler, Matthew Donoher, who, btw, I ran into on Church Ave. right before Irene hit, as I was vying with the other stragglers to get the last of the should-have-had-a-long-time-ago items, such as flashlights and batteries and radios.  Matthew, to his credit, was cool as a cucumber, in search merely of a new baking sheet to try out an oatmeal cookie recipe.  I have been blessed in my life with good neighbors.

How about you?  What are ways that your life has changed in response to global climate changes, or economic turbulence, or just your own desire to live more efficiently/responsibly?

Go ahead… gimme the dirt!

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